sp2 love letter

OK - so it's not really a love letter.

But I do love my family enough to actually want to spend
time with them instead of my new bride... a dual xeon
2.5ghz 1gb slingshot that just downloaded sp2 and has
left for the dark ages.

After 4 hours into the sp2 process with no apparent
progress. I attempted to "cancel" the installation. (The
download had been complete for about 4 hours, the
download was verified). "Cancelling Installation" was
immediately confirmed in the dialogue. After two more
hours of no progress, I estimated that something was
indeed very wrong and opted to end the process through
task manager. That's when things started to get weird.

Sure, internet explorer stopped without issue. I rebooted
the machine and got a message that "the system was
unstable" and then was instructed to "go to control panel
and uninstall" sp2. So when dialogue boxes appeared
telling me I was deleting files that might cause certain
things not to work, I said to my pc, "Hey, you gave me
permission to do this", and gleefully clicked "OK".

After that, I had no mouse, no keyboard, and couldn't
even utilize safe mode to boot. Fortunately, I was able
to complete a "repair" installation of the OS.

When I went back to WU, it said I needed to update
several things, which I did. None of which were sp2. I
rebooted.

Now I cannot use windows update at all. The home page
loads, but I can't click on anything or IE completely
locks down. A possible glitch with the VM console?

Please help if you can.

Gordon wrote:
> OK - so it's not really a love letter.
>
> But I do love my family enough to actually want to spend
> time with them instead of my new bride... a dual xeon
> 2.5ghz 1gb slingshot that just downloaded sp2 and has
> left for the dark ages.
>
> After 4 hours into the sp2 process with no apparent
> progress. I attempted to "cancel" the installation. (The
> download had been complete for about 4 hours, the
> download was verified). "Cancelling Installation" was
> immediately confirmed in the dialogue. After two more
> hours of no progress, I estimated that something was
> indeed very wrong and opted to end the process through
> task manager. That's when things started to get weird.
>
> Sure, internet explorer stopped without issue. I rebooted
> the machine and got a message that "the system was
> unstable" and then was instructed to "go to control panel
> and uninstall" sp2. So when dialogue boxes appeared
> telling me I was deleting files that might cause certain
> things not to work, I said to my pc, "Hey, you gave me
> permission to do this", and gleefully clicked "OK".
>
> After that, I had no mouse, no keyboard, and couldn't
> even utilize safe mode to boot. Fortunately, I was able
> to complete a "repair" installation of the OS.
>
> When I went back to WU, it said I needed to update
> several things, which I did. None of which were sp2. I
> rebooted.
>
> Now I cannot use windows update at all. The home page
> loads, but I can't click on anything or IE completely
> locks down. A possible glitch with the VM console?
>
> Please help if you can.

Since you mention SP2, one guesses it's XP SP2 (and not Win2000 SP2). Now then, what VM console?

I note you said "repair" (and by that one assumes the XP repair-install completed ok).

Does your IE (otherwise) work on for plain-vanilla websites? Your only problem is at Windows Update website?

Bring up IE browser.
Internet Explorer > main menu /Tools/Internet Options >

Security Tab/ click on green icon Trusted Sites/click Sites button.

Look very closely at line that says: "Require server verification (https for all sites in this zone" to *clear* the selection.
(e.g. You want that to be clear or un-checked (un-ticked)).

In the "Add this Web site to the zone:" field, add these entries to list of "Trusted Sites" --

type
http://*.download.windowsupdate.com (click Add)

http://*.windowsupdate.microsoft.com

https://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com (with HTTPS)

https://v5.windowsupdate.microsoft.com (with HTTPS)


Click OK. Apply changes. Close IE.

--
Maurice N
MVP Windows - Shell / User
-----

Thanks. I have done as you said. I attempted to install
the sp2 update on all the XP Pro machines in my firm. Two
machines hang for many hours (>14 hours) in the sp2
update wizard at "Completing Installation", "Running
processes after install". On one machine, I had to
reinstall the OS after cancelling and ending the process
from this point. The other machine is still hung after 14
hours with no CPU activity for "update.exe"
or "wuauclt.exe". WHAT SHOULD I DO?

>-----Original Message-----
>Gordon wrote:
>> OK - so it's not really a love letter.
>>
>> But I do love my family enough to actually want to
spend
>> time with them instead of my new bride... a dual xeon
>> 2.5ghz 1gb slingshot that just downloaded sp2 and has
>> left for the dark ages.
>>
>> After 4 hours into the sp2 process with no apparent
>> progress. I attempted to "cancel" the installation.
(The
>> download had been complete for about 4 hours, the
>> download was verified). "Cancelling Installation" was
>> immediately confirmed in the dialogue. After two more
>> hours of no progress, I estimated that something was
>> indeed very wrong and opted to end the process through
>> task manager. That's when things started to get weird.
>>
>> Sure, internet explorer stopped without issue. I
rebooted
>> the machine and got a message that "the system was
>> unstable" and then was instructed to "go to control
panel
>> and uninstall" sp2. So when dialogue boxes appeared
>> telling me I was deleting files that might cause
certain
>> things not to work, I said to my pc, "Hey, you gave me
>> permission to do this", and gleefully clicked "OK".
>>
>> After that, I had no mouse, no keyboard, and couldn't
>> even utilize safe mode to boot. Fortunately, I was able
>> to complete a "repair" installation of the OS.
>>
>> When I went back to WU, it said I needed to update
>> several things, which I did. None of which were sp2. I
>> rebooted.
>>
>> Now I cannot use windows update at all. The home page
>> loads, but I can't click on anything or IE completely
>> locks down. A possible glitch with the VM console?
>>
>> Please help if you can.
>
>Since you mention SP2, one guesses it's XP SP2 (and not
Win2000 SP2). Now then, what VM console?
>
>I note you said "repair" (and by that one assumes the XP
repair-install completed ok).
>
>Does your IE (otherwise) work on for plain-vanilla
websites? Your only problem is at Windows Update
website?
>
>Bring up IE browser.
>Internet Explorer > main menu /Tools/Internet Options >
>
>Security Tab/ click on green icon Trusted Sites/click
Sites button.
>
>Look very closely at line that says: "Require server
verification (https for all sites in this zone" to
*clear* the selection.
>(e.g. You want that to be clear or un-checked (un-
ticked)).
>
> In the "Add this Web site to the zone:" field, add
these entries to list of "Trusted Sites" --
>
>type
>http://*.download.windowsupdate.com (click Add)
>
>http://*.windowsupdate.microsoft.com
>
>https://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com (with HTTPS)
>
>https://v5.windowsupdate.microsoft.com (with HTTPS)
>
>
> Click OK. Apply changes. Close IE.
>
>--
>Maurice N
>MVP Windows - Shell / User
>-----
>
>.
>

Gordon wrote:
> Thanks. I have done as you said. I attempted to install
> the sp2 update on all the XP Pro machines in my firm. Two
> machines hang for many hours (>14 hours) in the sp2
> update wizard at "Completing Installation", "Running
> processes after install". On one machine, I had to
> reinstall the OS after cancelling and ending the process
> from this point. The other machine is still hung after 14
> hours with no CPU activity for "update.exe"
> or "wuauclt.exe". WHAT SHOULD I DO?
>
14 hours is absolutely outside of norm. Determine whether or not this pc had "screensaver" activated. Move the mouse around the screen.
I had 1 incident with a pc that had it & was about to have a fit ---- the screensaver kicked in & the screen showed black (or the XP bouncing logo). Juggling the mouse around brought it back to life. System was waiting for a keyboard response, but since I had been out of the room, the s.saver came up.

In your case, is the screen still showing some "status" on-screen? If truly frozen, the only thing you could do is:
First, try to bring up Task Manager via CTRL+ALT+DEL keys. If it shows up, great.... you can see what programs & services are running, then from Task Manager, select "Shutdown" then "Restart".
--
Maurice N
MVP Windows - Shell / User
-----