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12 May 2008
Increasing numbers of Windows XP users are reporting problems after installing Service Pack 3.
Bloggers and vnunet.com readers have reported blue screens of death and eternal reboot cycles, and the problems are causing increasing frustration.
"What a good idea, I thought, and spent quite a bit of time downloading and installing," wrote reader 'Mike Watson'.
"Two hours later, having despaired of getting my system back to where I could actually get some useful work done, I have uninstalled it and have no intention of trying again. I only hope that the routine updates work better."
'Manzana' commented: "I installed SP3 via automatic update. Restarted and got the BSOD. Haven't yet figured out why but the only way to get into Windows was to disable USB in the BIOS and then connect via LogMeIn, then do a system restore."
Feedback to vnunet.com was not all negative, however. Some users praised the update, saying that their machines were running much faster.
A Microsoft employee believes that he may have some of the answers to the SP3 problems.
Dr Jesper Johansson said in his blog that the problems seem to hit AMD systems. "There are many possible reasons why a computer may crash at boot time," he wrote.
"SP3 seems to introduce two that are related to AMD-based computers and, possibly, one or two more that appear to affect Intel-based computers.
"Which one it is impacts which workaround you use. At this point, the information is still trickling in."
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XP SP3
how do I get rid of the yellow shield icon about updates ready? I am not going to download XPSP3 onto my AMD HP machine.
Posted by: rejf 25 Oct 2008
SP3 woes
I too downloaded, installed and lost my puter. Would not have soooo bad if I had known then what I know now. When you get on that never ending looping...click into safe mode...but wait. Have patience...safe mode will come up where you can then RESTORE your puter. YOU DO NOT NEED TO REINSTALL YOUR WHOLE SYSTEM AND LOSE FILE!!
Posted by: sid hulo 03 Jul 2008
wireless net no go
After in stalling sp3 i cant get on internet so removed sp3 and works ok tried it 3 times just to make sure it was sp3 so now running without sp3 fine .. i have AMD TIME PC
Posted by: paul 22 Jun 2008
Scanner & Camer Wizard
After automatic download and installation of SP3 the Scanner & Camera Wizard has gone missing. Still mentioned in Help, but missing from the program list, camera detected but files have to be transferred by dragging in explorer or use of another program.
Posted by: John pingram 07 Jun 2008
Automatic Updates quit working after installing SP3
I installed WindowsXP SP3 on three different machines, and on each one, no other updates would install with Automatic Updates. So I had to remove SP3 to regain use of Automatic Updates.
Posted by: Ken Morrison 29 May 2008
Windows XP SP3 - brilliant.
I am not one to blow the trumpet of Microsoft as I do not agree with their marketing strategy and I will be starting to evaluate Linux soon as I will not be moving from XP to Vista. I installed a new hard disk in my laptop onto which I installed XP SP2 created from the old hard disk. Microsoft update offered me SP3 which I downloaded and installed. I find it brilliant and have had no problems at all. Well done Microsoft.
Posted by: John Grist 15 May 2008
XP SP3
I too downloaded SP3 apparently OK. Start up and go into a vicious crash. End result, I had to use a recovery disc, losing everything I had and have just spent the last three days reloading. Fortunately I always back up anything important BUT!!!
Posted by: Bernard Faulks 14 May 2008
XP SP3
I've recently rebuilt an old Celeron 1.8 Ghz PC and successfully downloaded and installed SP3. Everything works as it should except Windows update which now downloads updates but fails to install them. I had a similar problem with another PC that was caused by the order in which updates were applied. For some reason, even if you have .NET 3, windows update still tries to download .NET SP1 after which you can't install any updates. For some reason I can't rename ebd.log which is the usual cure!
Posted by: Paul Vine 14 May 2008
Windows XP SP3
This installation went absolutely seamlessly for me, which makes a change as I usually have trouble with anything over 40Mb. Took this download from Microsoft's automatic delivery rather than from a third party source. I haven't as yet noticed any real difference but happy not to have problems.
Posted by: Bryan Lillywhite 14 May 2008
Service pack 3 reboots
After dowloading SP3 my HP computer restarted itself in the safe mode3. Had to remove SP 3 while in the safe mode to regain control. SP3 continues to try and reload each time it checks for up dates. All suggested fixes have failed.Having the same prob lems reported by other HP owners. Any Suggestions
Posted by: D.Bain 12 May 2008
Windows XP SP3
My system won't even download SP3. I have an AMD based system.
Posted by: John Howard 12 May 2008