Microsoft fixes Vista SP1 update problems, not soon enough for some
By Donald Melanson 
posted Feb 20th 2008 1:35PM
posted Feb 20th 2008 1:35PM
It looks like at least some of those that got their hands on the Vista SP1 update one way or another got a bit more than they bargained for, with DailyTech reporting that the update process wreaked some considerable havoc on some users' PCs. Specifically, the SP1 update process took it upon itself to automatically install a prerequisite Windows Update, which apparently caused some folks' PCs to dive into an "unbootable loop," the only solution to which is a complete system restore. For its part, Microsoft has now pulled the prerequisite update in question (which apparently means it wasn't much of a "prerequisite"), although that'll likely be of little consolation to those that have already seen their PC put through the ringer.
LOL MS rules!
LOL i don't know why you got a neg vote... ummm obvious joke, people!!
glad i wasn't an early adopter this time!!
I like jokes as much as the next guy; but aren't jokes supposed to be funny?
these forums are filled with a bunch of MS fanboys. i bet they got my joke and they just don't like it. everytime i make a marginally negative comment to MS they all get their panties in a bunch and rate me low. but who can blame me? MS is staffed by a bunch of boorish morons! let it be known!
isn't the idea of a company.... to make money? come out with a product that mostly works well?
windows does what you need it to do most of the time... play games, work on spreadsheets, browse the web.
the only people that complain about MS are either A) Cheap, B) not into tech (i.e. macs) or C) have some under-dog holier-than-thou complex about having an OS by a big corporation (i.e. penguin fans).
the only reason that MS comes under such scrutiny is because they are HUGE and make one of the most popular products on the planet... of COURSE there are going to be haters in droves over their products.....
....but the bottom line is: MS is a successful company that makes several decent products.
you just want something to complain about... making "jokes" that aren't funny, ironic, or interesting. you got rated low for it. go back to your broken linux install that doesn't even properly detect your wireless keyboard and has no support.
deal?
no deal! actually i wouldn't call it a joke so much as a snippy comment. i used the term "joke" loosely in my next post cause the other guy called it so. and quite frankly i don't care if you're amused.
but i'd like to thank you for proving my point
Actually bo, i think you proved prokanda's point.
@Prokanda
1) Most of MS's products do NOT "mostly work well".
"the only people that complain about MS are either A) Cheap, B) not into tech (i.e. macs) or C) have some under-dog holier-than-thou complex about having an OS by a big corporation (i.e. penguin fans)."
Thats total bullshit. I am neither cheap nor have any intrinsic bias about large corporations.
Now about the "Not into tech"... That would be me if you disclude the 15 years of experience as an avid computer/tech "enthusiast", 5 years of admin'ing Windows and *nix servers, and about 3 developing web and traditional applications. I have run every version of windows back to 3.11, and have used many distros of linux, the BSDs, and Mac OS 9/OSX.
And boy do I critize Microsoft.. and really fucking hate clueless fanboys. Many other people do as well. Why you ask? Because they routinely show their incompetence in a field they should be experts in. Because of their better success with the developer and corporate market, it seems that they completely take advantage of their home/consumer customers and put out shitty products at high prices. Anyone that's been around windows versions as long as I have know the unreal amount of time spent troubleshooting various problems with every version.
I have just become so sick of it that I am moving to *nix and OSX fulltime and never looking back. As witnessed by the continous fanboy screeching about the issues, I'd have to wager that those who are "cheap" are actually the ones driven from Apple products, and not too them.
At the same time, an appreciable chunk of recent Mac converts are enthusiasts, IT pros, developers, and other technically inclined who are just sick of Windows and "seeing the light".
Just because OSX makes day-to-day functions and operations much easier than the nightmare of windows for common folk does not imply that the underlining system is something less advanced in either capability or operation. I would take anything with *nix underpinnings over anything MS churned out in a heartbeat.
There are plenty of people who love all things MS and can't wait for the next Vista update. Are they somehow unintelligent, not technical, cheap, left-handed, or any other non-sense? No, they simply prefer a different way to do things. That's just fine with me.
Good. There is a reason why MS hasn't released this to consumers yet.
I do hope they fix that "Calculating Time Remaining" thing on file copying and moving. It is so damn long!
Yep, it's fixed.
Got an "unbootable loop" on 20th after a normal & official Windows Update (so caught this SP1 "pre-requiste" update in the process, even if I was not updating to SP1), spend the 21th evening to restore my laptop. Thanks MS to challenge my Zen attitude once more ;-)
Word to Microsoft: Square One.
(Okay. That was two words.)
Oh for christ's sake are they ever going to get this right or are we just going to keep hearing about sp1 for another year. :rolleyes: I am not touching Vista until this shit gets fixed.
Thats the idea of a Release Candidate.
SP != RC
i believe it's W-ringer
Anyone here who can help with the disgusting Vista bug I'm suffering from? Weirdly enough my laptop doesn't recognize flash drives and memory cards. It's like I'm rocking Win 95 or something. My laptop mysteriously doesn't seem to have the drivers for plug-and-play drives!
32-bit: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=51F0EF25-280B-4613-A600-C61224BACD1C&displaylang=en
64-bit:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=1FD9BBC8-624E-442D-A36A-169C4B942BEF&displaylang=en
It's what happens when the driver store gets corrputed somehow, will also be fixed when SP1 finally comes out.
This can also happen if you have Nero installed. Nero causes a problem and hoses up the detection of storage devices. For once, this isn't a vista problem 100% of the time. We just bashed our heads against the wall looking for a solution to that problem.
ok i want to know why this guy was down ranked? all he did was ask a question, i admit it probably isnt the perfect spot for it but it has some relevance, and its not like he was even flaming anyone. what gives?
MS just can't win with Vista can they? Just like I tell my boss Go Mac!
Lol! This is just ridiculous.
Do you know how many people are switching to Mac or coming back to XP because of Vista? This is not going to help.
Now it's set, I'm staying with my mac...better live with bugs on a good OS than on a bad OS where the update to fix the bug screw up the buggy system ;-)
I don't know if I should thank these people for showing-up the problem, or laugh at them for trying to beat Microsoft by obtaining the update in a, shall I say, unofficial manner.
I'm sporting the RC1 of SP1 and have no problems. update went fine.
look, i'm not saying MS does not have problems, but let's face it, if you run out to get a beta version (or any version before the official release) you should not be complaining too loudly if you end up having to restore your system.
'Specifically, the SP1 update process took it upon itself to automatically a prerequisite '
automatically what? there is a word missing.
My co-worker was telling me about that on Monday.
He said that he updated his Vista laptop on Saturday and spent all day Sunday reinstalling Windows and programs because the System Restore point trick didn't work. He lost everything he had in that laptop...but he had some files backed up.
Way to go, Microhard!
If he had partitioned his HDD into a Boot and a Data, he could have wiped the Boot partition and installed a fresh copy of Vista without losing a file on his Data. I did that a few weeks ago when I decided to replace my Home Premium x86 with Business x64, and it was a simple case of just telling vista to use the Data partition to find Documents instead of the default on C:.
That's a sweet idea! I'll suggest it to him.
Thanks, mattclarkie!
Your co-worker is a retard. Who installs a buggy release candidate for a service pack on a machine with important data, without backing up or moving it? He deserved it that naive son of a bitch. Wait people. This hasn’t even been released yet damn.
Ive been doing the same thing for a while but i got this one annoyance with Vista in that regard; maybe you can help me out. If i create a link to my data partition (E:) on the start menu and then click on it, it takes me to "My account name"\e. How can I get Vista to take me to M Computer\e? hope that makes sense
Can I just say, when MS announced that SP1 was to be sent to manufacture I said I would wait a few days after the official release to see if any issues arose because I had a Vista update corrupt some files a few weeks ago. A bunch of twats said it was my own fault, something like Problem Infront Of Computer.
Well it seems like MS regularly have issues with updates, I am not saying that MS is bad, but they do have issues, so to all those twats I say. I hope you downloaded SP1 and had this issue.
This is outrageous. I have a brand new Toshiba notebook with Vista and fails booting at least once per day giving a blue screen of death. This company sucks.
More than likely it's toshiba's fault, or lack of technical knowledge on your part. I have had my laptop for about 7 months, and haven't had a single problem with vista. Granted I got mine from cyber power, so I had no bloat ware to deal with. Big companies fill there pc's with bloatware which consitantly causes problems.
Oh yes ? I work in IT for more than 10 years, and this started after the update two weeks ago. If you love them, go to Redmond.
lol!
"IF YOU LOVE THEM SO MUCH WHY DON'T YOU MARRY THEM?"
Hey we've got 'presidential proof' that you don't need to know ANYTHING about your job to hold it for close to a decade!
I kid. But honestly Vista is bloated by nature. And 3rd party divers and software have been known to break it. I would either play detective and give google a try or get your hands on a different OS.
Bottom line: If you have problems answers are out there if you search diligently and post reasonable questions. But save the venting for your shrink.
Toshiba or Microsoft? Im guessing Toshiba or 3rd party has a bad device driver as that is what causes blue screen of death 99.9% of the time. Microsoft gets blamed as its their operating system and the user thinks it crashed but is almost always the device drivers that fail causing the operating system to present the blue screen of death.
WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU MICROSOFT
My dad had that problem. He ended up losing a lot of his work documents but luckily most of them were saved on his Gmail account. I'm so sick of Windows at the moment... So sick that I bought a Mac yesterday just because I couldn't deal with their poor products.
No you didn't. You probably bought your Mac months (or years) ago.
Ok, do you want to see the receipt the Apple Store sent me at purchase, smart ass?
I love when early adopters whine. lol.
me..2 I love when early adopters whine ALOT! -- they're more like what you call PUBLIC RC testers...for the whole public. If some of the early adopters had been smart enough to backup their data or have the appropriate tools, they woulda been able to recover their data back..
@Casey -- M$ just cost you a fortune to buy a MAC. I'm sure you didn't buy MBA ..unless el-jobso just hired your daddy...lol Goodluck switching to MAC. I swear you'll smash that mac on the wall soon and report it on giz or engadget..lol :D
They're not even early adopters or testers - they're ppl who've illegally download SP1 off "unauthorized sources". Just got my copy off MSDN a couple of days ago, no probs here, Vista is super-speedy.
And to all the ppl put off by the Vista bitchers, remember, the same ppl were saying the exact same thing about XP many years ago, and swore they would stick to Win98 for "better performance".
This bug is fixed in the Vista SP1 RTM that was posted on th Microsoft Connect site. I've had it for a week now without issue. But I still use XP 99% of the time due to "other porblems".
I don't think I'll ever change over to Vista and get rid of XP. I just hope the next OS is better.
Don't blame Microsoft when their newest Servic Pack crashes when you downloaded it illegally. That just doesn't make any sense. Good thing some of us are waiting for the actual thing, so we can get it legally. ;)
I failed to mention that my Dad was experiencing those same problems without even downloading SP1 and I felt the need to rant about that since the situations are slightly related. I'm pretty sure he could even care less about the SP... I just know he experienced the same rebooting issues after an automatic update. Sorry for the miscommunication.
i know theres a lot of vista hate but i hope everyone remembers that this exact same thing happened when people tried to update to sp2 in xp.
Thank you! Finally I've found someone who thinks the same way as me and Paul Thurrott. Vista IS the most secure and reliable OS ever made, I've never had a bluescreen on all three of my computers since November 2006. As long as you have recent hardware with good drivers, there's no problem.
One one: BETA
If its not officially released yet and you go out of your way to get it and it jacks your system up to no end, who do you have to blame?
Why do you think one of the first things noted in BETA software is to not install on production or mission critial systems.
If this was the offical launched SP1 causing this problem then you have all the right in the world to rip Microsoft a new one, I would be right there with you.
When the Service Pack need its own Service Pack you know there are problems.
Freakin microsoft, I bet they did this on purpose..
No Comment yet...
Guys, get your shit together for a second and calm down.
SP1 is still a release candidate, NOTHING IN A RELEASE CANDIDATE IS FINAL.
A release candidate is simply a beta version that users can get if they want to, bugs should be expected. In fact, if you don't expect to see a bug or two at least, you shouldn't get a release candidate of anything.
Cut Microsoft some slack, they're working. What are you doing? Sitting in front of your computer and yelling at Microsoft for not working hard enough, fast enough. I don't see you coding any of the OS.
You don't see us coding the OS? Maybe if it was open source... oh yeah, that's why we have a right to bitch!
If you want open source, get Linux and quit your bitchin'. Nobody's pulling your arm to use Vista.
Why should we code the OS ???
Aren't they well paid to do that ????
Bill Gates is poor enough ?
He needs our help ???
All of you MS bashers need to realize that the SP hasn't been officially released yet. These people that are having this problem are getting these SPs from, shall we say, "less than official" places. If you're going to get a pre-release version of an update, you should expect problems and stop whining like a little b*tch.
I have SP1 and my system went into all kind of weird things this morning. Lost most of my system shortcuts on the start menu. Most programs disappeared from the all programs menu. MS Word acted weird. Finally did a system restore and most things are working again but it still very flaky. Internet is slow, hard to get browser working. Antivirus lost its license asking me to reinstall it.
I didn't even know about an update or if I got it.
I have SP1 through work as we get it since we are a manufacture.
here is a video of why microsoft rules check it out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNV-jOmpNuw
I have never witnessed a Windows, OS 7.5-X, Solaris, AIX, etc... update corrupt a partition. What that means for all of you saying that you had to reinstall the OS and lost all of your files, is that all of your data files WERE still there until you reformatted or the restore disk reformatted for you. Chances are you may have been able to boot in safe mode and copied things onto a usb drive. Maybe try calling a professional or even the geek squad when something like this happens. A data recovery company like Vectracore or Ontrack can recover most files even a format if you REALLY REALLY need the data. Don't forget to set a few grand aside first.
yeah or even take the hdd out and hook it up to another comp
That's what you get for downloading service packs off torrents. Come on people... it's one thing to download games or porn, but when it comes to a major update to an already finicky operating system you really should get it from the source, at least then you could sue them if your computer crashes as a result of it.
I haven't done the whole SP1 thing, yet. I figured I'd wait until MS officially released it to me via update. I did get the prereq file a couple of days ago and there haven't been any issues with for me. My system is stable as a rock.
Looks like those who installed from torrents got the prereq file after updating and it hosed them. If you got it from MSDN legally, my guess is that that download has all of the prereq files necessary to install SP1 properly. I don't understand why anyone would download a critical system update from a torrent file and then claim MS F***ed their system. Puhlease. You were told that there were some files coming down that were necessary to install it properly. You didn't pay attention, you paid the price.
Yeah I was one of those that got stucked on the endeless boot. I was one of the lucky ones that got out of it by using my Vista CD and using a restore point.
look at all these people getting angry at MS when this is clearly not their fault. i fully blame engadget for their ongoing posts of MS bashing. this post has no basis besides getting people to rally against MS.
Vista works great as long as you aren't a moron. It's expected that all the linux and mac fanboys pile on, especially when OVERDRAMATIZED like Engadget does best.
Ya been there!!!!! Screw MS!!!!! I'm still not able to do a re-start or I get the blue screen of death. Thanks MS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Not ture...I got my beta version directly from MS.....so it wasn't just those who downloaded from torrents.
bottom line ms is really sucks just face it i used it for years delt with all the crap that comes with it finely started using a mac and i will never look back you could not pay me to take a ms based computer there is so many other options to use other than ms it is just that you are brain washed into using it and this is just one example
to why they suck
we are a .edu and got the sp1 update from our msdn site and installed it on 6 machines so far and we haven't had one problem. It definitely fixed that copying speed problem. I haven't noticed anything else, good or bad yet.
hmmm. Again, why don't macs have these sort of problems?
I love how nowhere in the article does it mention that SP1 isn't out yet.
It's a RC. That means release *candidate*. That means it's not ready for release yet so install at your own risk. :P
Get your facts straight engadget. For shame.
I'd like to take a little poll - everyone complains mostly about Vista's performance, but over the past year that hasn't been such a big issue for me, as I have beefy machines.
However, the bug I hear less about which affects 3 different laptops I have had Vista on is WIRELESS ISSUES that have never affected XP running on the same machines.
-Most commonly and most frustratingly, lists the connection as 'Local Only' and seems to forget the gateway IP - sometimes you can even set a gateway IP manually in a wired network connection and when you check it - the entry is gone.
-Drops conections for no apparant reason
-Stops being able to reconnect to AP's it was just connected to with a great signal
-Has connection problems when confronted with multiple strong signals from different APs
-Often refers to APs it is connected to with an SSID of a different AP.
-Fails to connect via WPA on an AP which it connected to with WEP or no security
Anyone else?
There's obviously been some confusion here. microsoft haven't released SP1 yet. However they have released the prerequisite updates which will allow SP1 to be installed on your puter when SP1 is released. They released these files via their autoupdate system.
One of the updates has caused puters to go into an endless reboot. I was hit with this 6 days ago. Now, the important bit.
I HAVE NOT DOWNLOADED AND INSTALLED ANY VERSION OF SP1. SP1 IS NOT ON MY PUTER.
My puter got stuck in the reboot loop and wouldn't boot into Vista at all. A boot into safe mode was impossible since, being stuck in this loop meant that the puter would not respond to anything and the initial boot screen was being bypassed. My only option was a hard reboot so I could then boot into safe mode - same loop again. On the fifth attempt I finally got into safe mode and tried system restore. I had to go back 10 days before I could find a restore point that worked. Then I turned off automatic updates.
The result of all this? Trashed drivers including the keyboard driver, trashed file system. DVD drive no longer recognised so can't boot from recovery disc or even try to repair. My problems are nothing compared to some out there.
The vast majority of people who are experiencing problems don't have SP1 either - they just had autoupdate switched on, as recommended by Microsoft.
Microsoft went as far as to withdraw the problem update three days ago and they still don't know why this has happened.
Can I reiterate that this is not a problem with SP1 which is still at the RC stage, but with the released verions of the files reqired to install SP1 when it is finally rolled out mid-March.
Why have so many of you jumped to the conclusion that the problems have been caused by people installing the beta vesion? A quick google search for "Stage 3 of 3" will reveal just how widespread the problem is and it's down to official Microsoft updates distributed by the automatic update system.