Visiting a Service Center to Get Service Pack 2 Installed
Published: August 19, 2002
By Joli Ballew, Windows XP Expert Zone Community Columnist
I’ve been getting lots of questions lately about Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2). My family, friends, and people in the Windows XP newsgroups often want to know how to get SP2 besides downloading from Microsoft Update.
One option is to get SP2 installed at a computer service center. Microsoft has partnered with service centers at three retail chains, Best Buy, CompUSA, and Microcenter, to provide installation of SP2 this fall through their technical service centers located inside each store. You should check with your local store for more details.
CompUSA is offering free installation of Windows XP Service Pack 2 for a limited time. I took one of my laptops in to my local CompUSA store in Plano, Texas last week for the free upgrade. It was an interesting experience for me.
Why not just download the service pack? For most people in most cases, Automatic Updates is the best way to get SP2. But some users have slow connections and just aren’t online long enough to get SP2 automatically. My mom and dad are in that position. They aren’t online very often, and they just don’t do CD installs.
When it comes to computers, I believe most people, even with novice users, can solve their own software issues most of the time with free help from expert users in town or on the Internet. I enjoy helping others learn about computing, and so do many computing experts you can find volunteering their time on the Expert Zone Web site. So it’s unusual for me to recommend a computer service center, much less visit one, for something like a Service Pack 2 upgrade.
But I also know that some people only want to read their e-mail and browse the Web. They begrudge every extra minute spent maintaining their computers.
Maybe you know somebody like this and you just don't have the time to help them update to SP2. You can refer them to one of the service centers. After all, Windows XP Service Pack 2 is an important security upgrade and the sooner everyone starts using it, the better for all of us on the Internet. After my visit to CompUSA, I can say I'd recommend it for some of my friends and family.
At CompUSA, they upgraded my computer while I waited, they provided a detailed upgrade report about the status of my computer, and their free service is a generous offer.
In this column, I’ll cover what shape my laptop was in before the installation of SP2, what the computer store technicians did to prepare it for the service pack, and what happened during and after the installation of SP2. The Free Upgrade to SP2 offered by CompUSA won’t last forever. I found out that after the free period ends, the upgrade will cost $79.97.
A Challenging Upgrade
I have a laptop computer that I don’t use very much. It’s a Hewlett Packard Pavilion N3390. It has 128 megabyes (MB) of RAM, a Pentium III 375 MHz processor, and a 10 gigabyte (GB) hard drive with less than 2 GB free. The last time I ran virus definitions was eight months ago and my Norton antivirus subscription for it has expired. It doesn’t have a network interface card, so it can’t be connected to my home network so I rarely go online.
The computer came with Windows 98 and I upgraded it to Windows XP Professional on my own. (HP only supports this particular model through Windows 2000.)I take this laptop on trips occasionally for connecting to the Internet away from home. But it’s never connected to the Internet long enough to get the automatic download of SP2.
It's old and slow, dial-up modem, would make downloading the Service Pack too slow for my tastes. I could upgrade it using the Service Pack 2 CD from Microsoft. But other users have to order the CD and wait 4-6 weeks for delivery.
I figured that upgrading this computer to SP2 would be a fun challenge for anyone who enjoys working on computers.
I put the laptop under my arm and headed for the CompUSA near my home in Plano, Texas.
What to Expect During the Upgrade
Talking to a technical professional, whether it's the car mechanic, plumber, or computer tech, can be intimidating. On the positive side, they're going to do some difficult work so you don't have to, which is nice. At CompUSA, they did it for free, even nicer. On the other hand, the professionals know what work needs done, and you probably don't, so you feel a bit powerless.
As always, you should be an informed consumer when visiting a computer service center. Do some research first. The Expert Zone Community is a good place to ask questions, get reputable advice, and prepare yourself. Then take the time to communicate clearly what you need. When I first phoned CompUSA to schedule my SP2 upgrade, the technician misunderstood me and quoted the flat-fee price for laptop services. I knew that wasn't what I wanted, and I knew enough to persist. After talking to a couple other guys on the phone, I talked to Thdid, a tech who confirmed CompUSA was offering the free service. He said I could bring in my laptop, and they'd upgrade it while I waited.
At the store, I asked the technicians about potential issues with installing SP2. I had been a bit worried whether my older computer would upgrade well. The techs informed me that they hadn’t encountered any significant problems installing SP2. That's a pretty good recommendation for installing SP2.
The techs performed several pretests before installing SP2. During this, I learned some things I should have done to prepare for the upgrade before I arrived. The tech worked through a fairly long checklist, which took approximately 15 minutes. He performed several tests before starting the computer, inspecting the physical condition of the cooling fans and surfaces, and spot-checking for external damage.
Then he performed a power down diagnosis. This is a hardware check that gives a pass or fail rating for the computer’s overall health. Hardware that must work includes the CMOS battery, RAM, the hard disk, external ports to keyboards, mice, and displays, and the power supply. If any of these things aren’t working properly, you’ll be told what must be done to repair them. If you need additional RAM, a new battery, or a larger hard drive, the techs can recommend you get it before upgrading.
The tech performed other checks, including a startup analysis, which verified:
| • | Computer starts without errors |
| • | Unnecessary programs aren’t running at startup |
| • | Windows Critical Updates have been downloaded and installed |
| • | Virus definitions are up-to-date. If you don't have an antivirus program, the technician can recommend one. You should get antivirus software, keep it updated, and it as required. |
They check how much hard drive space you have free. You need at least 1.8 GB of free space on your hard drive to install SP2. My laptop barely met this requirement. They checked my hard drive for unnecessary files: I had 30 MB deleted resulting from this search.
Finally, the techs run a check for spyware. This showed some impressive knowledge on their part because the spyware removal step was added to the SP2 installation procedures from Microsoft only a few days before I visited. Some spyware programs were calling SP2 installation failures.
The technician found one defined piece of spyware on my laptop and removed it.
Before he installed SP2, the tech also recommended that I get pop-up blocker software, the Power Clean Service, and the Windows XP Optimizer Service. I declined these because the pop-up blocker in SP2 is good enough for me, and I prefer to do my own service usually. You can learn more about the CompUSA services on their Web site. I chose not to do this, because I thought I could do most of the tasks myself. Feel free to ask for specifics for any services that are recommended. The services available will vary from store to store.
The upgrade itself took more than an hour, but would probably take less time on a computer with more than 128 MB of RAM. The technician seemed surprised at how long it took—this was probably one of the oldest computers on which he’d installed SP2.
Do Your Own Pretests Before You Go
Of course, many of the tests the technicians run, you can perform yourself. This would reduce the time you spend at the store and also prepare you for any hardware or software upgrades you might need to purchase.
Before heading out, read the article, What to Know Before You Download and Install Windows XP Service Pack 2, and then do the following if you know how:
1. | Verify the computer starts properly and there are no errors. |
2. | Run a free spyware checker such as Lavasoft’s Ad-Aware. |
3. | Make sure you don’t have unnecessary programs running (check the icons in the notification area), and uninstall unnecessary applications in Add or Remove Programs in Control Panel. |
4. | Check Microsoft Update for driver updates. The technician isn’t likely to check to see if your modem or network interface card has a newer driver available. |
5. | Verify and/or download all available virus definitions using your antivirus software. If your antivirus software has expired, renew online. Then disable the antivirus program. |
6. | Run Disk Cleanup and delete unnecessary files. |
7. | Visit your computer manufacturer’s Web site and obtain any recommended updates regarding SP2 or your computer in general. |
8. | Make a complete backup of your data. The store is not responsible for data loss during the upgrade. (CompUSA offers a Power Backup service for a fee.) |
9. | Defragment your hard drive. |
There are instructions for most of these tasks in the Help and Support Files. Click Start, and then Help and Support, and then search for the task to perform.
What to Expect after SP2 Is Installed
Service Pack 2 is an upgrade to Windows XP and offers lots of new features. (See Barb Bowman’s Introduction to Windows XP Service Pack 2 for a fuller description of the changes.) You’ll have a few new things to learn about, such as Security Center shown in Figure 1 below, and you'll notice some changes in features like Internet Explorer and Outlook Express. When you restart your computer the first time, Windows XP will provide a tour of the changes.
Figure 1: Make sure the three security essentials are turned on in Security Center.
Get Service Pack 2 Now
Windows XP SP2 is an important free software upgrade that will help your computer run better, help improve its security, and keep you ahead of the hackers and bad guys. You can get it via Automatic Updates, download an express version from Microsoft Update, download a network installation version from Microsoft, order a CD from Microsoft, borrow a CD, or visit a service center. You can find a lot of help to do it yourself from the Windows XP user community on the Internet or around town. Or you can visit a service center and turn the whole task over to a professional tech.
I’m often available to help in the Windows XP newsgroups, and will do my best to answer questions.
Joli Ballew is a full-time writer and author of several books, including Microsoft Windows XP: Do Amazing Things (Microsoft Press) and Windows XP Professional: The Ultimate User's Guide, Second Edition (Paraglyph Press). In addition to writing, Joli teaches classes at Eastfield Community College and is an artist and network administrator at North Texas Graphics.
