PCA Forums

hi ya'll.. been a while, hope everybody is doing ok..

Anyway, here's the story.. guy has a couple year old Dell, on dial up with service pack one. Can I use a different copy of XP with service pack 2 to upgrade his box and use his 'old' license number? Or is there a simple way to find a copy of service pack 2 that I can use.

thanks,
sethpa

You can just manually download SP2 and install it from a CD..

eGo

got a link I can get it from?

It's hard to find a direct link for download, but you can go through MS website and download it manually. I did it myself and then just put it on a CD.

But, I think this will work for you..

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta ... laylang=en

eGo

Hey Seth !!!!

FAIR WARNING: SP2 upgrades can go VERY badly unless you take some precautions. SP2 is more of an OS upgrade than just a normal service pack.

Some tips that will make things go smoother:

- If this is a mission critical system, make a Ghost image of the entire drive before installing SP2. There are definately scenarios where installing SP2 may render the OS unbootable - even into safe mode.

- BACKUP YOUR DATA!!!!

- Update all your drivers (mobo, video, sound, printers, scanners) to the latest version BEFORE installing SP2. Some drivers are not SP2 compliant.

- Remove all cards except the video card and disconnect all external (USB, serial, parallel, firewire) devices before installing SP2.

- Your system MUST be clean of all spyware or SP2 will render your system unbootable due to the security features added in SP2. Do a thorough spyware scan and virus scan IN SAFE MODE before installing SP2.

Hope this helps...

thanks guys, got it now... How you doing John? I'll try to stop by more often..

doing good.....btw what FP said about finicky is true - sp2 will not install on my main rig....probably had to do with a tv card i had installed - and it's a real pain when it will only boot in safe mode - the rest of the ysstems i've put it on (about 15 at work and home) went fine...go figure...I am just too lazy to reinstall the os

SP2 is very fussy about drivers. Only takes one obscure non SP2 compliant driver (maybe even one for a device that's not even installed anymore) to blow the install.

I have a rule that I don not install SP2 on client's systems unless I Ghost the drive first.