SP2 killed performance

My son recently installed SP2 on his computer. His computer is now
nearly unusable.
The computer has become extremely slow. MP3 files don't open but can be
dragged and dropped into Winamp to open them. Devices that connect via
USB don't connect. Automatic update no longer functions. System restore
no longer works.
Is there any way to get back to the way it was before SP2 was installed?
He tried reinstalling Windows XP but it wouldn't let him because it
said the version on his computer was newer. What can he do?

Steve

"Some" information would certainly help! What kind of system? What version
of Windows XP, Home, Professional, Media Center Edition? Is his Windows XP
a full retail version, upgrade, OEM?

Bill Crocker


"Steve" wrote in message
...
My son recently installed SP2 on his computer. His computer is now nearly
unusable.
The computer has become extremely slow. MP3 files don't open but can be
dragged and dropped into Winamp to open them. Devices that connect via USB
don't connect. Automatic update no longer functions. System restore no
longer works.
Is there any way to get back to the way it was before SP2 was installed?
He tried reinstalling Windows XP but it wouldn't let him because it said
the version on his computer was newer. What can he do?

Steve

He's out of town until late tonight but, I can find this much:
It's a Dell dimention DIM2350 that came with XP home edition. Now it
shows Home Edition version 2002 Service Pack 2. The system properties
doesn't say which processor but it's a Pentium 4 of some sort.

Steve

Bill Crocker wrote:

"Some" information would certainly help! What kind of system? What version
of Windows XP, Home, Professional, Media Center Edition? Is his Windows XP
a full retail version, upgrade, OEM?

Bill Crocker


"Steve" wrote in message
...

My son recently installed SP2 on his computer. His computer is now nearly
unusable.
The computer has become extremely slow. MP3 files don't open but can be
dragged and dropped into Winamp to open them. Devices that connect via USB
don't connect. Automatic update no longer functions. System restore no
longer works.
Is there any way to get back to the way it was before SP2 was installed?
He tried reinstalling Windows XP but it wouldn't let him because it said
the version on his computer was newer. What can he do?

Steve

He should probably contact Dell. His Windows XP Home, is not supported by
Microsoft. It is an OEM version, and Dell may have specific instructions,
and OEM drivers, to properly upgrade to SP2.

If you have access to Norton Utilities, try running Win Doctor, to clean up
the Windows Registry. Then delete all cookies, temporary internet files,
and other temp files. Then run defrag...thats a start.

Bill Crocker


"Steve" wrote in message
...
He's out of town until late tonight but, I can find this much:
It's a Dell dimention DIM2350 that came with XP home edition. Now it shows
Home Edition version 2002 Service Pack 2. The system properties doesn't
say which processor but it's a Pentium 4 of some sort.

Steve

Bill Crocker wrote:

"Some" information would certainly help! What kind of system? What
version of Windows XP, Home, Professional, Media Center Edition? Is his
Windows XP a full retail version, upgrade, OEM?

Bill Crocker


"Steve" wrote in message
...

My son recently installed SP2 on his computer. His computer is now nearly
unusable.
The computer has become extremely slow. MP3 files don't open but can be
dragged and dropped into Winamp to open them. Devices that connect via
USB don't connect. Automatic update no longer functions. System restore
no longer works.
Is there any way to get back to the way it was before SP2 was installed?
He tried reinstalling Windows XP but it wouldn't let him because it said
the version on his computer was newer. What can he do?

Steve

Why not just uninstall SP2? That is the best way to
handle this. Go to Control PanelAdd/Remove software and
choose Microsoft Service Pack 2 to uninstall. That's
what I did when it bit me on the a$$.

-----Original Message-----
My son recently installed SP2 on his computer. His
computer is now
nearly unusable.
The computer has become extremely slow. MP3 files don't
open but can be
dragged and dropped into Winamp to open them. Devices
that connect via
USB don't connect. Automatic update no longer functions.
System restore
no longer works.
Is there any way to get back to the way it was before
SP2 was installed?
He tried reinstalling Windows XP but it wouldn't let
him because it
said the version on his computer was newer. What can he
do?

Steve
.

It didn't turn out to be that easy.
Several people suggested uninstalling SP2. On our list of software there
was no SP2 but there was 14 items followed by (SP2). My son got home
last night and I showed him the advice from this and another newsgroup
and we decided to remove those 14 items. That turned out to be a bad
idea. About half way through the list, windows wouldn't open. He removed
one more in safe mode and then windows wouldn't open is safe mode either.
Someone in the other newsgroup said today that those 14 files were
supposed to be temporary and would have been removed when SP2 was
properly installed. Oh...
Anyway, I got up this morning and my son is working on the problem. He
found that he could still boot from the CD and he is reinstalling
windows from there. We'll soon see how that goes.
I'll still take any advice.

Steve

wrote:
Why not just uninstall SP2? That is the best way to
handle this. Go to Control PanelAdd/Remove software and
choose Microsoft Service Pack 2 to uninstall. That's
what I did when it bit me on the a$$.


-----Original Message-----
My son recently installed SP2 on his computer. His

computer is now

nearly unusable.
The computer has become extremely slow. MP3 files don't

open but can be

dragged and dropped into Winamp to open them. Devices

that connect via

USB don't connect. Automatic update no longer functions.

System restore

no longer works.
Is there any way to get back to the way it was before

SP2 was installed?

He tried reinstalling Windows XP but it wouldn't let

him because it

said the version on his computer was newer. What can he

do?

Steve
.

Well, it's time to declare this thread done. I guess the final word is
that SP2 never got completely installed. When my son started
uninstalling updates that had (SP2) in the name, windows was disabled.
He was able to boot from the original XP CD and this time it let him
reinstall windows.
After that, The computer opened and ran normally. He did some clean up
including running Ad-Aware again, virus scan, used the disk cleanup
utility. Then he tried installing SP2 again. This time it all installed
normally and the computer is working just fine.
I want to thank everyone who offered assistance. Some advice we used and
some we didn't need to use but I appreciate the effort of everyone who
posted advice. Thank you all.

Steve

Steve wrote:
It didn't turn out to be that easy.
Several people suggested uninstalling SP2. On our list of software there
was no SP2 but there was 14 items followed by (SP2). My son got home
last night and I showed him the advice from this and another newsgroup
and we decided to remove those 14 items. That turned out to be a bad
idea. About half way through the list, windows wouldn't open. He removed
one more in safe mode and then windows wouldn't open is safe mode either.
Someone in the other newsgroup said today that those 14 files were
supposed to be temporary and would have been removed when SP2 was
properly installed. Oh...
Anyway, I got up this morning and my son is working on the problem. He
found that he could still boot from the CD and he is reinstalling
windows from there. We'll soon see how that goes.
I'll still take any advice.

Steve

wrote:

Why not just uninstall SP2? That is the best way to handle this. Go
to Control PanelAdd/Remove software and choose Microsoft Service Pack
2 to uninstall. That's what I did when it bit me on the a$$.


-----Original Message-----
My son recently installed SP2 on his computer. His


computer is now

nearly unusable.
The computer has become extremely slow. MP3 files don't


open but can be

dragged and dropped into Winamp to open them. Devices


that connect via

USB don't connect. Automatic update no longer functions.


System restore

no longer works.
Is there any way to get back to the way it was before


SP2 was installed?

He tried reinstalling Windows XP but it wouldn't let


him because it

said the version on his computer was newer. What can he


do?

Steve
.

Bill Crocker (or anyone else that might have additional information),

I have ran into performance issues after installing Windows XP SP2 as well,
and in my case, uninstalling SP2 does return the system to its pre-SP2
performance level. I would like very much, however, to take advantage of the
benefits of SP2 AND avoid serious performance issues if possible.

I have already tried using all the standard Windows XP tools to remove
temporary files and unused applications, disable unnecessary startup
applications, defragment disk utilizaiton, etc., and so far these efforts
have resulted in no significant improvement.

The performance issues I have experienced do not appear to be linked to any
one hardware or software configuration as I have witnessed this problem on
multiple systems.

These systems are mostly Intel Pentium 4-based ranging from 2 to 2.8 GHz,
with Hyperthreading enabled, on newer motherboards, 256 to 512 MB of RAM,
various AGP 4x or better video cards and 10/100+ network adapters, and fast
ATA hard drives.

The standard software profile includes, in addition to Windows XP w/ SP2,
various custom .NET 1.1 applications as well as the latest Corporate Edition
of Symantec Antivirus and handfull of other applications I have not yet seen
listed as having any known compatibibility issues.

All of the affected systems are members of an NT4 compatible domain and are
used in the high-volume processing of images and relational datasets.

The only hint I believe I have found is that, even on systems with larger
amounts of memory (512MB), I am seeing a very large number of hard page
faults even when less than half of physical memory is used.

I have tried enabling the LargeSystemCache option as noted in
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro.../wperfch7.mspx
with no improvement, although I intend to study this article in more detail.

If I restrict my software usage to one major application at a time, the
performance issue is minimal. Unfortunately, attempting to maintain this
practice on a regular basis creates a performance issue of a different nature
with a similar end result.

What I am currently trying to find out is whether or not Windows XP SP2
implements changes to memory, file, application, or network caching, or any
other type of system resource utilization or management, that would cause
such performance issues, and if so, what can be done to restore, or at least
improve, performance under SP2.

Unfortunatey it appears that further hardware upgrades offer little hope,
and although it is understood within my industry that there will always be a
battle to reduce resource utilization and increase process efficiency, I
cannot honestly recall a time when a single update had such a profound impact

As I search for answers I have yet to find, I am noticing that many others
may be facing similar, if not the same, unresolved issues. I welcome any
technical information that may be of assistance.

Scott Durbin

"Bill Crocker" wrote:

He should probably contact Dell. His Windows XP Home, is not supported by
Microsoft. It is an OEM version, and Dell may have specific instructions,
and OEM drivers, to properly upgrade to SP2.

If you have access to Norton Utilities, try running Win Doctor, to clean up
the Windows Registry. Then delete all cookies, temporary internet files,
and other temp files. Then run defrag...thats a start.

Bill Crocker


"Steve" wrote in message
...
He's out of town until late tonight but, I can find this much:
It's a Dell dimention DIM2350 that came with XP home edition. Now it shows
Home Edition version 2002 Service Pack 2. The system properties doesn't
say which processor but it's a Pentium 4 of some sort.

Steve

Bill Crocker wrote:

"Some" information would certainly help! What kind of system? What
version of Windows XP, Home, Professional, Media Center Edition? Is his
Windows XP a full retail version, upgrade, OEM?

Bill Crocker


"Steve" wrote in message
...

My son recently installed SP2 on his computer. His computer is now nearly
unusable.
The computer has become extremely slow. MP3 files don't open but can be
dragged and dropped into Winamp to open them. Devices that connect via
USB don't connect. Automatic update no longer functions. System restore
no longer works.
Is there any way to get back to the way it was before SP2 was installed?
He tried reinstalling Windows XP but it wouldn't let him because it said
the version on his computer was newer. What can he do?

Steve