XP SP1 to SP2 upgrade fails

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Guest

Hi
I'm about ready to give up on this but thought I'd post here in case someone
could help...

I'm trying to upgrade my Sony Vaio Z1 (with OEM version of Win XP Pro SP1)
to SP2 but it fails to start installing

When using the WIndows Update or when using the downloaded installer
(WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe) I get the same behaviour. They get to the
'Checking Product Key' step then just sit there with no CPU or disk activity.
When I try to cancel the screen I get a hang.

Can anyone help me out here?

Thanks, Jamie
 
jamiep said:
I'm about ready to give up on this but thought I'd post here in
case someone could help...

I'm trying to upgrade my Sony Vaio Z1 (with OEM version of Win XP
Pro SP1) to SP2 but it fails to start installing

When using the WIndows Update or when using the downloaded installer
(WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe) I get the same behaviour. They get
to the 'Checking Product Key' step then just sit there with no CPU
or disk activity. When I try to cancel the screen I get a hang.

Can anyone help me out here?
Click to expand...

Did you clean up the system first?
- Backup important stuff (Emails, Contacts, Documents, Spreadsheets,
pictures, installation media, product installation keys, etc.)?
- Update the hardware drivers?
- Run several different antispyware applications (SuperAntiSpyware,
Lavasoft Ad-Aware, Spybot Search and Destroy, etc.)?
- Run a full CHKDSK?
- Uninstall unused applications?
- Update applications you planned to continue using?
- Update hardware drivers from the manufacturer's web site(s)?
- Defragment the hard disk drive(s)?
 
Posted by another user who got a response from MS Support (SP2 installation hangs at
"Checking product key" phase):-

<quote>

There are 3 steps which we have to do to get the SP2 installed.

Steps are:

1) Please go into the CMD prompt (Start/Run --> cmd.exe )

2) Then type cd /d %windir%\inf and make sure we are in that directory.

3) Then type ren oem*.inf oem*.old, it will go back to the prompt after giving you some
error (Do not worry about it)

4) Then type ren oem*.pnf oem*.old1, it will go back to the prompt after giving you some
error (Do not worry about it)

5) Then goto start - run - type "%windir%\inf" and you will see the files in the folder.

6) Then find the file by name INFCACHE.1 and take a backup of it to desktop (by copying it
to desktop) and delete the INFCACHE.1 from c:\windows\inf.

7) Close all windows and reboot the computer to safe mode and start the installation of
SP2 and it should go fine.

<quote>


--
====================================
TaurArian [MS-MVP] 2005-2008 - Australia
====================================
How to make a good post: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
Defending your machine: http://defendingyourmachine2.blogspot.com/
http://taurarian.mvps.org/index.htm

Emails will not be acknowledged - please post to the newsgroup so all may benefit.


| Hi
| I'm about ready to give up on this but thought I'd post here in case someone
| could help...
|
| I'm trying to upgrade my Sony Vaio Z1 (with OEM version of Win XP Pro SP1)
| to SP2 but it fails to start installing
|
| When using the WIndows Update or when using the downloaded installer
| (WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe) I get the same behaviour. They get to the
| 'Checking Product Key' step then just sit there with no CPU or disk activity.
| When I try to cancel the screen I get a hang.
|
| Can anyone help me out here?
|
| Thanks, Jamie
 
Hi Shenan,
Thank you for your suggestions. I was able to successfully able to install
the SP2 update having followed them.

I regularly defrag my machine and keep the drivers up to date so I was
skeptical about your suggestions at first. However, I followed them anyway:

- Backup: Everything was already backed up
- Update drivers: I just needed to update the touch pad pointer driver and
the video driver
- Antispyware: I removed this with spybot
- CHKDSK: gave some interesting results on C drive (see below) but D was fine
- Unused apps: all apps are required so none removed
- Update apps: all updates applied (incl. Windows updates)
- Defrag: already done

Defrag on C gave this below. The only thing unusual was the line about
"Windows found problems with the file system. Run CHKDSK with the /F (fix)
option to correct these." I used chkdsk /F as it suggested. Here is the
chkdsk output:

C:\Documents and Settings\music>chkdsk
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is VAIO.

WARNING! F parameter not specified.
Running CHKDSK in read-only mode.

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)...
File verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 3)...
Index verification completed.
CHKDSK is recovering lost files.
CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 3)...
Security descriptor verification completed.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the
master file table (MFT) bitmap.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the volume bitmap.
Windows found problems with the file system.
Run CHKDSK with the /F (fix) option to correct these.

19535008 KB total disk space.
15931432 KB in 100062 files.
37412 KB in 6112 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
166548 KB in use by the system.
48160 KB occupied by the log file.
3399616 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
4883752 total allocation units on disk.
849904 allocation units available on disk....


Again, Thank you very much for your suggestions :)
Jamie
 
Hi TuarArian,

I tried what you are suggesting earlier today before I made this posting. It
did not work for me. I got an error when trying to run the online Windows
Updater in Safe Mode. The error said that the Windows Updater does not run in
Safe Mode. It would not let me continue with the install of SP2.
When I tried the downloaded installer instead I got a message saying that it
was not recommended to do the install in safe mode.

Shenan's advice has fixed the problem in my case.

Still, thank you for posting advice,
Jamie
 
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