MS support had this to say:
As I understand, after installing SP3, Internet cannot be accessed via both wired and wireless connections. The connections icon cannot be found in Network Connections as well. Meanwhile, it shows a blank page when opening Device Manager. You have already restored the system to resolve the issue without installing SP3.
If I have misunderstood the situation, please let me know.
Thank you for bringing this issue into our attention. Actually, we have received feedback on the similar symptom. The issue has been reported to the Product group and they are working on this issue to try to narrow down the root cause. Thank you for your understanding on this.
For your information, if you have interest on narrowing down the root cause, we can try the following methods to check if we can make any progress. The information can help our product group identify the root cause more effectively:
Note: If you have more urgent issues on hand and do not have time or interest working on this issue, please feel free to let me know. I will archiving our case temporarily.
Suggestion 1: Disable and re-enable Plug and Play services to resolve the Device Manager blank issue:
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1. Click "Start"->"Run", type "services.msc" (without quotation marks) in the open box and click "OK".
2. Double click the service "Plug and Play".
3. Click on the "General" tab; make sure the "Startup Type" is "Automatic".
4.
- If the service is started, please click Stop to disable it and restart the computer. Then, re-start the Plug and Play service using the same method. Restart the computer again.
- If the service is stopped, please click Start and restart the computer to check the result.
Please go to Device Manager to check the result.
Regarding the Internet connection issue, please try the following suggestions:
Suggestion 2: Check network related files and services
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1. Click Start and then Run.
2. Type in "regsvr32 netman.dll" without quotations and then click OK.
3. Check if the connection appears or not, if not, let’s continue performing the following steps:
4. Click Start and then Run. Type in "services.msc" without quotations and then click OK.
5. Double click the Network Connections service to open it. Select the Startup Type to Disable.
6. Restart the computer.
7. Change the Startup Type to Manual
8. Repeat the steps above to start Wireless Zero Configuration service and restart the computer.
8. Check if the services have been started correctly. If not, start the service.
A few days later they asked how it went, and I wrote back saying I hadn't tried installing SP3 again and so hadn't tried their suggestions. They then said this:
Based on the current research, the issue can probably be caused by the conflicts between SP3 and Norton. Please let me know if you have any Norton product installed. [emphasis added by me]
As the issue is not related to only Microsoft, it can hardly to develop any hotfix or update currently as we do not know the detailed design of the Norton products. Hence, we need to try some troubleshooting steps to try to resolve the issue by ourselves at present.
Please be assured that the issue has been reported to both Microsoft and Norton and I believe the relevant engineers are working on this issue to try to make improvement. Thank you for your understanding and patience on this.
I understand that you did not try the suggestions I provided yet. If you need SP3, before trying the steps, I suggest we remove Norton completely. For your convenience, I have listed the steps below:
Step 1: Remove Norton using the uninstall tool:
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1. Please go to the following webpage and choose the proper product to download the Removal tool:Microsoft link
Please Note: The third-party product discussed here is manufactured by a company that is independent of Microsoft. We make no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding this product's performance or reliability.
2. Please run the removal tool to remove Norton.
Step 2: Install SP3 after Norton is removed:
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Please download and install SP3 from the link below:Microsoft XP SP3 link
Please check the result.
If however, you would not like to install SP3 currently, we can also hide the update notification directly. This will not affect your system performance:
To hide the update notification for SP3:
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1. Please go to the following webpage to download Windows Service Pack Blocker Tool Kit
2. Save the file on your Desktop and double click it to run.
3. Choose a folder to extract the files. When the files are all extracted, you will find three files in the folder.
4. Please double click the extracted .exe file to block the SP3 update.
I sincerely hope the above information can be of help with.
[edit: fixed long links.]
Message Edited by Allen_K on 05-22-2008 04:18 PM
