Systems restarts itself....

[maddmaxx]

Thanks Googer.

I don't have any software that requires SP2, so I'm not going to download it just yet.

I've reformatted my drive and am in the process of putting everything back (already got all of the MS stuff, cept SP2), and everything seems to be going fine.

peace

 

[Googer]

I hope all goes well. If you still get the same problem or a similar blue screen, I would look into a hardware problem most likely memory or power but a FAILING HDD could give the same result.

 

[mechBgon]

I don't have any software that requires SP2, so I'm not going to download it just yet.

SP2 isn't something a given piece of software "requires," it is mostly for security enhancement and I would recommend it. Without it, you're tossing aside some valuable security advancements even if you load up on every non-SP2 patch for SP1. Data Execution Prevention, the recompiled kernel and more attack-resistant RAS... definitely worth it to me, anyway.

 

[Googer]

While not perfect the only thing in service pack2 that is worth anythng to me is the NX protection. It will only function if you hardware supports it. Since he is running Norton AV there is little need for it in the first place. Rather than installing SP2, You can get similar or better protection from 3rd party software, like sygate. It works great for many, but there are a few people where it has cause headaches.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: Googer
While not perfect the only thing in service pack2 that is worth anythng to me is the NX protection. It will only function if you hardware supports it. Since he is running Norton AV there is little need for it in the first place. You can get similar or better protection from 3rd party software, like sygate. Rather than installing SP2. It works great for many, but there are a few people where it has cause headaches.

Well, yes and no. Hardware-enforced Data Execution Prevention requires a supporting CPU. Software Data Execution Prevention is also new with SP2, and it actually doesn't require a CPU with NX-bit capabilities.

Software-enforced DEP

An additional set of data execution prevention security checks have been added to Windows XP SP2. These checks, known as software-enforced DEP, are designed to mitigate exploits of exception handling mechanisms in Windows. Software-enforced DEP runs on any processor which is capable of running Windows XP SP2. By default, software-enforced DEP only protects limited system binaries, regardless of the hardware-enforced DEP capabilities of the processor.

from Microsoft's info

The kernel also got recompiled and quite a bit of other stuff. Good reading in this thread: link.

The first issue I had with SP2 myself was that I had to disable Passive FTP in order to use IE for FTP purposes. So yeah, nothing's perfect 🙂 My siblings and parents have three SP2-equipped rigs among them and I haven't had any horror stories come of that. They were all clean installs, however, SP2 was not being installed over the top of viruses, worms, trojans or spyware.

 

[maddmaxx]

I went ahead and installed SP2... no probs yet. I'm in the slooooow process of re-installing everything else one app at a time, and then running a virus-scan to see if it crashes. Good times!!! 🙂

Anyways, thanks so very much for all of the help, and encouragement!


peace

 

[maddmaxx]

...Now tell me, since I've had no crashes thus far, is it safe to assume that the problem was not hardware related? I figured that it would be safe to make that assumtion, but I didn't want to put my hardware in the clear just yet.

peace

 

[mechBgon]

Unless it was raising the memory voltage that got it stabilized? At any rate, it's good to hear it's cooperating now 😎 So what's next, a new video card and some more RAM? 🙂

 

[maddmaxx]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
Unless it was raising the memory voltage that got it stabilized? At any rate, it's good to hear it's cooperating now 😎 So what's next, a new video card and some more RAM? 🙂

Thanks mechBgon.

Not sure whether the memory voltage change did the job or not. I raised it and still had the crashes. I even did a repair on the Windows installation and things got worse. It was strange, it seemed like everything was "sluggish".
Anyways, it seems that once I re-formatted and did a fresh install, everything is going fine.

A new video card (any rec's???) is definatly next on the list, as well as another 512MB.
I was thinking of going with ATI this time around, but I'm still not sure yet. I really don't want to spend over $200 for a video card. Descent gameing and some video editing is all that I need.

Thanks again for all the help....

peace

 

[mechBgon]

I was thinking of going with ATI this time around, but I'm still not sure yet. I really don't want to spend over $200 for a video card.

You and me both. I'm still dragging my feet and using my venerable Voodoo3 2000 PCI card at the moment 😱 If I were buying right now I'd probably get a Radeon 9800 Pro with 256MB of memory and the 256-bit memory interface (not the scummy 128-bit cut-down memory interface). But part of me says to wait for PCI Express and get a whole next-generation setup all at once instead of the perpetual nickle-&-dime routine. Aieeeeeeee... must sleep on it 😛

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: mechBgon

Originally posted by: Googer
While not perfect the only thing in service pack2 that is worth anythng to me is the NX protection. It will only function if you hardware supports it. Since he is running Norton AV there is little need for it in the first place. You can get similar or better protection from 3rd party software, like sygate. Rather than installing SP2. It works great for many, but there are a few people where it has cause headaches.

Well, yes and no. Hardware-enforced Data Execution Prevention requires a supporting CPU. Software Data Execution Prevention is also new with SP2, and it actually doesn't require a CPU with NX-bit capabilities.

Software-enforced DEP

An additional set of data execution prevention security checks have been added to Windows XP SP2. These checks, known as software-enforced DEP, are designed to mitigate exploits of exception handling mechanisms in Windows. Software-enforced DEP runs on any processor which is capable of running Windows XP SP2. By default, software-enforced DEP only protects limited system binaries, regardless of the hardware-enforced DEP capabilities of the processor.

from Microsoft's info

The kernel also got recompiled and quite a bit of other stuff. Good reading in this thread: link.

The first issue I had with SP2 myself was that I had to disable Passive FTP in order to use IE for FTP purposes. So yeah, nothing's perfect 🙂 My siblings and parents have three SP2-equipped rigs among them and I haven't had any horror stories come of that. They were all clean installs, however, SP2 was not being installed over the top of viruses, worms, trojans or spyware.

Thanks for the Refrences.