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Name: gilloz
A neighbor of mine purchased a used Dell Laptop from E-Bay and wanted me to install SP-3 for him. It's an Inspiron B130. I first went to Windows Update and there were no critcal updates shown. This Laptop shows it to have Windows XP Professional with SP-2. There are no discs that came with this Laptop and there is no partition with the Recovery Program. When I manually tried to install SP-3 from Microsoft's website, it came back with an error window in that it could not find the OS for verification or something to that affect. I am guessing that because the Recovery System partition was not there, it would not allow SP-3 to load. Am I wrong here?
My suggestion would be to convince your neighbor that SP3 is not really needed. I've downloaded it, but don't plan on installing it.
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It's an illegal install. The missing recovery partition is a good indication of that, but is not the reason the install failed.
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"It's an illegal install. The missing recovery partition is a good indication of that, but is not the reason the install failed."
That's a pretty harsh assumption.
I deleted the recovery partition on my laptop, and installed a legal copy of XP Pro (not installed on any other machine).
By your reckoning, my installation is illegal, just because the recovery partition no longer exists.
Please let us know if you found someone's advice to be helpful.
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"By your reckoning, my installation is illegal, just because the recovery partition no longer exists."
Sci-guy, it wasn't just the missing partition, it was the combination of that and the fact that the O/S could not be verified.
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The WGA must be installed to verify the authenticity of the windows installation. This strobes the product ID in the registry to see if the installation is valid. If it is not the live update will fail. It sounds as already suggested that you have a pirate installation of windows installed. Either way service pack 3 doesnt offer much more in terms of functionality and is more an amalgamation of secuirty updates and hotfixes.
MCSE MCSA:messaging MCP MCTS CSSA ITILv2
CCNA VCP3
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If this is indeed a Dell with Xp, why do you have this: OS: Ubuntu 7.10
CPU/Ram: AMD 2100+/1 GB
Model/Manufacturer: Home built/Soyo Drag in the system information?Just a suggestion; your "friend" should go to Dell's website and complete the ownership transfer form.
Life's more painless for the brainless.
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Duh! That is my own Desktop computer, jenn. What does that have to do with my neighbors Laptop Dell computer which is the reason for this post????
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Your system specs have nothing to do with the computer you are attempting to fix. That's my point.
Life's more painless for the brainless.
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Sorry Jenn, I still do not get your point. No matter, my neighbor has decided to wipe his hard drive clean and do a clean install of Windows XP with a new purchased copy of Windows XP Home Edition OEM version. I really appreciate the comments and suggestions from everyone. Thanks all.
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I see both points of view here. I believe that Jennifer may have done what I have done many times. Looked at the specs in the header and assummed, that those were the specs of the unit with the issues. However, the OP did indicate they were asking about a Dell Laptop.
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