Dell Dimension 8300 + Windows XP SP2 = Unstable?!

Question

A coworker put XP Service Pack 2 on his machine, looking to improve his security. Instead his system frequently blue-screens on boot just after the mouse pointer appears. The actual STOP message is different each time. If it does successfully boot (about 50% of the time), usually some random app that's supposed to run during startup will crash (again, it changes each time). Apps randomly die while the machine is running. No new software was installed after SP2. After reverting to SP1 everything works perfectly again. I tried updating to the latest BIOS and video drivers, no help. The machine does seem to boot into safe mode OK.

Anyone got any ideas? I'd swear it was bad hardware if it didn't work flawlessly with SP1.

alevasseur14 · Answer

Nothing a clean install can't fix, I'm sure.  SP2 makes a lot of changes that have the chances of making a seemingly stable machine instable.  If I were to guess, this coworker of yours is still running on his original install (or it's been a while since a clean install...)  A lot of people have reported the same instabilities and found a clean install of Windows fixed the problem.

5fc5e52801914a6 · Answer

I agree with alevasseur14.  God only knows what junk and other changes have been made to your friends computer over time that will break, when SP-2 is installed.  Anytime I want to install a major upgrade such as SP-1 or now SP-2, I will do a clean format and re-install first.  I have never had a problem from doing so.

Windows General

Dell Dimension 8300 + Windows XP SP2 = Unstable?!

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