Vista

T.F.S.B.I.G.W.S.

It didn't work. Service Pack 2 failed. I may go ahead and try those discs but no one has suggested that I have to prove anything - just that I have to pay something

davb

Ok, before you use the recovery disks, the first thing to do is - BACKUP anything on the PC that is important to you (documents, photos, music, emails etc) - if you don't, you WILL lose it. You can burn a CD/DVD, copy to pendrive, external hard drive, network, online storage - any would be fine, but make sure you do something.

Before you go for it, there may well be other options:
Is your Antivirus up to date - what are you using.
What about Spyware - try downloading MalwareBytes and installing/running a quick scan.
Hardware diagnostics - have Acer supplied any.

As far as warranty goes, you may struggle now being outside 12 months, unless you have already got a (traceable) call logged with Acer.

T.F.S.B.I.G.W.S.

I will back up using an external hard drive
Avast Anti virus - upadated and ran almost daily
Thanks for the malware tip - I downloaded and ran and Windows Defender opened and as it had blocked certain programs
I tried Service Pack 2 again but the result was the same as earlier
I have a record of contacting Microsoft and Comet and Acer within the 12 months

gaming_guy

try downloading and installing vista SP2 from here. it may take a few hours or so to download as its a big file.

davb

I wouldn't rely on Windows Defender - give MalwareBytes a go.

T.F.S.B.I.G.W.S.

davb wrote: »

I wouldn't rely on Windows Defender - give MalwareBytes a go.

I ram Malware as soon as I downloaded and installed - it was afer I'd ran it that defender snapped into life (and indicated malware as a permitted program)

T.F.S.B.I.G.W.S.

gaming_guy wrote: »

try downloading and installing vista SP2 from here. it may take a few hours or so to download as its a big file.

Thanks - worth a try. Downloaded in about 5 mins but the install attempt resulted in the same "install was not successful message"

davb

The most likely cause of the the service pack failing to install is security software. blocking it You said you have Avast, anything else as well.
Try uninstalling Avast, rebooting, and have another go with the standalone SP2. Before you do this make sure you download the latest version of Avast, so that you can install it again afterwards without having to go on the net unprotected to get it.

T.F.S.B.I.G.W.S.

Paul_R wrote: »

The error is

The error message may also refer to one of the following error codes:
0x80070002
0x8007000D
0x80073712
0x800B0100
0x8024200D

Resolution: If you face above error then download and run the System Update Readiness tool from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947366/.

More details: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947366/ - Error message when you try to install the stand-alone package for Windows Vista Service Pack 1 or Service Pack 2 or for Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2: "Installation was not successful" or "An internal error occurred while installing the service pack"

Thanks but I tried System Readiness and it helped with only one of four updates

T.F.S.B.I.G.W.S.

davb wrote: »

The most likely cause of the the service pack failing to install is security software. blocking it You said you have Avast, anything else as well.
Try uninstalling Avast, rebooting, and have another go with the standalone SP2. Before you do this make sure you download the latest version of Avast, so that you can install it again afterwards without having to go on the net unprotected to get it.

Thanks - sounds good - that was Microsoft's initial recomendation before deciding that I must get hold of "The Windows Vista DVD" - I will probably try that