Windows SP2 is NOT working properly...

Question

So I've tried upgrading twice, this time it was my Mom who accidently did the "upgrade" to SP2 without asking me. Anyways, what happens is simple, during a restart one of windows services doesn't work. Which one is beyond me but when I end the largest memory hogging svchost.exe the hourglass goes away and a couple icons appear in the systray. What is going on? Everything works seeminly fine except that 2/3rds of my systray icons aren't loaded and that really bothers me.
I understand svchost.exe is a windows service package but how do I fix this or do I just go back to sp1 again? It's rather annoying and honestly, uncalled for. This computer is free from spyware/adware/virii so I'm stumped. I've been working with computers and get paid to do this work and I've never had so much trouble. Okay, I lied, old win98 ME networking was a nightmare but this is right up there with it.
Please help! I'm 2 blinks from cursing out Microsoft and installing a linux OS.

NemesisDB · Answer

sorry, are you missing the sys tray icons when you boot?

JonPrevost · Answer

Yes, only 2 icons appear and once I end the svchost.exe the hour glass goes away and 1 more (my printer) icon pops up leaving me with only a third of what should be loaded. It is the svchost.exe that's messing up which makes me believe it has something to do with a windows service that wasn't updated or isn't compatible. I'm ticked off because I can handle a program not being compatible but when it's windows that isn't compatible with ITSELF... well that's just obserd. I called Microsoft today and have gotten very little help. When I find a solution I'll post it here.

NemesisDB · Answer

this may be a seperate issue but I sometimes lose icons on startup as well (in fact I've seen this happen with every comp I've ever put SP2 on).   The solution for me is to wait before logging into windows -- either at the welcome screen or login screen, whichever way you start up.  Give it more time and let all disc activity stop ... when I do that everything shows up

JonPrevost · Answer

Well I find that unacceptable. I can handle a couple seconds more but it takes nearly 8 minutes for the hourglass to go away and for windows to just give up on whatever service it's trying to load. I'd rather have sp1 and the 'security' threats than this long startup period. Even now, with the firewall disabled the symantec vpn software has difficulty staying connected. I'm going back to SP1 if I can't find out what service is causing the problems. Anybody know how to watch what services are being 'started' in windows xp? Also, I'd need THAT service to open before anything else so how do I make it a priority on startup?

NemesisDB · Answer

Don't really know what to suggest although that's not normal behavior for SP2.  If you find you have to remove it, use add/remove programs.  If that fails, use a system restore.

JonPrevost · Answer

So I was talking to a friend about this and he reminded me that I can pull up the run from the task manager (start button isn't working with this slugishness). I ran "services.msc" to pull up the services overview. I then looked for the process that was "starting" and ignored the not running and "started" processes. Here's the culprit; C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe -k netsvcs. I could post more about it but I won't clutter this thread. Next step is fixing this service or disabling it and feeling the effects. I'll keep everybody posted. If anything, it's useful to understand that you can find out what part of Microsoft Windows was broken by their own updates ;)

Message Edited by JonPrevost on 05-11-2005 10:06 PM

Message Edited by JonPrevost on 05-11-2005 10:40 PM

Tomasso · Answer

I''ve had exactly the same issue. Dell 8600. Both the very long delay in starting and the svchost.exe -k netsvcs. The service that seems to be not turning on is Windows Audio. The sound card driver (SigmaTel Audio) seems to be what is broken, but it isn't broken the same way every time. Sometimes, W media player can't find (unless I start it). Othertimes, the "progress bar" thing that indicates sound level (when you press the sound up/sound down button) does not appear.

I do not have the same problem with other notebooks running XP (Asus, Acer, Compaq), or desktops. There are related discussions on this thread in Dell Forums, under the heading of SigmaTel Audio (and notebooks, and XP). I expect this *is* a Dell issue (P > 0.95). The other 0.05 is a mix of Microsoft, and Norton IS.

I agree with JonPrevost that the very long delay on startup is not acceptable.

T.

Tomasso · Answer

I uninstalled iTunes and Quicktime, and the problem went away. Ie, boots quickly now, and audio comes up.   T.

Windows General

Windows SP2 is NOT working properly...

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