SP1, ummm, is it a bug or a blessing?

[NeuroManson]

Okay, finally broke down and installed the beast... Same one up at http://download.microsoft.com/downlo...sp1_en_x86.exe , so I know it's the real deal... However, I ran into an odd occurance:

During the first attempt at installing, it stalled while backing up files, no biggy, it wasn't officially finished... However, when exited, I found my IP was changed to 169.x.x.x, with a subnet of 255.255.0.0, rendering my network connection nil (til I refreshed my IP)...

On the second attempt at installing, it worked just fine, even fixed an annoying little bug in the systray that prevented some of my icons from showing at all... System appears to load slightly faster (I'm guessing 5-8 seconds faster, no biggie), but once again, changed my IP to the aforementioned 169.x.x.x, subnet 255.255.0.0... Problem was fixed the same way...

Has anyone else experienced this, and does anyone have any idea what could have caused it?

[keeshond]

Sounds like your PC can't find a DHCP server directly or by broadcasting a request. As a last resort, 2k/XP will assign itself an IP address in the range of 169.254.0.1 to 169.254.255.254 with a subnet of 255.255.0.0. If DHCP worked fine until the SP1 upgrade, sounds like a bug to me... or maybe there's a caveat that both client and server must be at SP1 for DHCP to work properly (just theorizing). If refreshing your IP after booting gets you online, you could always plug in a login script to refresh it for you automatically with ipconfig (until you find out for sure what's going on).

[NeuroManson]

Originally posted by keeshond
Sounds like your PC can't find a DHCP server directly or by broadcasting a request. As a last resort, 2k/XP will assign itself an IP address in the range of 169.254.0.1 to 169.254.255.254 with a subnet of 255.255.0.0. .

That sounds pretty probable... Also, I'm connected to the cable modem via hub, running Sygate server (just using what I know how to configure, instead of fiddling with internet sharing)... Since it's running as single NIC enabled, it may be possible that Windows XP (following service pack installation) doesn't see beyond a hub... Why it occured only after installing SP1 though, is a mystery... When originally installed, it had no problems with connecting to the DHCP server... Of course, this could all be a fluke due to how SP1 sets it's configuration files upon reboot/completion...

I'll post an update after rebooting, in case it either doesn't repeat or in case it does...

Oh- As for another stupid SP1 trick: If the install works fine, and you want to remove the backup data that the installer dumps to your HD (often in the 800+MB range), how do you go about it? Add/Remove Software doesn't show a "remove uninstall information" option...

[keeshond]

I forgot all about those uninstall files it archived. Thanks for reminding me. I just now deleted them by going into the Windows directory and deleting the directory $NtServicePackUninstall$. I didn't see an entry in Add/Remove Programs, either.