Roger's Blog :: Windows Vista SP1: A Cautionary Tale

I've wasted a lot of time over the past three days installing SP1 on the two laptops that I am currently using. Well, I say laptops, they're both Sony Vaio's, but one is the VGN-AR31S. It's great, high spec machine with a full HD-compatible 17" screen (1920 x 1200 resolution) — only weighs about 6 kg — not desperately portable. Anyway, since, we're still waiting for word whether the Dublin project will restart, I figured I'd make some work-related use of the spare time.

I did my homework on the Internet and the feedback about SP1 is overwhelmingly positive. Microsoft is apparently delaying the general release of SP1 because there are some issues with drivers needing to be reinstalled after SP1 is applied. The gods of Redmond are concerned that non-technical users are not up to the job of driver reinstallation. I reckoned that I was and decided to go for it. There are copies of SP1 in the wild with sufficient information to indicate that they are legitimate (rather than virus or trojan-ridden). I tracked one down and started with the AR31S — having first installed all the latest patches on Patch Tuesday. It took a long time, but everything went smoothly; System Information told me I was using Windows Vista Ultimate Version 6.0.6001 Service Pack 1 Build 6001 and the Hardware Abstraction Layer was 6.0.6001.18000. The PC was running OK and some things were definitely faster, for instance, the display of icons on the Control Panel was noticeably — and very aggravatingly — delayed pre-SP1; it's much faster now.

Flushed with success, I moved on to machine 2: it's a VGN-SZ5VWN — much newer, so I was expecting no trouble — hubris precedes precipitation. The first attempt, using the same method as before, failed with the message that some changes could not be installed. Unfortunately, the installation routine decided to have another go before giving up entirely; predictably, this failed too, and just meant the whole performance had taken twice as long as the successful update. Never one to give up easily, I tracked down a copy of the full SP1 install package — 450-odd megs. This worked up to the final reboot after completion: the boot-up failed with a message about a corrupt driver file (ataport.sys) — aha, problems with drivers as warned — and a recommendation to boot from the original Vista installation CD to repair the corrupted files. This I did, allowing things to proceed automatically to discover some hours later that the attempt to repair corrupt files had failed and the system had rolled back to the most recent restore point prior to the installation of SP1. Hey ho!

Further web investigation revealed that it's possible to skip the automatic repair process, which gives the option to open a command window and do stuff manually. Ergo, I ran the SP1 update one... more... time; got the same error with ataport.sys. This time I booted from the CD, opened a command window and copied the file from the CD to the System32 folder. I restarted and... Whee! the logon screen appeared! Entered my password and waited... and waited... and waited... the desktop never appeared, but the disk activity light was flashing like crazy.

In fact, by this time, it was 1am; so I left the PC running and went to bed. Next morning: still no desktop, just a black screen with a cursor arrow. Hmm? More googling (actually, Live Search, but googling sounds better) came up with a forum post from a helpful fellow who had listed 8 driver files that should be copied from the CD in addition to ataport.sys. This I did and a reboot and logon eventually produced the desktop with a message that SP1 had been successfully installed. My sighs of relief were short-lived as I realised that I had no Internet connection. I found that the driver for the wireless device (an Intel Pro/Wireless 39456ABG, just like the AR31S) did not start. Tried to reinstall — no luck. Got onto Intel website and got the latest drivers — no luck. Tried to reinstall from the original drivers after uninstalling with the delete option — still no luck.

I finally admitted defeat and decided to roll-back, but I discovered that the pre-SP1 restore point had been removed by Windows to make room for all the restore points before the pointless driver reinstalls — poop! Several more hours of Internet research produced nothing; so this morning I pootled off to PC World to look for a wireless card. There were quite a few available; I checked all the boxes looking for a mention of Vista. The only one I could find was a NetGear RangeMax 511B, which had a sticky label indicating that Vista drivers could be downloaded from the Netgear web site. I paid up and rushed back home.

I disabled the existing Intel Pro/Wireless, downloaded and installed the drivers for the RangeMax. I inserted the Netgear card and tried to connect to my network... ... ... yee haa!!! Connected to the world again. Isn't is strange how accustomed we've become to global interconnection? And how distressing it is when we can't get that little icon in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen lit up.

Unfortunately, all is not perfect. I have discovered this evening while writing this post that attempts to use fingerprint verification to logon cause the laptop to disappear into the blackscreen of hopelessness with only the cursor arror and a hyperactive disk light for company. This is resolved by booting into safe mode with no external devices or the wireless card connected, and then rebooting as normal using the password the logon.

I've logged a support case with Sony; but I shan't hold my breath for a speedy response — indeed I won't be surprised, if there is no response given that SP1 is still unofficial. Still, if there's nothing else than having to use a PC card for wireless and not use the fingerprint recognition, I can live with that until Sony and MS sort out the driver issues.

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Re: Windows Vista SP1: A Cautionary Tale

by Roger on Sun 17 Feb 2008 12:29 GMT | Profile | Permanent Link

I received an e-mail asking me to expand on how I copied the files from the installation DVD back to the laptop. So here goes:

1. Insert the Vista installation DVD — in my case I used the Windows Anytime Upgrade DVD that I used to ugrade to Vista Ultimate.

2. Power off and then power on the PC. A message appears inviting you to press any key to boot from DVD — on mine a restart just restarted without offering DVD boot.

3. Once the DVD boot completes, you're asked to specify Language, Time and Currency and Keyboard Format. Choose the the appropriate options and click [Next].

4. The next screen has an option to Install now and another to Repair your computer. Choose repair.

5. There is a message about searching for files, then a list of Windows installations is displayed. I presume that, on multi-boot systems, more than one item would appear in this list. My laptop only had one that was already higlighted. Click [Next].

6. If you are offered any automatic repair options, cancel out of those until you get a screen that offers several choices beginning with Start Up Repair and ending with Command Prompt.

7. Choose Command Prompt. A window opens; on my PC the prompt showed the folder location was X:\Sources.

8. Enter cd \windows\system32\drivers. The prompt changes to reflect that location.

9. Enter c: to change to drive C; then cd \windows\system32\drivers. The prompt changes to reflect that location.

10. I did a back-up of all the files in the drivers folder before starting to copy by creating a new folder: md temp. Then copy c:\windows\system32\drivers\*.* c:\windows\system32\drivers\temp.

11. You can now copy files from the drivers folder in X. The simplest form is copy x:filename.

12.Type exit to close the command window and shut down or restart the PC with one of the command buttons offered.

The files that I copied were acpi.sys, atapi.sys, ataport.sys, battc.sys, compbatt.sys, intelide.sys, pciidex.sys and wmiacpi.sys. The info' that I found also suggested mgahci.sys, but that wasn't available on my system. I cannot testify to the completeness of this list. But, as I said in the post, it worked for me.

I've also managed to fix the fingerprint recognition by reinstalling the QL Protector Suite, which I downloaded from the Sony support site. Thanks should go to Lightning McQueen, an administrator on the Windows Forum site for the reminder that the download was available there.

Re: Windows Vista SP1: A Cautionary Tale

by Roger on Thu 21 Feb 2008 11:03 GMT | Profile | Permanent Link

Five days later and — apart from the drivers for built-in wireless — things appears to be stable. (fingers crossed) That doesn't appear to the case for everyone who's applied SP1. There is some valuable information in the latest edition of Windows Newsletter. You do need to subscribe to the paid version, but you can choose the amount you want to pay. (Note: you do have to start the subscription process to get to the page where you choose what version of the newsletter you want). I have been a subscriber for a some time and while not every edition contains stuff that is of particular interest or value to me, every now and then, there's a real nugget.

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