Service pack 1? Service pack 2? (speed, performance Q's)

lifeisbetterwithketchup · Mon Dec 10, 2007 8:13 pm

I have just become the proud owner of a Fujitsu Lifebook B2610 (800Mhz P3, 256MB RAM). It has a fresh install of XP Pro. It takes about 40 seconds to boot up (and my dad's P3 ThinkPad takes 4.5 minutes to boot Windows 2000, heh). Everything was all fine and dandy (I installed some crap, got a wifi card, installed the driver for it, etc). Then I got a USB 2.0 PCMCIA card (USB 1.1 makes me sneeze). When installing the driver for it, I was informed that the driver requires Service Pack 1. I was about to connect to Windows Update and update XP completely, when I thought to myself whether that was such a great idea. I remember back when Service Pack 2 came out, a whole bunch of people had issues with it screwing stuff up. Also, keeping in mind that this computer has only 256MB of RAM, from past experience, SP2 pretty much requires 512 to breathe. So:

With these specs, should I (attempt to) upgrade to Service Pack 1/2? Or should I just find a USB 2.0 card that doesn't need SP1?

Also, an on-the-side: what would be the best way to install Ubuntu (or anything that requires booting off of a CD really) on a laptop without an optical drive that can't boot off of USB except for with the external floppy drive that I don't have?

Post by **bicostp** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 8:57 pm

Install SP1. I run it on a slower machine than that with no problems.

SP2 adds a bunch of stuff you don't need that will only bog your Lifebook down. You only really need it if you can't live without IE 7 or Media Player 11.

lifeisbetterwithketchup wrote:Also, an on-the-side: what would be the best way to install Ubuntu (or anything that requires booting off of a CD really) on a laptop without an optical drive that can't boot off of USB except for with the external floppy drive that I don't have?

The best way to install Ubuntu is to not install it. As for CD booting, are you sure it can't boot off a USB CD drive? USB 1.1 would be butt slow but it would probably work... You might have to try booting it over the LAN, which can be difficult.

vb_master · Post by **vb_master** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 9:54 pm

bicostp wrote:SP2 adds a bunch of stuff you don't need that will only bog your Lifebook down.

Are you serious? A SP1 machine on a network is going to make the machine vulnerable!

If you want to make a light XP install, slipstream SP2 into your XP install CD and then use nLite to remove any unwanted things, you can get the XP install down around 500 MB with not much removed, and on my EeePC (630 MHz) it boots rather quick. After installation, use XP Lite to remove more stuff. Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs... you could be better off with that. Even Windows Server 2003 is a better choice than SP1!

If you are going to be extreme about your install of XP, try out XP Embedded, as it can be run off of a 64 MB CF card with Luna and all the rest, and it should boot really fast on any PC.

lifeisbetterwithketchup · Mon Dec 10, 2007 10:09 pm

bicostp wrote:Install SP1. I run it on a slower machine than that with no problems.

SP2 adds a bunch of stuff you don't need that will only bog your Lifebook down. You only really need it if you can't live without IE 7 or Media Player 11.

Thanks. IE 7 and WMP are two things I would rather live without. (Firefox + VLC does it for me.

bicostp wrote:
lifeisbetterwithketchup wrote:Also, an on-the-side: what would be the best way to install Ubuntu (or anything that requires booting off of a CD really) on a laptop without an optical drive that can't boot off of USB except for with the external floppy drive that I don't have?
The best way to install Ubuntu is to not install it. As for CD booting, are you sure it can't boot off a USB CD drive? USB 1.1 would be butt slow but it would probably work... You might have to try booting it over the LAN, which can be difficult.

I know what you think of Linux, Bic. I disagree with you, but I don't want to argue.

The only boot options in my BIOS are the hard drive, and external floppy. How would I go about booting over my LAN?

timmeh87 · Post by **timmeh87** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 10:43 pm

Dudes... Listen to VBmaster. If that computer is connected to the internet you need to have SP2 installed. Theres hundreds of security updates between when SP1 was released (FIVE years ago) and now. Not only that, there are also hundreds of bug fixes and performance enhancements.

Here is a list of the bug fixes in SP2

among them:
"Some programs do not work as expected when large files are opened"
"Short Battery Life on Your Pentium III-M Tualatin Processor Computer"
"STOP 0x80080005 CO_E_SERVER_EXEC_FAILURE error message"
"Slow disk performance when write caching is enabled"
"Internet Explorer Stops Responding When You Open an FTP Site"

It looks like theres more than 1000

You do not by any means have to install IE7 or MP11, and I have never chosen to because they suck. (use firefox anyways).

lifeisbetterwithketchup · Tue Dec 11, 2007 2:18 pm

Alright, I discovered a new option in the BIOS: "Realtek Boot Agent" Some Googleing told me that it was a network boot client, but any site that looks like it could contain info about how to use it is blocked (I'm at school now).

Post by **Skyone** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 4:36 pm

timmeh87 wrote:Dudes... Listen to VBmaster. If that computer is connected to the internet you need to have SP2 installed. Theres hundreds of security updates between when SP1 was released (FIVE years ago) and now. Not only that, there are also hundreds of bug fixes and performance enhancements.

Seriously, tons of .NET apps require SP2, not just WMP11 and IE7 (which do not asplode your computer or anything, jeez).

vb_master · Post by **vb_master** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 6:39 pm

timmeh87 wrote:Dudes... Listen to VBmaster. If that computer is connected to the internet you need to have SP2 installed.

If you put like a XP Gold or XP SP1 box unprotected on the internet without any firewall, you would be hacked in about a day.

Valium · Post by **Valium** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 6:51 pm

vb_master wrote:
timmeh87 wrote:Dudes... Listen to VBmaster. If that computer is connected to the internet you need to have SP2 installed.
If you put like a XP Gold or XP SP1 box unprotected on the internet without any firewall, you would be hacked in about a day.

Then how come I haven't been?

vb_master · Post by **vb_master** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 7:28 pm

Valium wrote:
vb_master wrote:
timmeh87 wrote:Dudes... Listen to VBmaster. If that computer is connected to the internet you need to have SP2 installed.
If you put like a XP Gold or XP SP1 box unprotected on the internet without any firewall, you would be hacked in about a day.
Then how come I haven't been?

You are behind a router which is running Linux and has several ports open.

Or, you are posting from that as a proxy by tunneling all data through SSH.

Post by **Skyone** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 7:33 pm

Valium wrote:
vb_master wrote:
timmeh87 wrote:Dudes... Listen to VBmaster. If that computer is connected to the internet you need to have SP2 installed.
If you put like a XP Gold or XP SP1 box unprotected on the internet without any firewall, you would be hacked in about a day.
Then how come I haven't been?

As far as you know!

HazmatB · Post by **HazmatB** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 8:11 pm

Ooooh Burnsauce!

Valium · Post by **Valium** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 9:01 pm

vb_master wrote:
Valium wrote:
vb_master wrote:
timmeh87 wrote:Dudes... Listen to VBmaster. If that computer is connected to the internet you need to have SP2 installed.
If you put like a XP Gold or XP SP1 box unprotected on the internet without any firewall, you would be hacked in about a day.
Then how come I haven't been?
You are behind a router which is running Linux and has several ports open.

Or, you are posting from that as a proxy by tunneling all data through SSH.

I don't think I'm doing any of that...

vb_master · Post by **vb_master** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 9:03 pm

Valium wrote:
vb_master wrote:
Valium wrote:
vb_master wrote:
timmeh87 wrote:Dudes... Listen to VBmaster. If that computer is connected to the internet you need to have SP2 installed.
If you put like a XP Gold or XP SP1 box unprotected on the internet without any firewall, you would be hacked in about a day.
Then how come I haven't been?
You are behind a router which is running Linux and has several ports open.

Or, you are posting from that as a proxy by tunneling all data through SSH.
I don't think I'm doing any of that...

elpenguino.net isn't yours?

timmeh87 · Post by **timmeh87** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 9:07 pm

Valium wrote:
vb_master wrote:
timmeh87 wrote:Dudes... Listen to VBmaster. If that computer is connected to the internet you need to have SP2 installed.
If you put like a XP Gold or XP SP1 box unprotected on the internet without any firewall, you would be hacked in about a day.
Then how come I haven't been?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombie_computer