Reporting Bugs to Microsoft - they don't even charge you for it!

Installing Service Packs - Some nightmares and some precautions....

Known Problems (and workarounds) with Service Pack 2

Specific Problems reported by some people - unverified

Date:    Sat, 21 Dec 1996 11:06:06 -0600
From:    Dan Miller <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: SP2

ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/bussys/winnt/winnt-public/BUGREP.TXT

This is a Bug Report form. You can fill this out and submit it. Also, if you want to see a Sample Bug Report filled out, go to the same address and get SAMPBUG.TXT.

BTW, I had to back out SP2 last nite when I couldn't connect to my ISP anymore.

Installing Service Packs - Some nightmares and some precautions....

As we all know from recent experience Microsoft now formally tests it's service packs prior to release - this was because of some very major problems with Service Pack 2 in fact it hosed quite a few systems...

At 02:55 PM 12/24/96 -0600, David Stavert sent a message saying:

I always install service packs on machines that have at least 2 versions of NT running so that I can boot up to get to the backup or to copy files manually. To me, this is the safest way to do services packs.

Date:    Tue, 24 Dec 1996 16:09:08 -0700
From:    Daniel Allen <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: NT4 SP2 OK problems

I agree. This is an excellent practice for those that are in the business of installing operating systems. It should be remembered that not everyone is in this business. A large number of people simply are not in the position of having extra hardware laying around. They are running NT at home or in small offices. Maybe they were running Windows 3.x and made the wise decision to skip DOS 7.0 for an actual multitasking OS. I guess the best tack for these people is to keep an eye on the lists.

Known Problems (and workarounds) with Service Pack 2

Date: 16 Jan 1997 04:32:46 GMT
From: [email protected] (John Hind)
Subject: Re: Problem with RAS

You may want the RAS post SP2 HOT fix (see 1) and the Kernel post SP2 HOT fix (4):

The current SP2 problems I know of (and work-arounds) are:

1) PPP -> you can get ppp errors when accessing Ascend 'modems' banks (and a few other PPP buggy implementations) after applying SP2. The fix is to apply the recently posted post-sp2 "hot fix" for RAS on the Microsoft FTP site (RAS40I.EXE for Intel processor) OR to disable multilink in the registry as follows:

A new value must be added (it doesn't exist) under the PPP key (although PPP has subkeys it also has values):

LocalMachine/System/CurrentControlSet/Services/rasman/ppp

Add new DWORD value ; DisalbleMultiLink : 1

REBOOT for the fix to take effect!

**NOTE** you may also need to disable (OFF) LCP EXTENSIONS IN EIGHER CASE!!

2) RAS server service on an NT WORKSTATION will not allow dial-in connections after SP2 installed (no problem on an NT Server). No firm work around, sometimes the following seems to work:

Un-install the RAS service, then (after a boot) reinstall it from the original CDROM, then re-apply SP2 (no uninstall this time), THEN RE-APPLY SP2 AGAIN (no uninstall directory on this THIRD application of SP2)!!!

3) NTFS.SYS errors -> this _appears_ to be caused when decompressing (i.e. installing) the SP on a machine which does not have SP1 installed and is under heavy load. Work-around is to INSTALL SP1 before SP2 AND to STOP ALL OTHER LOAD on the system while decompressing/installing sp2 (e.g. TURN OFF NETWORK load especially on a server, use a local disk for decompress and install of SP2!!).

4) "blue screen" Stops, floppy formatting problems, and recovery disk creation problems when running some resident AntiVirus tools - turn these off (de-install) until you get a fix from your AV provider (BEFORE SP2 install).

Date:    Sun, 22 Dec 1996 08:48:10 -0600
From:    "Teska, Lynn C." <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: NT 4.0 SP2 plus Mcafee Netshield for NT=BSOD

I had BSOD errors with McAfee Virus scanner for NT installed on NT4 SP(None). They too went away when McAfee was removed. Maybe it's not MS this time??

Get the kernel post SP2 hot fix from the MS FTP site (KRNL40I.EXE for Intel).

5) There are some other problems mentioned in a few USENET postings including ROUTE.EXE not working, and a couple of reports on Explorer hangs. Microsoft has not been able to reproduce these yet.

Specific Problems reported by some people - unverified

From:   Kenneth Smith[SMTP:[email protected]]
Sent:   Thursday, December 19, 1996 6:40 PM
Subject:FYI . . . problems with NT 4.0 SP2

Well, I had my first bit of bad luck with a service pack. I applied SP2 to my desktop this afternoon, and promptly received a BSOD upon reboot, with the message "INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE". After a bit of troubleshooting, I narrowed it down to the atapi.sys device driver, replaced it with the one from my original CD, and was able to get back into NT. Apparently the new IDE driver doesn't like my CD-ROM. Let's hear it for FAT boot partitions, eh?

Just a word to the wise :-).

Disclaimer

Copyright Notice © 1996

Windows NT 4 (WinNT-L) FAQ © 1996 PERMISSION:

Permission is granted freely to distribute this article in electronic form as long as it is posted in its entirety including this copyright statement. This article may not be distributed for financial gain. This article may not be included in any commerical collections or compilations without the express permision of the author, Hans Klarenbeek([email protected])