i tried the ntoskrnl.exe fix expanding ntkrnlmp.ex but it said access was denied how do i gain access or am i typing something wrong

What are you trying to acheive? Basically, if you are trying to install SP2, do you have Styles or the Windows THeme patch installed? If you do, then you need to uninstall, uninstall or repair the NTOSKrnl.exe file to the original one then install SP2. The easiest way would be to run a repair on the operating system. This can be easy or hard, depending if you have the original MS Windows media or an OEM brand recovery CD. The following article can help. http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=315341 Basically, to make changes to the NTOSKrnl.exe, you have to do it from the recovery console as this is in use when Windows is running. Hope that helps. If it's on fire, it's a hardware problem.

This should do the trick. Expand ntoskrnl.ex_ somewhere on the drive other than system32. Once that is done use Replacer to apply the file. Replacer is very easy to use and will walk you through the steps. http://www3.telus.net/_/replacer/ Hope this helps, Sandman