Service Pack 2 (and booting) problem!

[thalantyr]

Hi,

Firstly, sorry if problems similar to this have been answered before but I've looked everywhere and had no luck!
Basically I have a laptop (3 years old) and have tried installing Windows XP Service Pack 2 on numerous occassions but every time it fails to load Windows after the first restart and I'm unable to boot up (even in safe mode) and I have to use the recovery console to uninstall SP2.
I was told to contact the laptop manufacturer but they went out of business 2 years ago! It's extremely annoying as I'm currently only running SP1.
I've tried updating my drivers but nothing seems to work!

My second problem is that sometimes my laptop randomly switches itself off. This rarely happens during normal usage but has started to happen after I've installed a new program/update and been prompted to restart my laptop. It will get to the Windows loading screen then switch off. This also happens when I try to do a full format of the hard drive (Full NTFS,,,not quick NTFS). It will get to about 50% formatted and then switch off and I have to settle for a quick format as this generally doesn't cause the laptop to switch off.

Any help on either of these problems would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

James


Laptop Specs:

Manufacturer = Multivision
Model = Solus 1030
CPU = AMD mobile Athlon XP 2500+
Chipset manufacturer & model= VIA KT333
RAM = 512MB
Hard disk size/interface & speed = 60GB / UDMA66 / 4200rpm
Graphics = ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 (64Mb)

 

[Belly]

I too have a multivision laptop with SP1. (Arcus, P4 (Screen 1600x1200 - my main reason for buying)

Each time I've installed SP2, either by disk, or more recently by download (having just subscribed to NTL broadband) I've had nothing but problems. Initially I couldn't use a Maxtor One Touch External HDD, the software just wouldn't install, but it would install on my Dell P3 450 mhz (SP1). I had to uninstall SP2 install the Maxtor Software, then I reinstalled SP2. A few weeks ago I bought Hemera Big Box of Art and that will not install on my laptop, I believe this is due to SP2. I went to l Unistall SP2 via Control Panel but lost my bottle when it listed the programs which might be affected by removing SP2!!

I'm concerned, having only restored the computer to manufactures "start state" once, what will happen if I try to install Vista (when it's available) at a later date. As I see it I have Windows SP1 embeded on the computer and then there is Multivision's Partition? So it is always there? On my Dell 450 there was no partition and I was able to uninstall Windows 98 and install XP without any problems (XP having all the drivers for Voodoo, Turtle Beach etc) I dread to think what will happen with our present configurations. Multivision did supply me with a sealed Windows XP Disk (but not the drivers)

Maybe it has been covered by previous threads. I know the Multivision Partition contains drivers for the computer but I'm not too sure which ones are used for what.

 

[thalantyr]

Hey,
I'm really happy to say I've finally managed to install it. I managed to slipstream a copy of SP2 onto my Windows XP disc and create a new bootable disc with SP2 already on it. I then installed Windows XP with SP2 with no problems. However, I then installed my A4tech mouse and the problem occured. At least I knew it was my mouse drivers causing the problem so I did a fresh re-install and got compatible mouse drivers!!

Not sure about the randomly switching off problem but so far it's not happened so fingers crossed.... maybe a SP1 problem... The main thing is I can use my laptop with SP2!


Belly, your Arcus should have come with a Utility Disk that had all the drivers on it. Also, don't worry about deleting the multivision rescue disk partition as I deleted it and know lots of multivision users who have too. I don't think it's really not all that useful if you have a copy of the drivers.

Good luck with it.

 

[Belly]

Belly, your Arcus should have come with a Utility Disk that had all the drivers on it. Also, don't worry about deleting the multivision rescue disk partition as I deleted it and know lots of multivision users who have too. I don't think it's really not all that useful if you have a copy of the drivers.

Good luck with it.

I'll have a look but I can't remember getting anything other than Win DVD and the Windows XP Disk, Some of the drivers are in the partition (I left my laptop at work) so I would be able to extract them.

I posted on another thread and was advised that simply (!) going back to initial install (SP1) and immediately installing SP 2 would be almost as good as slipstreaming - and less stressful for me!

Thanx for your advice.