Why SP1 may not be available for you and how to get it

[Animalzilla1]

LOL I'm almost convinced by the idea but even though I'm angry at it, I refuse to give up, It's just frustrating!

 

[SCSIraidGURU]

right ok, sop let me get this stright, Microsoft cannot make an operating system that works, even after all these years, they cannot make a service pack that works. Its their software fighting against their software.

I have wasted 6 days of my life trying to fox my pc so I can actually use it without crashing and now I have to take everything out just to install a service pack.

I don't think you realise just how angry I am at my Vista machine, If I take anything out i can pretty much gaurentee its not going to work nothing else has!

I apologise for my negative attitude but at the end of the day, this should be down to Microsoft to fix not the user.

All that said, I'll try it when I finally calm down!

99% of the problems with and OS is the interface between the chair and keyboard. I would say its your choice of hardware that is causing your issues. Vista x64 Ultimate SP1 installed in 18 minutes. I still believe that computer licenses are needed just like drivers licenses. Unfortunately, Microsoft can't fix the enduser or reboot them.

My suggestion is go back to XP, if you are that unhappy and don't have the skill level to resolve your errors. Did you bother to clear out the event viewer and reboot so you only get the errors from a restart. You then start with the first error and solve it. Do you have Vista compliant hardware? Is it overclocked? If O/Ced, reset the BIOS to default. Did you remove all non-essential hardware to do a barebones install? Have you downloaded memtest86 CD ISO and ran it on each stick of RAM one at a time.

 

[Animalzilla1]

SCSIraidGURU,

As usual people like yourself are probably right, I must be the problem there is no doubt about it.
It's my choice of hardware that has caused all this, It's my inability to look at the time it takes to install SP1 and note it down on here so everyone can see how much of an idiot I am. It's my fault I do not have the time to study every single aspect of computer building and programming to include every program ever written by a comapny, of which I must check their work just in case it's not quite compatable with Vista.
It's my fault I forgot to mention I formatted the hard drive and tried to install SP1 straight from a fresh install of Vista before loading ANYTHING on the system which cleared the event viewer which then said nothing of any errors. It's my fault I didn't notice that Vista X64 comes with it's own MEMtest and didn't use it, but instead I downloaded a copy, which because of my limited experience cost me several minutes of my precious studying time. It's my fault I didn't check to see if any of my hardware was vista compliant, even though my system was pre built by a PC professional, for which I have a receipt!
Again I am shamed at my lack of brains, because I did a full BIOS Flash with the latest BIOS stright from ASUS support and forgot to mention it, oh and also forgot to mention I reset the BIOS each time before attempting an install.

Oh wait a minute, what's that? OOOOOO it's another error on my part! Why should I as the end user of a pre built machine, with software provided by Microsoft have to do all this just to stop the system from crashing when it should have been a stable system in the first place.

But you're correct, it really is my fault.

 

[SCSIraidGURU]

I have been doing this 25 years. I started with Apple 2C and IBM XT. I have seen every version of DOS and Windows, OS/2, and Linux. I learned to start with a barebones install. I check voltages with a multimeter. Make sure all the hardware is up to date. I am doing 6 HP Proliant servers in a new domain install. First thing I download is the firmware ISO CD and latest SmartStart along with the service packs for every OS and server app.

I found memtest86 ISO CD does a better job than built in one in Vista. It is a simple download and burn image.

Don't overclock. Start with a single stick of RAM for the install.

I would start with the latest BIOS rev. Reset the BIOS to default mode. Strip it down to bare bones hardware. Download memtest and test each stick one at a time. If you are using mismatched RAM, put the largest size in first slots. I ran into this over the weekend. A computer had 2 x 256 and 2 x 512. The 256 were first and errored out constantly. I swapped them. No problems since.

Make sure you have the latest hard drive or raid drivers to install into Vista.

 

[Animalzilla1]

I have done exactly as you say and it's still not working, I even uninstalled norton 360

I did manage to get an error code this time though
0X800F0826

 

[Animalzilla1]

Oh and I forgot to mention, its now stolen my NIC card drivers and I cant access the internet with it ( This is my XP Machine I'm using now )

 

[SCSIraidGURU]

Can you remove the NIC from the computer or is it onboard? Disable it (on-board) or completely remove it (slotted). Restart. Remove it from device manager. restart. Make sure its completely removed from OS. Restart. and reinstall it. If its slotted, put it in another slot.

 

[Animalzilla1]

Solved it with a system restore, it would not let me remove it at all, I tried several times to uninstall/disable it, it just sat there doing nothing.

Its now restored by 2 days so it's working again.

Now I just have to go through every single error code and failed update to try and get this damn SP1 installed!

 

[SCSIraidGURU]

Did you get updated chipset drivers for your motherboard?

 

[Animalzilla1]

Yeah, the restore put them back to the updated drivers, straight from nVidia.
I think I'm just going to see how many of these errors i can correct before trying SP1 again, it takes nearly 2 hours to install, fail and restore settings.

I do have one question which microfost failed to answer,
Upon looking in to some of my errors on Vista, I see that .DLL files are mentioned, I've tried replacing them with new ones but I'm not allowed access to the System32 folder. I have changed the permissions, even though I'm already the Admin on this pc and it just will not let me write to the folder, any ideas?

 

[Animalzilla1]

Ok, this is getting silly, I'm putting the error codes in to the Microsoft help and suooprt search bar and it comes back with completely different codes to what I'm typing in, which are totally un related ot my codes. Am I looking in the wrong places?

 

[SCSIraidGURU]

Can you take ownership of the entire C: drive?

 

[Animalzilla1]

It seems the answer is No, Access is denied for taking full controll over the C: Drive because thins like c:/Boot is restricted, it wont allow me to allow myself access over the C

 

[SCSIraidGURU]

Disable UAC and reboot, then try taking ownership.

 

[Animalzilla1]

UAC is already disabled. I'm having a mare

 

[SCSIraidGURU]

Try enabling the administrator account, set its password, reboot and use it.

 

[Animalzilla1]

I;ll give it a go, I've just installed the windows update rediness tool, but cant seem to find the damn thing to use it

 

[SCSIraidGURU]

Personally, I would backup the data and start with a blank drive and reinstall the base product and immediately do SP1. You could buy a media kit from Microsoft that has Vista SP1 combined together.

You could create a new account with admin rights and try it.

 

[Animalzilla1]

Right, Ive re-installed several times, but I'll give it one last try,My Ultimate CD is a System builders ( OEM ) Copy. What tips would you suggest, maybe there is something I have not tried yet when doing a clean install from a Format.

 

[SCSIraidGURU]

OEM? This could be the problem. Was it the OEM for that exact computer? OEM CDs are designed to installed on a certain computer with certain drivers pre-loaded on the CD. It strips off the other stuff not needed because its not on that computer. The retail version has everything that you would need. It can detect hardware and lay down the proper drivers.