"Call it Redmond roulette"....
Latest bug fixes from Ol' Reliable
San Francisco Chronicle
Henry Norr
Monday, May 21, 2001
Microsoft last week released Windows 2000 Service Pack 2, with 101 MB worth of bug fixes and enhancements for its "most reliable product ever." For an overview, including links for downloading the file or ordering it on CD-ROM ($19.95, shipping included), surf over to www.microsoft.com/windows 2000/downloads/servicepacks/sp2/default.asp.
In addition to tightening up the system's data-encryption capabilities (moving from 56- to 128-bit keys), the Service Pack (SP2) addresses a long list of problems -- so long that it takes Microsoft four full Web pages, each 15 or 20 screens long, just to provide a line or two of information and a link to further details on each. (The list starts at support.microsoft. com/support/kb/articles/Q282/5/22.asp. And that's not counting the three pages worth of fixes originally released in last summer's SP1 and now included in SP2.
Quite a few of the newly fixed bugs seem to involve "memory leaks" -- situations where parts of the operating system fail to relinquish control over memory they've finished using, so there gradually gets to be less and less available for new tasks.
Also on the list are problems with devices disappearing after a PC wakes from sleep or hibernation, a security hole called the "Canonicalization Error" and a variety of other exotic issues. My favorite: a fix to an unexplained problem that produced an error message reading "STOP (0x00000050 0xe2000000 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x00000002)."
I haven't encountered any of those issues, as far as I know. In fact, Windows 2000 has been running relatively well on my PC notebook since Compaq replaced its logic board.
But, as I've reported here before, I picked up a couple of new problems when I downloaded an earlier set of Win 2000 "critical updates" a few months ago: my usual wireless-networking card was causing an instant restart whenever I inserted it while the machine was up and running, while an alternative card I tried out worked only if it was inserted while the machine was running.
(If I made the mistake of installing that one before the machine was turned on, it kept restarting just when the system seemed to have finished booting up,
leaving me in an endless loop of futility.)
I didn't spot anything in the SP2 fix list that sounds like either of those problems, but when a link to the Microsoft download page showed up on Cnet a week ago (four days before Microsoft announced it), I figured I'd give it a shot. (Remember, I get paid to do this stuff.)
It turns out that the service pack does somehow address my problems, though I wouldn't go so far as to say it fixes them. With SP2 installed, I can now insert my Dell-branded Aironet card whenever I'm so inclined, and instead of rebooting every time, the system now does so only about every fourth time. Call it Redmond roulette.
As for the other card, it no longer causes a restart at boot-up -- it just doesn't work at all. When I try reinstalling its driver software, I get either a crash accompanied by a continuous beep sound or an error message labeled "Severe."
Both of these cards, by the way, used to work on the same notebook, and both have the latest, Win 2000-certified drivers and firmware.
The service pack also fails, apparently, to fix the oddest Windows 2000 bug yet. According to an article in Microsoft's online KnowledgeBase (support. micro
soft.com/support/kb/articles/Q281/9/23.ASP)-- pointed out by Martin Mitchell of Nomad Macintosh Consulting in Marin -- "If a user group contains more than 500 users, the hair color of the 'person' icon for the group changes to gray."
I can't say I've actually created any groups in Windows 2000, much less one with 500 users, but Microsoft's PR agency confirms that the article is not a joke. I'll be waiting to see whether there's a fix in SP3.
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