I had a poor experience with SP-2. I am a dentist with an 8 computer TCP/IP network and run a well known stable dental management application named Dentrix.

I purchased 4 new Dells with SP2. It took Dentrix 5 to 27 seconds to load a patient file!! My SLOW Dentrix was UN related to virus scanning software. That was one of the first things tried. All virus-related software was disabled in MSconfig AND in Services, then the computer was rebooted. Both Dentrix and the Network settings were played with ad nauseum. All network hardware(router, switch, cables, wall wiring) was taken out of the equation by plugging the affected computer into the Server's NIC with a crossover cable.

Dentrix is a QOS aware application; both additional QOS bandwidth was requested, and then it was disabled. Finally, it was observed that the (4) affected new computers were updated to SP-2. None of the working (8) computers on the network had SP2.

So.....reformated, re-installed WinXP pro SP1 ,necessary drivers and applications.

PROBLEM SOLVED! Dentrix works so fast it appears to be working off a local harddrive.
Quite a difference from a 5 to 27 second chart ot ledger load time!

Its a shame to have to reformat and re-install the OS on 4 brand new (Dell) computers, but that is what ultimately solved the Dentrix slow down.

So that's my SP-2 story...and stay away from the new Dells with SP2!

Steve Denholtz DMD
SD268@Yahoo.com

Hi Steven,

How did you get new machines with a beta service pack intstalled? I'll follow up in e-mail.

Thanks for the note.

Brian

thanx

wasseem@intracom.net.lb

I'm having a simular problem with SP2 - I have it running on a few systems in a mix O/S network. The systems with SP2 are slow and at time non responsive regardless of hardware, software or network position.

I'm currently moving all SP2 systems to either SP1 or Linux.