Microsoft's policy that OEM installed systems must be supported by the OEM manufacturer is well known. One reason for this is that many manufaturers have historically made changes to the OEM version OS to suit their own notions about "what you need." Microsoft has no control over, or even full knowledge of, what changes the mfr makes, so it's very difficult for them to give specific support. The support you get from the mfrs varies from "don't bother us" to excellent. With past operating systems, Gateway has been a distant second to Compaq for "proprietary mods," and I believe that newer systems probably have fewer "specials" than older ones, but it's sort of a "fact of life."

Gateway's web site (tech suppport) has a whole page of stuff on SP2, but clicking any of the links I've tried just takes you to the Microsoft pages for SP2. If you go to Gateway Support it asks for your computer serial number, which of course I don't have, and you might get more specific help from Gateway if you enter a valid one.

Microsoft has a page of "Links to manufacturers" that supposedly will get you "specific help on what's needed for SP2," but the link to Gateway just takes you to the Gateway home page, and I don't find anything very "specific to SP2" there, except the links back to Microsoft. (There's an old term – "passsing the buck?") Don't feel bad though, because I've found the same thing with other builders' sites – mine included. This generally means that your manufacturer doesn't know of (or doesn't want to admit to) any problems with SP2 that are "product specific."

If you can enter valid machine ID at the Gateway site, they may be able to tell you a specific reason why your machine doesn't accept the SP2 installation. There are some "machine problems" but most manufacturers maintain that SP2 should be able to install on any of their machines. If you happen to be one of the "lucky ones" with a deviant machine, they should be able to tell you.

There are three general kinds of problems that people are having with SP2:

1. You may have programs or devices that don't meet current "Windows Compliant" specifications. In most such cases WinXP SP2 installs okay but specific programs or devices fail to run as expected. Most such cases can be solved with updated drivers, program updates, or by using "special settings" to turn off specific SP2 features that conflict.

2. You may have a WinXP copy that is not recognized as valid. Microsoft warns, quite prominently, that SP2 will not install on a copy of WinXP that is not legally registered. It's a deep dark secret how they might know, but it's a possibility.

3. You may have a machine that is not "up to date." SP2 expects that your machine will include "typical" machine standards at the time of installation, and some machines have been found to need BIOS updates – as an example – for successful installation.

Since your whole machine stops working, the first group can be discounted – at least until you can get Windows running right.

There are legal ways that you might have WinXP on our machine and not have the installation CD in your possession, but they are NOT NORMAL. The license for WinXP, when registered, is specific to a single machine, and the installation CD for a machine normally should be in the possession of the one who has the machine.

One of the widespread concerns when WinXP first came out was the report that WinXP checks the machine at boot to be sure that it's on the same machine for which it's been registered. Large-scale changes, like adding too many new drives, etc., could "turn off" WinXP, requiring you to re-register. That appears not to be much of a problem, but at least to some extent a copy of WinXP "knows" if it's legal. If there's any suspicion in this area, talk to the guy who has the disk.

There are a very few "general machine problems" in the third category. A sidebar of "frequently consulted" articles at the Microsoft WinXP SP2 site includes a general article that might at least be similar to, your problem, at KB 885626. This addresses problems vaguely similar to yours that result from a processor/BIOS mismatch that occurs with a fairly specific set of processors and BIOS versions. While the ones involved are ones that Gateway may have used, there's no way to tell whether this, or something similar, is your problem without inspection of your machine. This article does give instructions for connecting to an Intel site where your machine can be checked for processor and BIOS versions, and rather general instructions to "1. get a BIOS update from your manufacturer," or "2. Install Critical Update kb 885626. Note that this will only help if this is your problem but it's "typical" of the sort of thing you may run into.

A second "general article," again from the Microsoft SP2 site sidebar, describes symptoms vaguely similar, but not exactly the same as yours, at KB 885523. This article describes symptoms due to noncompliant hardware/software for which there is a specific "fix" that, like the patch for an old BIOS, is only applicable with that particular setup. Since the existence of the conflict may not have been previously detected, you might have missed the update. It is not one that's generally applicable to all machines. Again, this is probably not your specific problem, but will give you an idea of the kind of thing you need to look for.

With the difficulties you've already had, I can understand that maybe you'd rather just "forget about SP2." While I would still recommend that you figure out the problem and get SP2, at this point it's probably more important that you get updated to pre-SP2.

Since you have reinstalled WinXP without SR2 at this point, your present system has none of the prior security patches, so YOU HAVE EVERY SECURITY VULNERABILITY EVER FOUND IN WINXP. Since the older vulnerabilities are well known, there are a lot of "crud mongers" out there searching for machines they can get into. You do need to get to the update site, and get older patches downloaded. If you go to Windows Update and choose "Custom Install" it will allow you to select which updates to download. Just omit SP2. The "Custom Install" will also show you non-critical update that are ignored by "Express Install," some of which will ONLY apply to specific equipment/software configurations. You may be able to recognize one you need that wouldn't be required by most users.

As you've found, having someone service your machine for you can be expensive. Doing it yourself can take significant time and effort. You should have the WinXP installation disk for your machine. Before making another attempt (if you decide to) at installing SP2, I'd strongly recommend that you order the free SP2 CD rather than trying to download. The CD contains nearly all the "pre-fixes" that might be needed, and that might be missed by the web scan/download process. I'd recommend ordering the free CD now, even if you don't think you'll want to install SP2 now.

John