I have a Sony Vaio PCV-RX550. It came with XP Home, but I formatted the HDD about 2 months ago, and installed Windows XP Pro. Works great. I didn't install any windows updates because I just had dial up. I got DSL 2-3 days ago, and I started to get all the updates. My system is this: Windows XP Professional P4 1.5Ghz 256MB Ram (Sorry I can't be more descriptive at this time about the specs - I'm on a different computer). So today, I did the service pack 2 update. The first time after installation everything worked great. Upon rebooting, it loaded up to the desktop background, but no icons appeared, and it just sat there. I would do a ctrl + alt + del, and then restart from the 'shutdown' feature. Sometimes icons and the start menu appear, but they aren't clickable, and the system would just hang. (Please note: I loaded up safe mode fine, and it didn't hang). Next, I did a system restore, and everything is back to the way it was (working) in the regular XP Pro. I did some research and went to the Sony Vaio site (www.vaio.net) and Microsoft's site, and downloaded a few updates (one of them being the BIOS update). (total of 3 files) I downloaded the BIOS update and Windows XP Security Patch Q811493 from here: http://esupport.sony.com/perl/swu-list.pl?mdl=PCVRX550&UpdateType=Updates I verifed the new BIOS update was in place by going to Start -> Run, and typing in msinfo32 (in safe mode, and after i restored the system). I also went to Microsoft support and downloaded this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/885626/ So i downloaded those 3 things. In the process, I learned there are issues with certain processors. http://support.intel.com/support/processors/sb/CS-015171.htm My processor is: x86 Family 15 Model 0 Stepping 10 Genuine Intel So, I did the bios update, the windows security update, and the one from Microsoft about windows hanging after installation of SP2. I've been doing this all day (trying hotfixes and then restoring the system back to working order) One other thing I heard that I didn't try yet was something about the graphics driver. Apparently there is something about AGP440.sys, Mup.sys. I also read something about changing my bios to "plug and play". I'm not even sure what's its set at now. This site had a lot of information, about it: http://www.michna.com/kb/WxSP2.htm On that page look under "Boot or shutdown problems after Service Pack 2 installation" and "Hangs after reboot, keeps rebooting endlessly, or does not shut down" I hope I given enough detailed info. Any help to get this working would be appreciated. Thanks.

Mudvayne_Nothin, something a little off the wall, but could be... SP2 and Malware didn't play well together. Despite all the reformats it's still possible with DSL to get a nasty quickly (within seconds). Think I'd try a scan first THEN install (offline) SP2 THEN update. ??? HTH. Ed in Texas.

Try running system file checker...go into Safe Mode by tapping F8 at startup in the start menu do: Run then type in: sfc /scannow and see if that doesn't solve the problem

Newspaper--Sept.3,2004(A.P.) Microsoft issues warning on Spyware: The basics of the article is to detect and remove Spyware from your computer before installing SP2. ...Spyware could cause computers to freeze up upon installation of the update... ------------------- How to remove SP2