XP and the Crypto Services-- And Why XP Won't Run SP1a

[CarPuter]

For some darn reason, totally unknown to me, I can't get the SP1a to run on a XP Home machine. When I try, and I've tried it multiple times, it always goes thru the entire process of opening the files, decompressing, asking for permission to do the upgrade, asking for the EULA agreement, and then, when it's just ready to actually INSTALL, it closes itself, and leaves a error message box that says (to the best of my senile memory) "... Crypto service is not running....", and then it closes the error window.

I've checked the services, and the Crypto service is running, and smoothly, I have all the rights to do the update, and everything.

I suspect that this is one of those wonderful instances where the MS programmer didn't want to write the "real" error message, so he just grabbed one that was not being used, and shoe horned that into the process.

But I certainly could be wrong on that. But in any case, any ideas on how to get the darn SP to install?

This is a OEM installation of XP Home, on one of those cheap little desktop Dell PCs, with 256 MB of RAM, lots of disk room, and really no bad features, or conflicting software.

Any ideas, suggestions, hints, or ??? will be gratefully appreciated and tried.

Thanks,

Chris

[Google]

[DMW]

the first place for you to start is with Dell....being an OEM install...it may have been edited in some ways that most are not.
Microsoft's own support sites even refer you to this path.....visit Dell's support pages / contacts.
You may very well be entitled to free tech support!....albeit Dell....hehe

https://support.dell.com/register.aspx


P.S.
have you tried just using the IT manager feature from MS and downloading the entire SP1 for "later installation"....
I found this to be usefull when applying the patch to 4 PCs at the house.....saves all the individual downloads!

Also, this sounds like a trait of a certain virus that prohibits updates to protect itself. any good virus scans done lately? try using an "online" check.

Search for "crypto" used in any of the services offered under the admin tools...something might be disabled. We have win2k here at work, otherwise I would try looking for you.

g/l

[alexvdl]

Isn't eligible for free Dell Tech support like eligible for long amounts of time on a cellphone and aggravation?
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__________[(Crayola)]>_____________
Althon xp 2100+ @ 2100+, DFI LANParty nForceII Ultra Rev. B, 512 of Kingston, and an Evil Wizard Radeon 7500!

[DMW]

[alexvdl]

Tech sup[port is always on a cellphone for me sinc ei Have no Landlines.

I plan to take advantage of LinkSys Tech support later this week when I put my PC and my Mac on the same wireless router... *laughs evilly*
_________________
__________[(Crayola)]>_____________
Althon xp 2100+ @ 2100+, DFI LANParty nForceII Ultra Rev. B, 512 of Kingston, and an Evil Wizard Radeon 7500!

[[TN] Nathan]

You shouldn't need them, should be plug and play.
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[alexvdl]

I hope to god it is. And I should really work on proofreading my posts before I put them up.
_________________
__________[(Crayola)]>_____________
Althon xp 2100+ @ 2100+, DFI LANParty nForceII Ultra Rev. B, 512 of Kingston, and an Evil Wizard Radeon 7500!