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kylake · #1 Post by **kylake** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 8:06 pm

Hello, and greeting to all on this forum. I am new to the forum and new to IBM Thinkpad. I have just bought my first laptop....I have been using computers since 1996....a newbie.
My question is should load SP2? I went to the IBM thinkpad website and it said I should load all the driver updates before installing. There must have been a blue million driver updates listed with no help in which ones that I specifcally need.
So, I call the IBM tech support and was told not to load SP2........."if it ain't broke don't fix it" was the exact quote.
I want to use Windows Moviemaker and it only comes with the SP2 download.
So, What do I do? Load or not load SP2?
I am sure that some people in this forum have knowledge of this issue...or non-issue.

I have an IBM Thinkpad R51-2883xx running XP pro, 1.5 pent centrino, 256ram that I will upgrade soon to 512 or 768 if I can drop a 512 into the slot on the bottom of the laptop without changing the ram under the keyboard.

d lehmann · #2 Post by **d lehmann** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 9:06 pm

Sp2 is supposed to be much more secure for online. I use a r40 centrino and a r40 celeron as well as 3 desktops all with sp2 with no problems One of which is a pll400 w/256ram. Save your data first or image the disk then try it, if you don't like it, restore to factory fresh from the ibm partition.

#3 Post by **jdhurst** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 10:18 pm

There is no reason to avoid SP2. None.

When it comes to software, it is always changing, and at the 95 percent level, generally for the better. Always keep Windows, Office, and IBM Applications up-to-date.
... JD Hurst

tbu3 · #4 Post by **tbu3** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 5:59 pm

I also have a TP R51 and had concerns about installing SP2. Its also my first TP and I also consider myself a newbie. I had been using MovieMaker even before Microsoft released SP1. I only upgraded to the next version when I upgraded my OS with SP1. So I guess there ain't any need for you to install SP2 if that is your only concern.

Although generally it is advisable to install SP2 for security reasons, I feel that it may be more important for an average pc user to get the protection needed from decent anti-viral and anti-spyware/malware programs.

It may save you some time updating your TP drivers since installing SP2 requires you to do so or else you might experience some trouble.

#5 Post by **daeojkim** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 6:38 pm

If you want to do SP2 I find best if you clean install w/ SP2 to minimize any potential problems. Then reinstall all the programs that you need. That's what I did and I have had no problems due to SP2 whatsoever.

I know some people who had tons of programs windows components etc., and after upgrading to SP2 w/o clean install they ran into few conflicts and odd behaviors.

kylake · #6 Post by **kylake** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 8:24 pm

Is there an easy way to find and install the updated drivers for TP? You know something like Windows does where it scans your computer and gives a list of only what needs to be installed?

#7 Post by **daeojkim** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 9:14 pm

It's called IBM software installer.
It lists everything that you need and will tell you the verion that is already installed and will download and install it for you too.

kylake · #8 Post by **kylake** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 9:20 pm

Let me start by saying thanks for all the input. Although I have been using computers for a while now I am not sure how to do the clean install that you are suggesting. If you have the time will you please let me know how to accomplish this...clean install..........I know I need to kill the anti-virus program from running but I am at a lose on the rest of it. BTW, I live in Tennessee...........in a small town called McKinnon...near Kentucky Lake in the western part of middle TN.

#9 Post by **JaneL** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 10:36 pm

>I am not sure how to do the clean install that you are suggesting. If you have the time will you please let me know how to accomplish this...clean install
>

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=3827

#10 Post by **jdhurst** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 10:44 pm

daeojkim wrote:If you want to do SP2 I find best if you clean install w/ SP2 to minimize any potential problems. Then reinstall all the programs that you need. That's what I did and I have had no problems due to SP2 whatsoever.

I know some people who had tons of programs windows components etc., and after upgrading to SP2 w/o clean install they ran into few conflicts and odd behaviors.

That may be true, but for the most part, it is completely unnecessary to reinstall Windows to update to SP2. On ThinkPads, you *do* need to update the IBM applications and drivers, and the new software installer makes that an easier process (but do it over a wired network connection).
... JD Hurst

kylake · #11 Post by **kylake** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 6:09 am

Where is the IBM software installer located? On the IBM website?

lutami · #12 Post by **lutami** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 5:42 pm

kylake wrote:Where is the IBM software installer located? On the IBM website?

I think this page has all the info needed

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=9303

kylake · #13 Post by **kylake** » Fri Apr 01, 2005 7:38 pm

First let me say thanks to all that have helped.......but Houston I have a problem. I downloaded the installer program that IBM offers.....I downloaded all the drivers, bios and basically anything that the installer said was mandatory-recommended. On reboot after installation of all the stuff the computer wanted to do a dos looking thing for the bios....said I need to be hooked to ac with a full battery charge....did that....went through the dos utility thing.....bios I think.....said something about flash.exe.............It rebooted and everything was great. I put the laptop into sleep mode for the night and on opening the laptop up the next morning it hung.........I have done a reboot several times and it will try to start windows and always hangs at the login. I have done this about 4 times and it always hangs at login.....where I would select which person is logging in.
I am at a lose........what do I need to do........I know there is an Access IBM Recovery system......but I have only had this laptop for a couple of weeks.......I did make recovery disk. I looked at the IBM access thing but don't really know where to start. I will leave it up to the moderators of this board as to whether I need to move this topic to another area of the board like OS problem.....
Boy, am I mad at myself.......it wasn't broke and what I did broke it.

kylake · #14 Post by **kylake** » Mon Apr 04, 2005 4:45 pm

I was able to fix the problem and I can boot into XP again. But if any of you have any input on the question I asked above it will be deeply appreciated.

kylake · #15 Post by **kylake** » Thu Apr 07, 2005 5:30 pm

To the moderators......SP2 is loaded.......no problems that I know of yet.
Fixing the boot problem after the IBM updates, I used windows safe mode to reboot and used a date before the problem to restore.

I didn't want to use the IBM R&R because of it wiping everything clean and starting from scratch again.

I did everything that had been suggested by the forum and reading the MS page for install of SP2. I did update all IBM drivers......turned off anti-virus and firewall before installing SP2.

One interesting thing.....now when it boots it says Windows XP.....not the Windows XP Professional like it did before......that is curious, isn't it?

n3il · #16 Post by **n3il** » Thu Apr 07, 2005 5:36 pm

Curious... but normal

kylake · #17 Post by **kylake** » Thu Apr 07, 2005 5:39 pm

Thanks Neil for the.......just normal...input. I wondered if I had screwed something up

n3il · #18 Post by **n3il** » Thu Apr 07, 2005 5:43 pm

No problem - I still haven't been able to find out *why* Microsoft felt the need to do it!

a31pguy · #19 Post by **a31pguy** » Thu Apr 07, 2005 6:14 pm

XP SP2 is a comprehensive security patch for XP. In addition to closing some well known vulnerabilities to the internet explorer it's gives XP an applet called "Security Center" which ties in the Windows Firewall, Antivirus, and Automatic patches from Microsoft.

The reason it's problamatic is not that it's inheirently breaking things, it's that a firewall is a complex piece of software which blocks protocols. For the average user is a good thing and a bad thing - because it require configuration - which most enterprise sized companies and organizations translates into expenses for tech supprt. Most home users should not have problems - but if the firewall is turned on - your P2P apps or games may not work unless you configure the firewall to allow them.

The best way for a end-user to apply SP2 is to install it - and turn off the firewall feature until you are certain that you know what you're doing.

The alternative is that you get some nasty little spyware or adware bug that hijacks your browser, launches a million windows, and makes your computer unusable. Which a lot of users without a firewall, antispyware, and antivirus protection are finding out the hard way.

I work in Network Security and I've been running SP2 now for 6 months and don't use the firewall since I'm using ISS Blackice as my firewall. But you will need not only SP2 but all of the security hotfixes that have come out since SP2 - which you cannot install unless you have SP2. Also the new Microsoft Antispyware "beta" will not install unless you have SP2. Do yourself a favor and get SP2, turn off the firewall, get some anti-virus software, install the antispyware, and turn on the updates to run automatically. A new exploit to windows is written about every day.

Good luck!

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