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Service Pack Did Not Install. Reverting Changes.

I attempted to install the Release Candidate of Vista Service Pack One.

I've been running Vista (non-Aero) on an old Dell laptop. It has been slow but stable. Mostly usable.

After the service pack allegedly reverts changes (I've tried twice) Vista doesn't do anything more annoying than tell me there is a new service pack update to install. There is no loss of data or functionality. No new error messages.

But it's pretty disappointing. The Release Candidate for XP SP3 worked like a charm on an even older laptop and Windows XP seems to perform as well as it always has, if not better.

At this point, the Vista laptop is looking like an excellent candidate for conversion to Ubuntu.

Comments (8)

gerzonx:

i'm experiencing the same exact problem... anybody can help?

gerzonx:

very disappointing on my part... i've wasted 4 hours waiting for it, and trying the 2nd time...

It's my understanding that Microsoft has introduced further changes in the driver models and these changes may affect whether or not SP1 can be successfully applied.

You may wish to check with your PC manufacturer for updated drivers, but if your PC vendor does not officially support Vista, then you may have gone as far as you can go on that platform.

As for me, I went back to XP.

I do miss Vista on some levels, but not having Aero and not being able to apply the Service Pack was heartbreaking.

Geoff:

Same problem here. After 3 hours and no sign of life, I powered my machine down and rebooted in safe mode. Install then completed stage 3, only do be greeted with "Service Pack Did Not Install - Reverting Changes" I waited 3 hours more for the uninstall to complete. Think I'll sit back and watch for a cuppla weeks!! or maybe Ubuntu.

fd:

Same here.

Pretty swiftly goes all the way through to Step 3: 100% complete ... and ... then says Service Pack did not install. Reverting changes.

What the heck?!

It would be one thing if there was an error message, or some indication of something you could do or fix, that would be one thing...

But just to be told "No..."

Frankly, it's very discouraging.

What happens at the end of the install that couldn't be determined early instead?

I don't understand the logic behind the process.

I have just never had an operating system that couldn't be updated before.

Richard Brown:

Same story for me too. The event log also shows me an error that says:

"Installation failure: Windows failed to install the following update with error 0x80041026: Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (KB936330)"

There's also a log file in C:\Windows called windowsupdate.log (I think) which has some garbled details in it.

I'm going to stick with it and will hopefully find a solution to post back here at some point....

Josep:

The Windows Event Log service is the problem, which again wouldn't run because of the corrupted RTBackup in the wmi folder. SP1 installed with no complication after that RTBackup folder was renamed and Windows Event Log service started (which it automatically did on reboot after changing the folder name).

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