I hate Windows 2003!

[]SK[]

I installed Service Pack 1 when it was released last month or so ago. Right after I had nothing but troubles with hardly anything working. After many attempts to uninstall it I had to do it from safe mode. Since then Ive had to rebuild all sorts of things that havent worked since (Terminal Services etc). Today ive found that our fax service isnt working. Each time I try to start the service I get...

Fax Service failed to initialize because it could not initialize the TAPI devices.

 Verify that a fax device is installed and configured correctly.
 Win32 error code: 31.
 This error code indicates the cause of the error.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

I tried a few things before just heading to Add/Remove to remove the Windows Fax software. Ive removed this and rebooted as it asked me to (yay m$). Tried to reinstall which looks to be successful but when I head to
Start > Programs > Accessories > Communications > Fax
its empty. Going back into add/remove it isnt ticked as if to say its installed. It doesnt matter what I do it just wont install. Every time im getting the above error in the event logs when I attempt this install. Ive never been put off my service packs but fuck me this is beyond a joke.

The two other events appear as...

Performance counters for the fax (fax) service were loaded successfully. The Record Data contains the new index values assigned to this service.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

and

The Fax Service was stopped.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Ive reinstalled the modem too.

Ideas?

 

[MYstIC G]

the only idea i have is the one you don't wanna hear... reinstall

 

[Chilly]

reinstall without sp1
For some reason I run 2k3 on my desktop at home, it seems to work for most things but there were a few annoyances I had to hack a bit to work. Shit like usb external drives dont work natively all the time, had to get the chipset drivers specifically, even tho windows xp doesnt need them on exactly the same system. Once its stripped down a bit its not too bad and i'm finding it to be pretty stable as well, its never BSoD'd or crashed in any way,

 

[]SK[]

Rebuilding a domain and exchange isnt a two minute process. Its also something I wouldnt do unless I really really had to.

 

[Xavier]

Hmm, I've got SP1 in the wild but only a couple of machines, right from launch MS hinted there might be problems with Exchange and it running on a DC "in some common configurations" so the only thing I've relied on it for is the improvements to IAS/Radius stuff.

Anyhow, I'd seriously consider getting a spare machine, or two, getting them running and into the AD, then transferring the FSMO roles across and using the recovery storage group to shift your message store (really hoping you're using exchange 2k3). There's very little if anything you can do to repair an install which has been goosed by SP1 from what I've read of EE and the newsgroups...