I’ve got a strange issue. I previously had this working, but it has recently stopped. I can install Service Pack 2 for Windows XP on my old computer, but I cannot properly utilize it. Once it is installed, after the reboot, trying to run program installers does not work. I tried the Service Pack installer in a VM, and it has proven to work with no issue. From this, I assume it’s something to do with the computer. I have completely reinstalled the OS multiple times using the reset discs with the same result. I can’t figure this one out.
If it is a hardware issue, I’m not sure what it is, or what it would be.
Why not just run SP3? Or the real question, why XP in the first place? I assume some kind of retro build?
What I would do is get an ISO for XP with SP2 baked in, and install from that. I remember installing all the updates and updating to SP2 was always a pain and often had issues. If you get an XP SP2 ISO, should be no problems
I had it working previously, but I don’t know why it stopped. It it helps to any degree, I tried the same reset discs on the same model computer with a different CPU, and the result was the same.
It’s basically the first PC I ever got. It’s just the software it came with. I have tested with Windows Vista, and 7. Vista stopped with the updates, and sound did not work under 7. I do not have the funds to buy a DVD to install Vista or 7 off of it again right now.
I think this is a good idea from narrowing it down to a hardware issue or not.
Managed to get one, chose the upgrade option, and it worked. I’m thinking maybe it’s something to do with the reset discs. I will try and burn some new ones.
I know you just had a success and I congratulate you on fixing your problem. But I’m going to be honest here. You’re splitting hairs with SP3 versus SP2. Sp2 overall was good but SP3 increase the stability of Windows XP greatly and Microsoft did this as an end of life gift to the operating system. So if anybody’s going to run XP these days, you should probably run SP3. It doesn’t hurt anything to upgrade to it and it doesn’t invalidate older hardware not software.
I would know. It was the last windows OS I liked and ran in a non dual boot situation. While Linux is my daily. I still appreciate what once was
In your situation, it also might be a good idea to just make images of it. Make a image that restores your working operating system and also turn on system restore and make sure that you’re making those checkpoints very very frequently. It’s actually a useful tool even that far back and it allows you to kind of roll back the operating system in case you screw up. A lot of people back in the day turned it off because they thought it wasn’t worth the extra resources. Well I reply with resources are cheap. Time is not
I have never ever had this happen before.
I assume it’s because my computer had so much heat, it affected the discs, or that they wore through use that quickly.
Regardless, I found out what the problem was.
This is CRAZY.
This should also go to show how much harder it was to deal with computers back then. Ridiculous.
still is. Believe it or not. Thats why you still see the test media button on most ISOs even if installed on USBs. They can go wrong. With optical discs its usually a circular scratch that does it. Verticals and horizontals can be code corrected
