Windows 7 Service Pack 1

[captain_video]

I’ve been going nuts over the past couple of months dealing with what I thought were hardware issues in my HTPC.  I’ve had constant reboots and BSODs and no matter what I tried I couldn’t seem to work around it.  I’ve swapped out literally everything in my HTPC except my Ceton InfiniTV 4.  I’ve even got a third motherboard on order from Newegg that should arrive in a couple of days.

I had been using Windows 7 Pro and I’ve reinstalled it so many times over the past few weeks that I almost have the product key memorized.  I got to where I resorted to torrent sites to see if there was another version I could try.  I found a version of Win 7 Ultimate that said it had Service Pack 1 included.  As it turns out, this is actually a release candidate of SP1 that is scheduled for public release on 4/30/2011 according to what I’ve read.

To make a long story short, I downloaded the bootleg version and installed it on a spare drive so I wouldn’t overwrite my current Pro setup.  The bottom line is that my PC has been rock solid since the installation (knock on wood).  All this time I thought the issue was my hardware and the associated drivers when it turns out the problems were apparently embedded within Win 7 itself.  I’ve got a bad habit of downloading Win 7 updates so some of my issues may be related to updates I should not have installed.

I don’t condone the use of anything other than Windows Genuine software.  I will be looking to see if I can find a copy of SP1 RC to upgrade my existing Win 7 Pro installation.  I believe the RC version is valid until 8/30/2011 or thereabouts.  If anyone has a link to download it I’d appreciate the heads-up.

Update:  I found that you can download the RC for SP1 from Microsoft.  You just have to go through a validation process to prove that your copy of Windows is genuine before they’ll allow the file to be downloaded.

[PAPutzback]

My guess is that the service pack had an update drive for something that was causing issues. But I know your frustration, my WHS is driving me nucking futs.

[phoneguyinpgh]

I built a new box last week to host my Ceton card, and an update alert popped up saying there were over 60 updates to install.  it got thru 2 of them and then started failing.  Deffinately some of the updates are conflicting.  I got so frustrated I just turned off automatic updates. I hope an all-in-one SP1 update cures this as I hate not having my systems up-to-date.

[captain_video]

I know what you mean. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve gone through the 60+ update mess after reinstalling Win 7 Pro and then all of the subsequent updates that followed.  One trick I learned was to only install the barebones drivers for the mainboard hardware and LAN before running the updates.  Once Windows was updated I began installing components and software one item at a time with reboots in between to make sure everything was settled down before trying to toss something new into the mix.

SP1 should take care of the vast majority of updates that have occurred since the initial release of Win 7.  When I installed the version that included SP1 I only had one or two new updates to install afterwards to bring it up to date.

[Author]

Posts