I installed XP Home(SP1) from an OEM disc 2 weeks ago on a new build computer. Yesterday I tentativly installed SP2 from a disc supplied by Micro$oft.
Suprise, suprise all went well with one minor niggle. XP now tells me that my firewall is not turned on - but it is and working well. I turned off the firewall that came with XP and use Black Ice instead.
As for starting up and shutting down - no problems at all (touching wood). All said and done SP2 seems to be working OK for me.
CC