Do Windows XP updates cause instability?

[ShawnD1]

When I had Win2k installed, my system was rock solid. I could play games, leave the computer on overnight, play games the next day, do kazaa stuff, play more games and it would never crash. A friend of mine has WinXP with absolutely no updates (on a computer wtih no internet) and his computer is rock solid with games. I just recently installed XP on my computer and downloaded all the updates (mostly because of the msblast scare) and it's just incredibly unstable. I can't even play Jedi Knight 2 for more than an hour without my computer freezing or simply restarting with no message.

Is it the Windows updates doing it or is it something else? If it's the updates, is there anything I can do to make it more stable?

[Siliconjunkie]

Have you made sure that the game is patched? Also double check all your drivers, get them from the mfg if you can. Those are the 2 things that come to mind for me.

I have not noticed any stability problems and mine is completely patched except the media center viewer thinger.

\\ull has been up for: 3 day(s), 6 hour(s), 30 minute(s), 37 second(s)

[ShawnD1]

I'm using the same XP/2000 drivers as before, same version of JK2.

[Siliconjunkie]

4in1 if its a VIA chipset. That one gets overlooked alot and makes a big difference.

[pc_dr.j]

Did you reformatted your drive or uninstalled your previous OS before installing XP In my experience, Windows XP installed on top of a previous OS caused some conflicts with the previous OS causing it sometimeS to crash. My suggestion: Save your valuable data, reformat your harddrive then reinstall XP from scratch (Remeber to install XP on NTFS format which is more stable than the FAT32 format)
Hope that helped

[ShawnD1]

I formatted everything before changing OS, even changed the partition tables.

Yes I have the 4in1 driver. I remember it simply because it greatly improves gaming performance

[pc_dr.j]

Hmm... Direct X problems perhaps What version of Direct X are you using Some games have conflicts with computers running on Direct X 9.

[ShawnD1]

DirectX 9b

Come to think of it, I didn't have DX9 when I had 2k and my buddy certainly doesn't have it because no internet.

Is the problem with JK2 or is it with DX9?

[Mate88]

I always had problems with Windows Updates! They caused instability, blue screens of death, even a security (critical) update made my internet go Kaboom! (couldnt use the internet until I uninstalled it and my Norton Internet Security). I dont trust MS anymore, their patches are getting worse, their mentality is insane, as you may know Shawn, I am for now and until something descent is made a Linux (RH 9) user. DX is causing a huge and tremendous problems in XP, specially the "new" one called DX9b which comes after the a edition (dont ask me, I dont know the difference). I would say stick with DX 8.1 which most of the games and porgrams work, DX9 is still too new, few games/programs are specially made for it yet (except for the Matrix game) I use 8.1 (which comes with XP integrated) and flawless it has been until now (never know with MS). But I would recommend you to or use 8.1 or just use Linux (although I must say I also use Windows for only one reason: Games). Hope these advices helps you Shawn

Regards

[dauss]

I've never noticed any problems with any windows updates, except for the Win XP 811493. That one causes a lot of lag, but thats about it. So I uninstalled it. Problem fixed.