Microsoft fixes Vista SP1 update problems, not soon enough for some
By Donald Melanson 
posted February 20th 2008 1:35PM
posted February 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.
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.