Vista x64 sp2 causing serious annoyance

I have been using Vista x64 sp1 since it was released with no particular
problem. I updated to sp2 a week or so ago, and have had nothing but hassles
with it. 1. Eset smartsuite antivirus etc, didn't work. They have now sorted
that out, and having reverted to sp1 from an Acronis image, I have now
updated again. Eset now works.

2. I attempted to start Serif Pageplus. Only to be told that it needed to be
reinstalled. O.K. I reinstalled it and it now works O.K.

3. I ran CCleaner (previously Crapcleaner) yesterday. It hung.

4. Internet Explorer 8 hangs repeatedly on several web pages which have
never given problems in the past. i.e. my home page: http://www.silicon.com/
and BBC news: http://news.bbc.co.uk/

- not consistently, you understand. Only when I'm in a hurry! ;-)

I am unimpressed. Eset claimed that their antivirus stuff worked well on the
beta versions of SP2, but that there were last minute changes made by
Microsoft. If that is indeed the case, one wonders what is the point of the
beta versions, and whether Windows 7 will suffer the same fate.

Oh well. It's back to Windows 7 RC for me.

Maybe that was the point.

(Cynical, or what?)

--

John

Did you install all the updates after SP2?

"Bioboffin" <JCE@myhouse.invalid> wrote in message
news:#AlGAr36JHA.4376@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> I have been using Vista x64 sp1 since it was released with no particular
> problem. I updated to sp2 a week or so ago, and have had nothing but
> hassles with it. 1. Eset smartsuite antivirus etc, didn't work. They have
> now sorted that out, and having reverted to sp1 from an Acronis image, I
> have now updated again. Eset now works.
>
> 2. I attempted to start Serif Pageplus. Only to be told that it needed to
> be reinstalled. O.K. I reinstalled it and it now works O.K.
>
> 3. I ran CCleaner (previously Crapcleaner) yesterday. It hung.
>
> 4. Internet Explorer 8 hangs repeatedly on several web pages which have
> never given problems in the past. i.e. my home page:
> http://www.silicon.com/ and BBC news: http://news.bbc.co.uk/
>
> - not consistently, you understand. Only when I'm in a hurry! ;-)
>
> I am unimpressed. Eset claimed that their antivirus stuff worked well on
> the beta versions of SP2, but that there were last minute changes made by
> Microsoft. If that is indeed the case, one wonders what is the point of
> the beta versions, and whether Windows 7 will suffer the same fate.
>
> Oh well. It's back to Windows 7 RC for me.
>
> Maybe that was the point.
>
> (Cynical, or what?)
>
> --
>
> John

"TMA" <tmasoftwares@ig.com.br> wrote in message
news:ekr$Ax36JHA.5780@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> Did you install all the updates after SP2?
>
Yes. I currently have two optional installations - both windows live, which
I don't plan to do in Vista SP2.

I had one update (an Excel 2003 update. I don't actually have Excel 2003
installed, but I do use Outlook 2003.). The Excel 2003 update refused to
install - I got a 779 error. I had to manually take ownership of mapisvc.inf
to get it to install (another hassle).

I have read that restored images from third party programs can cause boot
problems. This current installation is a restored Acronis 11 TI home image.
Boot worked fine, apart from a serious slow down caused by an Acronis
service. I removed Acronis and reinstalled it, and the boot time has
improved. However, I suspect that the average user would be unlikely to
detect that. Hence my earlier cynical comment that the complications caused
by this service pack might make some wish to migrate to Windows 7.

--

John

Obviously there's something wrong with your Vista installation.
I'd install Win7 RC if I were you. I use a wide variety of applications here
(including acronis true image) and the only one I had some compatibility
issues was VMWare.
Good luck.


"Bioboffin" <JCE@myhouse.invalid> wrote in message
news:OblA9836JHA.5756@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> "TMA" <tmasoftwares@ig.com.br> wrote in message
> news:ekr$Ax36JHA.5780@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>> Did you install all the updates after SP2?
>>
> Yes. I currently have two optional installations - both windows live,
> which I don't plan to do in Vista SP2.
>
> I had one update (an Excel 2003 update. I don't actually have Excel 2003
> installed, but I do use Outlook 2003.). The Excel 2003 update refused to
> install - I got a 779 error. I had to manually take ownership of
> mapisvc.inf to get it to install (another hassle).
>
> I have read that restored images from third party programs can cause boot
> problems. This current installation is a restored Acronis 11 TI home
> image. Boot worked fine, apart from a serious slow down caused by an
> Acronis service. I removed Acronis and reinstalled it, and the boot time
> has improved. However, I suspect that the average user would be unlikely
> to detect that. Hence my earlier cynical comment that the complications
> caused by this service pack might make some wish to migrate to Windows 7.
>
> --
>
> John
>

"Bioboffin" <JCE@myhouse.invalid> wrote in message
news:#AlGAr36JHA.4376@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...

> I am unimpressed. Eset claimed that their antivirus stuff worked well on
> the beta versions of SP2, but that there were last minute changes made by
> Microsoft. If that is indeed the case, one wonders what is the point of
> the beta versions, and whether Windows 7 will suffer the same fate.

I completely understand your frustration, having been caught out by service
pack updates like this in the past, but on the other hand if Microsoft find
problems during beta testing, surely they need to fix them.

What VMware product are you using? I am using VMware Workstation in Win
7 x64 and have not encountered any problems yet. I am using
VMware-workstation-6.5.2-156735.exe



TMA wrote:
> Obviously there's something wrong with your Vista installation.
> I'd install Win7 RC if I were you. I use a wide variety of applications
> here (including acronis true image) and the only one I had some
> compatibility issues was VMWare.
> Good luck.
>
>
> "Bioboffin" <JCE@myhouse.invalid> wrote in message
> news:OblA9836JHA.5756@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>> "TMA" <tmasoftwares@ig.com.br> wrote in message
>> news:ekr$Ax36JHA.5780@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>>> Did you install all the updates after SP2?
>>>
>> Yes. I currently have two optional installations - both windows live,
>> which I don't plan to do in Vista SP2.
>>
>> I had one update (an Excel 2003 update. I don't actually have Excel
>> 2003 installed, but I do use Outlook 2003.). The Excel 2003 update
>> refused to install - I got a 779 error. I had to manually take
>> ownership of mapisvc.inf to get it to install (another hassle).
>>
>> I have read that restored images from third party programs can cause
>> boot problems. This current installation is a restored Acronis 11 TI
>> home image. Boot worked fine, apart from a serious slow down caused by
>> an Acronis service. I removed Acronis and reinstalled it, and the boot
>> time has improved. However, I suspect that the average user would be
>> unlikely to detect that. Hence my earlier cynical comment that the
>> complications caused by this service pack might make some wish to
>> migrate to Windows 7.
>>
>> --
>>
>> John
>>

"Rob Moir" <robspamtrap@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:E327F91F-F6AF-49CD-83C2-C9EA077E2AA9@microsoft.com...
>
>
> "Bioboffin" <JCE@myhouse.invalid> wrote in message
> news:#AlGAr36JHA.4376@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>
>> I am unimpressed. Eset claimed that their antivirus stuff worked well on
>> the beta versions of SP2, but that there were last minute changes made by
>> Microsoft. If that is indeed the case, one wonders what is the point of
>> the beta versions, and whether Windows 7 will suffer the same fate.
>
> I completely understand your frustration, having been caught out by
> service pack updates like this in the past, but on the other hand if
> Microsoft find problems during beta testing, surely they need to fix them.


It looks as if I might have a hardware (hard disk) problem. One of my drives
(the one I use for data) took too long to boot earlier this evening. I
reset, and it started fine (with no SMART errors). Then when windows started
I got the 'windows needs to check one of your hard drives' messages. It
started O.K. and I am now backing up my data drive! ;-)

--

John

"TMA" <tmasoftwares@ig.com.br> wrote in message
news:u1xssh46JHA.6136@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> Obviously there's something wrong with your Vista installation.
> I'd install Win7 RC if I were you. I use a wide variety of applications
> here (including acronis true image) and the only one I had some
> compatibility issues was VMWare.
> Good luck.
>
Thanks for your help. I have now replaced what turned out to be a failing
hard drive, and everything seems fine.

I probably will go back to Win7 - I stopped using it when I had a problem
with one particular program, but I have since read that that issue can be
solved by using a different graphics card driver.

--

John

"Bobby Johnson" <rjohnson@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:e9XQDt46JHA.2388@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> What VMware product are you using? I am using VMware Workstation in Win 7
> x64 and have not encountered any problems yet. I am using
> VMware-workstation-6.5.2-156735.exe

I don't know the exact version I tried to install in Win7, I can check that
later if you want.
In one of my previous posts, someone said there was no problem with VMWare
so I decided to dig a bit further. In fact I needed a newer version or an
update. But I never really got it done.
Anyways, VMWare is not "essential" for me. I just use it in my nostalgic
moments to run Win3.1, Win95, Win98/ME, ....

"Bioboffin" <JCE@myhouse.invalid> wrote in message
news:OF#rAo56JHA.2456@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>
> It looks as if I might have a hardware (hard disk) problem. One of my
> drives (the one I use for data) took too long to boot earlier this
> evening. I reset, and it started fine (with no SMART errors). Then when
> windows started I got the 'windows needs to check one of your hard drives'
> messages. It started O.K. and I am now backing up my data drive! ;-)

Well that's a pain but at least it makes sense.