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Windows XP SP2 Update on S5000J and S3010CL



 
 
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Old August 23rd 06, 07:23 AM posted to alt.sys.pc-clone.compaq
Ken Wampach
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Posts: 8
Default Windows XP SP2 Update on S5000J and S3010CL

I finally installed Windows XP SP2 on my Compaq Presario S5000J
and S3010CL Desktop machines. They are both 2003 vintage
machines with Athlon processors that came with Windows XP Home
SP1 installed. The Blue star down in Systray with the October
threat of no more updates gave me little choice.

Both machines are now running SP2 and seem to be working fine,
but I thought I would share a few things about my experience
with others who have held off.

During the install on the S5000J, I made a made a decision,
which I feel fortunate did not result in disaster. I did the
install from a Windows Update CD, I ordered from Microsoft.
After about 30 minutes, the progress bar was at about 75% and
the Update reported "Performing Cleanup". Well over an hour
later, the status had not changed and the progress bar had not
moved. Having read a report on the internet of the install
hanging at that point, I assumed that my install had hung and
did a restart. I was very fortunate, that the shutdown was
sufficiently orderly to allow for a successful reboot. The
reboot took about 10 minutes, as the SP2 setup took place.
Happily, I had an operational machine. I considered trying to do
a restore, but found that the restore point I had created had
been overwritten. When I looked at the Svcpack.log file and the
time stamps on a lot of new uninstall files, I found out what
had happened. During the "Performing Cleanup" phase Hotfixes
were being "Migrated". I had waited so long to install SP2, that
there were about 50 Hotfixes which had accumulated and that
needed to be processed. Based on the time stamps on the
uninstall files, it was taking about 1 to 3 minutes for each.
When I reviewed the available restore points, I realized that
the Update package was creating a Restore Point for each Hotfix.
Since it had processed about 30 of them, and I have room for
less than 10 Restore Points, that explained why I could no
longer access the one I created before I began the SP2 install.

With no easy way to turn back, I went to Windows update. It
found a new batch of updates, which installed with no problems.
All of the Hotfixes that had not been "Migrated" were
successfully installed except for a few which had been installed
prior to the SP2 install. At this point in time the machine is
current and everything seems to be fine.

I decided to do the S3010CL from the Windows Update website. I
thought that it might handle the restore Points differently. It
took about 25 minutes to download the update on my cable modem
connection. Again, it took about 30 minutes to reach the
"Performing Cleanup" phase with the progress bar at 75%. This
time I waited. An hour of cleanup showed no change, but when I
checked the machine after an hour and 15 minutes of cleanup, I
got the "Updating Complete" message. The machine took about 10
minutes to reboot. I then went to the Windows Update website to
get the additional Hotfixes that the machine now needed.
Everything was fine on this machine also. FYI, each Hotfix
during the cleanup had again generated a Restore Point, so my
Restore Point was long gone.

I thought I would share my experience, in case anyone else has
put off SP2 this long. My key message is to be patient. I never
should have assumed that the update was hung. There was plenty
of disk activity going on. I feel very lucky.

Prior to starting the SP2 update, I had installed all the other
High Priority and Hardware updates from the Windows Update
website. I don't know how many of the hardware updates were
critical, but I suspect that the amdk7.sys may well be. The new
file version is 5.1.2600.2180(xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158). Seeing
SP2 in the file version makes me think it was critical. The old
driver was dated 7/1/2002 and the new one was dated 12/17/2002.

I had also visited the HP/Compaq page for "Important Information
from HP About Windows XP Service Pack 2". I did do CheckDisks
and Defrags prior to the update and made sure I had enough free
space.

Since you probably won't be able to use System restore to go
back, I would strongly recommended you create a backup which can
restore your hard drive to the state it was in prior to the
update, if you have the resources. FYI: I didn't, which was very
scary. The idea of having to reinstall my software from the
Recovery partition or disks and then reinstalling and updating
all of my software and reinstall the user files from my backups
was something I would not have enjoyed. I think I may invest in
some disk cloning and/or backup software and hardware.

--
Ken Wampach - FirstNameATLastNameDOTorg

 




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