I HATE YOU XP SERVICE PACK 2!!!!!

[Flint the Dwarf]

Now... let's analyze your problem, shall we? I work as a computer tech, so I'll treat this in the same way I do at work.

1: "My computer is slowing down and takes 12 hours to boot!"
Hmm. Sounds like a virus, but tell me more.

I ran pretty much every virus scanner known to man before my computer got to the point where it wouldn't run anything.

2: "I tried to reformat, but my computer froze!"
Oog. That's no virus. That sounds like memory, and would be a very good reason why your computer takes 12 hours to boot. It's possible for it to be your hard drive too. Is it making any odd sounds?

I took out all my memory sticks and replaced them with compatible SDRAM that was running perfectly fine in my brother's computer, and the problem persisted. As for HDD, I actually did change it during the course of those problems. It didn't solve anything.

Hmm. That's all the info you have me, and already I can tell it's probably a hardware problem, not software. If the guy you took it to didn't have good diagnostic tools and programs to test that theory, then I wouldn't trust taking my computer to him again.

Then why did the slowdown start the day after the updates? And why did changing hardware and running virus scan, defrag, and reformat not do anything? And why was I unable to uninstall the updates or do a successful system restore? On top of that I ran a bunch of system checks to see how well my hardware was running, checked my fans and heatsink, and replaced various other hardware with older hardware that I knew was in good condition.

Oh... wait, there's more.

3: "My comp runs fine... except for that time when lightning fried my sound card and screwed up my comp"

Yeah, this was well after the slowdown, genius, and I'm well aware that I need a new computer. It did fry my modem and sound card and video card.

Anything else you care to tell me that has no relevence to the problem and that I already know, hotshot?

[XStylus]

Anything else you care to tell me that has no relevence to the problem and that I already know, hotshot?

Nope, because you've made it quite obvious you don't want my help. I'm sorry that I cared enough to try.

[Flint the Dwarf]

The problem's already been fixed. As far as I'm concerned, you were just trying to make me look like an idiot for saying SP2 isn't perfect and sending my computer in to a repair guy to be fixed. If you wanted to be helpful, you could try being less assumptious and sarcastic and a little more informative.

SP2 will cause your hair to fall out. It will cause babies to drop their lollypops. It will cause children to grow hair on their palms. It will cause pigs to fly. It will cause dogs and cats to live together.

Things can -seem- to work, but there can be hidden problems which exhibit themselves in strange ways such as... oh, I dunno... taking 12 hours to boot?

Don't try to pass off your condescending Microsoft-defending shitfest as an attempt to be helpful.

[Pyle]

ROFL!

I got Warcraft 3 for my husband for Christmas (plus the Lords of Everquest)

I'm not sure about the status of Warcraft 3, (but he hated Lords of Everquest)!

Of the things I got him, the hit turned out to be the thing he *didn't* say he wanted, which was the 5.1 speaker system I got him for the computer.

Regardless. I love Warcraft 3 too much to download it.

According to a news story at allrpg.com, the XP Service Pack springs up a firewall that renders the transfer of data through Starcraft and Warcraft 3: ROC unable to play. <_<.

Maybe in a year, when I know better, I'll DL the Service Pack.

[Rosie-chan]

I do/have done/been paid to do computer tech stuff before, so here's my take on a few of the issues about.

--Windows taking hours to boot
I ran into this same problem once with one of my family's computers running Windows 2000, on which the virus scans were up to date, patches up to date, etc. The cause may have been related to a program that someone else had installed on that machine in order for my mom to start working at home, but this is uncertian, as uninstalling them didn't help. I too tried swapping the memory chips, to no avail. The only thing that fixed the computer was a full reinstall of Windows. The computer runs fine now, so it was definately a software problem, but that's as much as I could figure out.

--The validity of automatic updates:
Yes, I've had Windows Update break my computer as well. There's one partiular patch that *still* gives me occasional booting problems on my particular configuarion of hardware (no one else seems to have this problem, but the problem never materializes untill I download that particular patch.) Waiting a few days/weeks after any release of major software to upgrade is generaly a good practice...unless that release contains mission-critical fixes.

Therin lies the caveat. *Not* running Windows Update often enough can leave you vulnerable to the next major hack that comes along...read any story about the Blaster worm. (This doesn't mean that the next major hack won't involve a vulnerability that Microsoft hasn't solved yet, of course. Sometimes it takes such a hack to get a patch released at all quickly.)

My prefered update scheme: Set automatic updates to only notify me when stuff is avalible for download. Therefore, I can screen what it wants to do first and install what I want when I want it.

But when all's said and done, if there are any questions about the reliability of an update, BACKUP YOUR SYSTEM (or at least your important, irreplacable files) before installing it.

--Windows XP Firewall:
SP2 automaticly turns it on, which isn't by itself a bad thing. If applications using the internet (games, etc) stop being able to connect after you've installed SP2, you need to go to the firewall setting in Controll Pannel as administrator, armed with the knowledge of which ports your software uses to connect to the internt, and open those ports up. If the port numbers aren't listed in the software manual/documentation, you may need to call their customer service where aplicable.

--Macs
I administered a bunch of older iMacs running OS X (10.2) at one point. I still have a few minor-but-annoying user-interface issues with the operating system, but under normal use it's rock-solid stable and perfectly functional. That said, I have little respect for any Mac OS pre version 10, and I absolutely didn't like them back in 1993 (actualy closer to 1997) either.

Adobe stopped releasing Premiere for the Mac because they couldn't compete with Apple's video editing powerhouse known as Final Cut Pro. Everything else, however...Adobe's record for developing Mac software has been excelent, especaily for Photoshop. There's even a Windows Movie Maker equivilant in the form of iMovie for the newbies.

[fyrtenheimer]

I do/have done/been paid to do computer tech stuff before, so here's my take on a few of the issues about.

did they hire you on the spot

--Windows XP Firewall:
SP2 automaticly turns it on, which isn't by itself a bad thing. If applications using the internet (games, etc) stop being able to connect after you've installed SP2, you need to go to the firewall setting in Controll Pannel as administrator, armed with the knowledge of which ports your software uses to connect to the internt, and open those ports up. If the port numbers aren't listed in the software manual/documentation, you may need to call their customer service where aplicable.

The microsoft site has a page of the most common/popular games and various programs and their ports that need to be opened.

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/securit ... ports.mspx

There's even a Windows Movie Maker equivilant in the form of iMovie for the newbies.

...There's probably a ton of people here who didn't know that.

[XStylus]

Don't try to pass off your condescending Microsoft-defending shitfest as an attempt to be helpful.

I hate Microsoft as much as the next guy. I was just stating a point of fact. Is SP2 perfect? I don't know, but it's not as broken as people are saying it is. If SP2 breaks software, it's likely because the software you're running wasn't coded right. Not your fault, it's a fault of the people who made the program you're using.

But in any case, I'm sorry, it's my bad. You're right, I'm wrong. I've only done this every day for a living and have had to put up with this problem repeatedly already. What would I know?

[Kalium]

Or maybe the software uses raw sockets, which are capped by SP2. Besides, SP2 broke a fair amount of MS proggies, too.

[Fate_Engine]

for every one person whos gotten screwed over by SP2, theres probably 12 others that have no problems at all. so it cant be THAT bad

[OtakuMegane]

for every one person whos gotten screwed over by SP2, theres probably 12 others that have no problems at all. so it cant be THAT bad

For every car that uses <x brand> of gas and their engine catches fire, 12 others have no problems.

Just an example, but think about it. How many industries or companies could get away with that many problems due to an update(or any other factor), to fix problems that shouldn't exist in the first place, no less. In a lot of industries it could be enough to seriously damage or even destroy a company. Look at the Firestone tires fiasco. And they were nowhere remotely close to 1 in 13 exploding.

Sorry, been a couple months since I did a good anti-Microsoft rant. Needed to get that out of my system.