Halo PC and CE Woes with SP2

Posted by: Jake 'ev98' Billo at 01:50 AM 

If you're using Windows XP, chances are you've heard or been prompted to download Windows XP Service Pack 2. I've found quite a few compelling reasons to install it; namely, the firewall being enabled by default should help slow down the rapidity of worms spreading.

It's not perfect - many of us at The Junkyard refuse to use Internet Explorer (even with the security enhancements provided by SP2) and instead recommend going with Mozilla or Firefox for your Web browsing needs. If you're on a Mac, chances are you're using Safari; and Linux users are pretty safe out there with any browser. But SP2 is a step in the right direction.

And there are a few drawbacks when going to a completely new way of thinking about security. Namely, one of the games that we cover - Halo - has its two PC editions (Halo PC and Halo Custom Edition) affected by a few problems with SP2. To fix these problems, you can either uninstall SP2 and keep up to date with other individually issued patches; or try and troubleshoot the problem.

Bungie, Microsoft and Gearbox have released several files to try and resolve issues with the Service Pack; as a result, there are now links in our Halo Files section to the various patches that have been released. In total, there are two possible file replacements (Strings.dll and binkw32.dll), and you can try setting your AGP Aperture size in your BIOS to 128MB (if you don't know what this means, then don't.)

Let us know if these patches help out!

• The Junkyard: Halo Patches, Updates and Additions