XP home and sp2, problems?

[ECUHITMAN]

Has anyone had any problems with XP home edition and sp2? My laptop has Home edition on it and was running great until I installed sp2 (symptoms: It takes about 2 or 3x longer to get into windows then it did before, it will not turn off by itself when I shut it down, and I have all sorts of random hard locks). So figuring it might be a conflict with some of the software I had running before I installed sp2, I did a fresh install of XP Home and I get the exact same results. I think I might reinstall yet again, and NOT install sp2 unless someone has a suggestion for me.

BTW, here is the specs on the laptop:
Emachines m6805
Xp Home edition (2002 version) that came with laptop
AMD 64 3000+ (1.8 ghz)
ATI mobility
60 GB Hard drive (I am not sure of make)

Software running in background:
Norton Antivirus Corp edition
Zone Alarm (free)
Standard XP programs (icons for normal networking)

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: ECUHITMAN
Has anyone had any problems with XP home edition and sp2? My laptop has Home edition on it and was running great until I installed sp2 (symptoms: It takes about 2 or 3x longer to get into windows then it did before, it will not turn off by itself when I shut it down, and I have all sorts of random hard locks). So figuring it might be a conflict with some of the software I had running before I installed sp2, I did a fresh install of XP Home and I get the exact same results. I think I might reinstall yet again, and NOT install sp2 unless someone has a suggestion for me.

BTW, here is the specs on the laptop:
Emachines m6805
Xp Home edition (2002 version) that came with laptop
AMD 64 3000+ (1.8 ghz)
ATI mobility
60 GB Hard drive (I am not sure of make)

Software running in background:
Norton Antivirus Corp edition
Zone Alarm (free)
Standard XP programs (icons for normal networking)

A hard lock makes me think it's hardware, as the OS doesn't have the chance to throw up a bluescreen telling you of the problem. So, does the same thing happen in safe mode? If you completely uninstall (not just disable) the zone alarm program and the antivirus program, does the same thing happen? When you say "fresh install of XP", and then you list other software, that doesn't sound like a fresh install, so I suggest trying what SP2 does by installing ONLY SP2 over XP, and then seeing how that works for you. I suspect it will work great, and then you'll need to add software bit by bit to see where the problem lies.

But first I'd uninstall the firewall & the AV programs and re-test.

 

[ECUHITMAN]

The hard lock is usually caused when it is about to go into standby or if I plug the power cord in. All of which cause the OS to do something. Why that would make it hard lock, I have no idea.

What I mean by a fresh install is use the recovery cds that came with the laptop from emachines. They erase my hard drive completely and reset it back to the state it was in when it came out of the box. There are obviously programs that are preinstalled on the computer but they are usually not running (an example would be Power DVD, AOL IM, or ICQ, etc...) . The software I listed is just what is running on the system tray.

The first time I installed SP2 I did so after I had already installed the AV and firewall (not to mention any other program I might have installed). The second time I installed SP2 after my computer completed the recovery (which is a fresh install of XP). After I did that, I noticed it did take longer to boot into windows and to power down, but it was not much. After I installed the av and firewall, the computer was doing the same thing it was before (hard locks, not powering down, and excessive boot up). I know these programs work with xp and sp2 b/c my desktop is running them (the only difference is I am using XP prof on my desktop, not xp home edition).


I will uninstall the AV and firewall, and to see if I get any change. I will post what happens up here.

 

[bsobel]

Norton Antivirus Corp edition
Zone Alarm (free)

Thats a weird combination, why is your company running that?

Bill

 

[ECUHITMAN]

It is a corporate edition but not because I am working for a company. I am a student, and the university gives it out to all the students (i guess in hopes of keeping viruses from spreading around). Kind of like sex ed for your computer I guess...


I uninstalled NAV and ZA which made no difference. I still could not shut the computer down nor could I go into standby (just to name a few things). So I did a system restore to a point before I installed SP2, and now everything runs excellent. Naturally Windows tried to download sp2 but I told it not to, so instead it only gave me the security features from it. My guess is whatever sp2 does to the wireless networking messed up my laptop. So I guess for now the cause of my problems can be attributed to XP home edition, my wireless net connection, and SP2.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: ECUHITMAN
It is a corporate edition but not because I am working for a company. I am a student, and the university gives it out to all the students (i guess in hopes of keeping viruses from spreading around). Kind of like sex ed for your computer I guess...


I uninstalled NAV and ZA which made no difference. I still could not shut the computer down nor could I go into standby (just to name a few things). So I did a system restore to a point before I installed SP2, and now everything runs excellent. Naturally Windows tried to download sp2 but I told it not to, so instead it only gave me the security features from it. My guess is whatever sp2 does to the wireless networking messed up my laptop. So I guess for now the cause of my problems can be attributed to XP home edition, my wireless net connection, and SP2.

I really doubt the problem is SP2. I suspect you've got other software on there that isn't compatible with the OS. Standby/shutdown sounds like you've got a driver or device installed that shouldn't be - MSCONFIG can help you out a little on that, since it can disable some of that. Could you shut down in safe mode?

You said it right there:

"After I did that (installed SP2), I noticed it did take longer to boot into windows and to power down, but it was not much. After I installed the av and firewall, the computer was doing the same thing it was before (hard locks, not powering down, and excessive boot up). " --- seems like things were working until you got the AV and fw software on there. A lot of times a newer version will fix issues like that.

eMachines could have some oddball ACPI-modifier software on there, or a wierd program in there that SP2 doesn't like. To fix this, you might install XP Home from scratch (ie a normal install, not something from eMachines), add software bit by bit, and see what software you add breaks things.

 

[ECUHITMAN]

I do not have an XP disk, all I have is the emachines recovery disk which essentually is a ghost copy of what should be on my HD. So doing a scratch install of XP is not possible.

Whatever the problem is, it is linked to sp2. As I said things did work when I installed sp2, but not very well (at least it didn't work as well as it did before I installed sp2). I am sure it is something that is unique about my laptop, as you said some oddball emachines thing, but considering how I do not have any choice of what is installed when I do the recovery, I will just have to deal without sp2 (unless emachines or microsoft has a fix for it). I will email them to see if they have any fixes or suggestions.

But as of right now the computer runs, so I am not going to play around with it too much.