# Windows Upgrade Ruins PC? Help! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 5, 2004, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-upgrade-ruins-pc-help/267705 "2004-10-05T19:17:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-upgrade-ruins-pc-help/267705/1 "2004-10-05T19:17:40Z")
Emergency! I just downloaded a Windows upgrade (patch?) for XP. I can’t recall the name of the upgrade. It was something like “Systems Patch 2” or “Patch System 2”. (How can I find out?) Anyway, it advised me to back up before installing. Well, luckily, I did. Now, after downloading the upgrade and rebooting, the PC won’t reboot! What the hell has Microsoft done to me? You mean, they don’t even know if their upgrades (or patches) are any damn good? I can’t even boot up in safe mode of Windows or safe mode to the DOS prompt! Am I screwed? Can anyone help me diagnose this problem? And, is this a known problem with this XP upgrade? Please help! This is brand new machine, too! And, I really don’t feel like going through a reformatting of the hard drive! - Jinx ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-upgrade-ruins-pc-help/267705/2 "2004-10-05T19:20:54Z")
No immediate help for you–I’ll poke around later–but you’re probably referring to “Service Pack 2”. Hopefully, that will help you search out your own solution for now. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-upgrade-ruins-pc-help/267705/3 "2004-10-05T19:23:41Z")
Do you have any reason to believe the download of the service pack was interrupted? That happened to me, but it still installed it anyway, preventing my PC from booting. I was unable to fix it without reformatting and re-installing Windows. ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-upgrade-ruins-pc-help/267705/4 "2004-10-05T19:23:55Z")
> [@Q.E.D.](#): > > No immediate help for you–I’ll poke around later–but you’re probably referring to “Service Pack 2”. Hopefully, that will help you search out your own solution for now. Yeah, that sounds right. Thanks, Q.E.D. That’ll give me something to go on. I’ll check back here later today…as I ask around, too. Thanks! - Jinx ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-upgrade-ruins-pc-help/267705/5 "2004-10-05T20:30:04Z")
> [@Jinx](#): > > And, is this a known problem with this XP upgrade? Our neighbors recently installed Service Pack 2 on a laptop and lost their internet service. They had to call Microsoft to fix the problem. Make of that what you will. I assume you have an XP install disc, have you tried booting off that? You might want to go into BIOS to make sure you can boot off a CD-ROM. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-upgrade-ruins-pc-help/267705/6 "2004-10-05T21:47:48Z")
Remove all your USB peripherals and see if the unit starts up. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-upgrade-ruins-pc-help/267705/7 "2004-10-05T22:06:07Z")
Same thing happened to me last week… apparently, I had a trojan, somewhere on the system, and the mix of the trojan and upgrade were not compatible. I had to take it somewhere and get it fixed. ---
**Author:** ![Rusalka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecd19e/32.png) [@Rusalka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rusalka)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-upgrade-ruins-pc-help/267705/8 "2004-10-05T22:43:23Z")
In my case, the upgrade messed up the login on the computer where it wasn’t installed, and I cannot use the internet on that login. Anyone know how to fix this? In general I’ve had problems with the installation on one login not working on another. Both logins have installation privileges. ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-upgrade-ruins-pc-help/267705/9 "2004-10-06T04:22:01Z")
There are plenty of ways to uninstall SP2… when I got out of technical support last month there was a piece of malware called… TV Tuner? Sure why not… that was combining with SP2 to render PCs unbootable. Got lots of practice. 😉 Anyhow, firstly we’d like to get a blue-screen error message. When the PC first starts up now, the press F8 and the menu should include something like “Don’t reboot on error” or something. Choose this, then record the error message and the numerical STOP code. With this info, the MS website (or an MS technician, if you end up talking to one), should be able to tell what went wrong. You’ll likely end up [removing SP2](http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=875350) from the recovery console, but you’ll probably have to have it installed at some point, so do try to get that error code first. I didn’t get much sleep last night, I hope the above makes some sense. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![mks57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@mks57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mks57)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-upgrade-ruins-pc-help/267705/10 "2004-10-06T09:11:17Z")
I’ve read many reports of failed upgrades to Service Pack 2 that were due to the PC being infested with viruses and spyware. The service pack relies on certain assumptions about the configuration of the computer and the integrity of the files on that computer. The viruses and spyware will modify or replace critical system files and reconfigure many parts of the system. Many people don’t know that their systems are infested with this junk until it gets bad enough that their system will no longer boot.