XP SP2: Lock up or Will Not Boot after SP2 Install on Prescott

Contributed by davak

September 17, 2004

Tagged: Windows installation

Service Pack 2 will cause some systems with the early version of the prescott chip to lock up.

You install SP2 on your prescott. Everything goes great… until you reboot. And then it hangs. You can’t safe boot, you can’t restore, you can’t do anything. You lock up every single time.

If your bios does not update prescott’s microcode to Revision 8 or better, you will see the error.

You can test for it beforehand by checking what your microcode revision is with this intel utility:

http://support.intel.com/support/processors/tools/frequencyid/sb/CS-007623.htm

If you have a current locking system, here’s the two things you can do:

Disable Cache in Your Bios

Disable your Level 1 and Level 2 cache

See this recipe for further uninstall details.

Rename Update.Sys

boot to a seperate OS

%windir%\system32\drivers\update.sys

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Viewing 10 Comments

MikeyP 4 years ago 1 point
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Thank you VERY much for posting this. Luckily for me, I have a second computer (linux!) and a Win98 boot disk, which allowed me to download the latest P4C800-E bios and update it via DOS.

Thanks again!
-Mike

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KevinF 4 years ago 1 point
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I updated my bios to the latest one from asus, but when I run the intel untility it says CPU revion 7 still? can I install SP2? or will I still error out?

thanks,

Kevin

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MickeyMouse 4 years ago 1 point
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<ul id="quote"><h6>KevinF wrote:</h6>I updated my bios to the latest one from asus, but when I run the intel untility it says CPU revion 7 still? can I install SP2? or will I still error out?

thanks,

Kevin</ul>

I would be worried about it... Does the bios update say anything about SP2 compatability?

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Anonymous 4 years ago 1 point
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Went through the suggestions at Microsoft to regain control from the endless boot horror. All very good except the uninstall would not uninstall - took all night to decide to tell me that the file didn't exist, whaterver that means. Eventually I found this . . .

<font color="darkblue">Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to start Task Manager.
Click File, and then click New Task (Run...).
In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.
Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetServicesRpcSs

On the right side of the viewing pane, right-click ObjectName, click Modify, type LocalSystem in the Value data box, and then click OK.
Restart your computer
Use one of the previous methods to remove Windows XP SP2 from your computer.</font>

Thank God, it gave me back a normally responding computer after reboot and the subsequent uninstall of SP2 proceeded quickly without a problem.

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KG 4 years ago 1 point
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:D After 2 days of troubleshooting and isolating the issue to the motherboard (everything else was removed and multiple reloads) then 2 more days waiting on a response from a motherboard manufacturer about a similar lockup issue, I found this thread. Renaming the update.sys file was a perfect solution and the machine has now been reloaded and is back to working. Thanks for sharing :P

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Guest 4 years ago 1 point
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Thanks for the post. I was beginning to lose hope of getting SP2 to work. But I have a question:

I have the P4P800 Deluxe (not 'E'), with Intel P4 2.8E CPU, and I updated the BIOS to the latest from the ASUS web site. When I run the Intel utility, it says that I have:

CPU Stepping: 3
CPU Revision: B

I was expecting to see a number for the revision. Is the 'Stepping' the number you are referring to (that needs to be 8 or higher)?

Thanks,

Nathan

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davak 4 years ago 1 point
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I am assuming that "CPU Revision: B" is in hex...

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hanzb35 4 years ago 1 point
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When your system is booting, enter your bios screen. Disable your Level 1 and Level 2 cache and save

I am in the bios, do not know how to turnoff cache.

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gtullos 4 years ago 1 point
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Not sure how all of this works, but thank you. Being the novice that I am, I would never have known to disable L2 Cache in order to load Windows XP SP2. I'm glad someone put this info on the internet. I have had this problem on two computers; because I was testing it to see if there was a hardware problem. No problem. Need to disable L2 Cache. Thanks again.

Gordon

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adrive 4 years ago 1 point
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guys..

I managed to update my bios to 1019 but my windows xp sp2 keeps on locking up when i try to copy files that are too big. What's going on??
Before sp2, i used sp1 and when i tried copying files that are too big, i get a kernel_data_inpage error and a blue screen stating atapi.sys something.

I'm using P4P800 with a Pentium4 2.8E Ghz processor and 512DDR, with 80Gig HDD.

Please help.

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