No problems with install of XP SP3.

I installed SP3 this morning, and so far I have'nt had any problems.(xp home ed.)

I've installed it on 1/2 dozen PC's and so far so good.

I loaded it on 2 Pro machines(1 clean test install, 1 install loaded w/ 3rd party apps).
Been running for 3 weeks, no problems. Even seems to start and shutdown faster.

There's talk of OEM driver conflicts on AMD chipsets. I wouldn't know, 1st thing I do w/ a new 'puter is wipe and install a "clean" OS with the hardware manufacturers' drivers and NO bloat-ware.

no problems on sp3 install ,reboot fine
it took like 30 min .
xp home
4 gig mem
intel duo
sata drive

After installing SP3 (on top of Windows XP Home, SP2) I've got a problem with my wireless D-Link DWL-G630:

Wireless does not work, 2 messages appear:

"The procedure entry point apsGetInterfaceCount could not be located in the dynamic link library wlanapi.dll"

"The procedure entry point apsInitialize could not be located in the dynamic link library wlanapi.dll
"

I've installed latest version of D-Link DWL-G630 driver available on www.dlink.com but it doesn't make any difference.

It looks like I have to wait until D-Link releases new driver version for Windows XP,SP3 to get my problem fixed? :((

Updated both of my systems on 5/8/08, one XP Home, other XP Pro. No problems.

I installed Service pack 3 on 2 machines and both crashed big time. After repairing XP automantic updates did not work either. I finally found a fix for updates problem. I then Turned off updates on all my machines in the Domain.

Installed SP3 on my Sony Vaio laptop, 1gig. memory, Pentium M, XP Pro. Left all virus/spyware running, no problems encountered. No problems with built-in wireless (intel).

I isntalled it on XP Pro tpday and it froze on reboot. After 3 attempts, I was able to get to safe mode and do a system restore. I am now back to SP2...

I installed it today on my sony vaio laptop with xp pro, no problems so far and I do notice a little faster load times from the welcome screen.

Quick word of warning: SP3 and Fusion/BootCamp do not play well together. Had my XP machine (Fusion) refuse to reboot ("please wait..." for 4 hours). The virtual machine would not shut down nor reboot. Finally had to force-quit Fusion.

Upgraded Fusion to 2.0beta and XP came up fine. I have not yet tried this with my Parallels install so don't know if the problem will occur there. I'm leery of trying it as there's not a "New Version (even if it's still beta)" out there for Parallels in the event it doesn't go smoothly.

I did read that some were experiencing roll-backs -- ie7 back to 6 (is that a loss?) and WMP11 back to 10 (people use WMP?) but I've seen no settings change in my install.

hi, i tried to install sp3 for my xp pro MCE and when it restarts it just keep restarting, i need help, i went into safe mode and uninstall sp3. everything is back to normal but i want sp3

I installed SP3 on a Gateway with XP Pro Media Center Edition 2002. It had been fully updated with SP1, SP2 and meticulously updated daily for years and was current prior to updating with SP3. Media Center 2002 would no longer function after the update. When trying to launch the TV "Cannot Load Files": Some of the files needed to play radio or video are missing or corrupt. etc". System restore point implemented prior to SP3 and things were back to normal.

hi its james again.. i found a way to get it to work, before i got same error on pro but i fixed it, follow ms guide, it should work, as it worked for me.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/888372/en-us

hey rob for xp pro problem try

To resolve this issue, follow these steps:
1. Restart your computer in Safe Mode.

For additional information about Safe Mode in Windows XP, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
315222 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315222/) A description of the Safe Mode Boot options in Windows XP
2. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
3. Locate and then click the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\Intelppm
4. In the right pane, right-click the Start entry, and then click Modify.
5. In the Value data box, type 4, and then click OK.
6. Quit Registry Editor.
7. Restart your computer.

it worked for me

No problems for me, however, i started with a fresh install of XP pro SP2. Unfortunately, I think the only sure way not to have errors is to do a fresh install then apply SP3.

Installed it this morning on an XP Pro running Office 2007. The computer slowed to a crawl afterwards. Would take 15-20 seconds for the typing to show up on the screen. Apps opened and closed slowly. Will have to slowly tweak it to see if I can get it back to speed.

Interesting enought that the people that did install the SP3 can't seem to get thier computer to boot up... so technically, only the peeps that the pack works for are going to show up here, Indeed it is likly that your not going to hear your discrentled users anytime soon

AOL 9.1 has issues after D/L SP3. AOL comes up with a dialog box to download needed files then asks you to restart windows. Once I restart windows, the process starts all over again. I downloaded a clean downloaded reinstall of AOL 9.1 with the same results happening.
Ideas anyone?
garybelzman@aol.com

My conclusion is that SP3 is Microsoft's way of subtly telling us that they've really moved on and aren't going to be putting much work into XP beyond some security updates. If their intention was something other than sending that message, I don't know what it was. B/c after skimming MS's white paper and reading Rob and Krebs's columns, it seems that SP3 doesn't really do anything that concerns 95% of us.

I don't think the bundle of security updates is a big deal. B/c the type of people that haven't been installing security updates aren't likely to go through the trouble of installing a new service pack.

From the other comments, I can tell that there is some risk in installing SP3. So the downside is there's a small risk of complications with your system. But what's the upside? I'm not sure.

So Rob, if I could suggest a follow-up story: What's the Point of SP3?

no problems what so ever !!

Tried to install sp3 in XP Media edition It froze my pc two times. Had to do a system recovery,to get everything working. Will not try to install sp3 again

I installed XP SP3 two days ago on my Lenovo Thinkpad T61, which runs XP Pro and has had all of the available patches up to last weeks installed. For some completely incomprehensible reason, it disabled my anti-virus, re-enabled its security center (which I disable in services), and then warned me that my AV wasn't working! Go figure....

However, once I'd simply re-enabled the AV and rebooted, everything worked. No sign of the continual reboot problem here.

I installed SP3 several days ago, and have had about 5 updates which attempt and fail each day since. I have messed around and eliminated all of the problems except a problem with Java JRE 1.5.x / 5.x.
Wish I had waited. Cheers!

Updated 2 Windows XP Professional machines with no problems. Also updated 3 notebooks, 2x Toshiba and 1x Acer, all with Windows XP Home Edition, and they are now SP3 without any issues.

I am sure to get a few requests from family to update their XP machines tomorrow, being Mother's day and all :)

The only problem I encountered was not being able to switch users once. I have never encountered this before and it happened the day after installing SP3, so I assume its related. However, after restarting my computer the problem was resolved (at least for now).

Running SP3 on a few machines now - both Home and Pro, I found it installs fine, but there is an issue with the remote desktop client - can be resolved by copying mstsc.exe and mstscax.dll from an SP2 machine into the system32 folder. This problem occurs if you've installed the ts client update from Windows update, you have to uninstall this prior to installing SP3, or do the workaround (which is easier IMO!).

Operating XP Home Edition. Have my unit up to date but encountered problems with SP 3. Won't let me do a System Restore. Took me a few hours for it to upgrade because of a 256 MHz ram. However, since the update, it won't let me remove another program and it seems to be the same problem that I have on Vista. I wonder if this patch has similarities to that of Vista? Seriously thinking of removing the update or re-installing Windows. Not impressed and prior to this upgrade, no problems.

1 pc went on no problems, 2nd pc had lost device manager and networks. Had to goto safemode regedit and delete loads entries all had stuff like $0123+-/ after that rebooted and all working fine.
:)

I hear a lot of complaints about SP3 + XP Media Center Edition . . . Is that only for MCE 2002 or are MCE 2005 computers having trouble too? I'm going to reinstall Windows before I install SP3.

On responding to the above I.T story, Microsoft needs to provide a PLEASE EXPLAIN to it customers and overall, I'm not impressed with having to spend more time sorting through this mess. I knew something was wrong 24 hours ago when it took me hours to download SP3. Whilst I don't have any problems with SP3 replacing all previous updates and just having one, now I await the updates from Microsoft via the automatic download tool. I have advised others that I communicate with via a online forum and email - to be cautious of SP3 and I pose this question to the Washington Post. As there are Windows XP users having some problems as a result of downloading the patch;is this fine-tuning anything to do with its lastest operating system in through the back door? I have on my computer, Advanced Uninstaller Pro and the same on my other computer which has Vista. I note that 2010 could see Microsoft releasing another operating system - I think called Windows 7. I'm not a computer expert but a company like Microsoft should be better with its products and better customer service relations. As a regular subscriber to I.T news, Microsoft needs to become more accountable to its customers. Didn't I also read a report where Vista is like Windows M.E?????

From East Coast of Australia

Installed it yesterday. No problems so far.

I really don't understand why people are so quick to install these Microsoft SP updates. I personally will sit back for a few months and see what happens. I don't use IE as a browser and my firewall/anti-virus is continuously being updated. That's all I need.

This is another example of Microsh*t's "Shovelware".

They shovel it out and leave you to report the bugs. It is cheaper than paying staff to do a diligent debug.

PLEASE will someone write an OS that actually works!!

im running a media center xp, and after listening to the troubles people are having on that os, im definitely not going to try sp3.
thanks for the warnings

After installing Service Pack-3 on my Computer running Duo-Core Intel 2.8 GHZ and 4 GB RAM, on start up's only slower start ups.
Italian Stallion Computer Doctor

Have Xp pro SP2 and go to intall it as its performing inventory gets 3 mins into that then comes up internal error in 1 dialogue box and sp3 setup failed in another box, so no luck from here rebooted everything still no go ran chkdsk ran my raxco perfectdisk still nothing

I'm not even going to try it. We're keeping one machine with XP Pro for legacy but going to Linux on the rest of the network.

I manage to get it to install by disabling intelppm, but after that the internet has problems.

Installed SP3 yesterday, and it practically destroyed my laptop. Laptop wouldn't start, then drivers missing left and right, lost Windows Media Player, Defrag doesn't work anymore. At this point, I am doing a fresh install of Windows, because nothing else can fix it.
Lovely.
I should have kept Linux on the laptop, like I had in the first place. Oh, well.

Linux or OSX are OS's that have worked for quite some time now. Angry with MS? Now is as good a time to switch as any. Fact is you don't need windows. True there are some ways they exploit vendor lock in via office or IIS but you can work around those almost entirely. Few people will actually find a real reason to install windows or PC Office on their systems.

Tired of Windows? There is a free fix available at the following websites:
www.ubuntu.org
www.fedora.org

Afraid of UNIX or don't want to dive in the deep end with both feet?
go to your apple store

In 2 attempts to install SP3, I get the Access Denied error message.

Installed on two PC's

1) Inspiron 530 Quad Core2 - went smooth

2) Toshiba Sattelite M55 Centrino 1.8MHz - went smooth

As noted in the article, XP Pro was unstable from the start. Bad idea to run XP SP3. Most likely your security permissions (ACL) were all hosed up in the registry and system directory. Especially if you are using NTFS. XP home uses simple file sharing security. it all depends on your file system, big difference between FAT and NTFS.

I installed service pack Ubuntu Linux 3 years ago and haven't had any need to go back to windows. best OS i've ever used.

I had tried to install on a computer that had a beta version of sp3 on--Would not install. Keep getting access denied error. Followed Microsoft's kb suggestions. Didn't work, had to roll back to SP2

Did a clean reinstall of XP Pro on one system and installed SP2 & SP3. No problem. On another system uninstalled the RC2 of SP3 and installed the final. No problems.

SP3 and Media 2005 do not mix. Worked OK for XP Home and XP Pro. Had to reinstall software for Media. Tried the SP3 download twice with same result. Media is on my daughters PC, after not being able to use her computer on a rain soak Saturday. I am sure she will be a APPLE convert soon.

I installed sp3 on a xp pro box without any problems, I have been running this build for five years properly maintained.
Holding off mobile devices as i am a DLink user.
I also dual boot the latest version of ubuntu and find myself on that side of the fence if i don't need to use microsoft based applications.
Haven't seen a BSOD using linux.....yet
Aloha

The industry of fear hits again!

I just don't see why you would wilfully bloat once more your PC if you already have SP2, a firewall, and some antivirus scans? The only ones who really need the latest security updates are:
-business computers (serious stuff)
-downloading stuff somewhat illegal (likely filled with nasty surprises, you pr*ck!)

Besides, what did you get with XP that you did not have before in w2k, except loose your money and annoying presets treating users as absolute nuts? Well that's what they are when they upgrade and just don't know why! And now, the idiots have once again upgraded... this time to Vista. At least some have begun to confess their foolishness by downgrading.

The industry of fear hits again!

I just don't see why you would wilfully bloat once more your PC if you already have SP2, a firewall, and some antivirus scans? The only ones who really need the latest security updates are:
-business computers (serious stuff)
-downloading stuff somewhat illegal (likely filled with nasty surprises, you pr*ck!)

Besides, what did you get with XP that you did not have before in w2k, except loose your money and annoying presets treating users as absolute nuts? Well that's what they are when they upgrade and just don't know why! And now, the idiots have once again upgraded... this time to Vista. At least some have begun to confess their foolishness by downgrading.

How is the average person going to understand all of this.
I loaded sp3 last night. took 1 hour.
Had problems starting up this morning.
Had to reboot as it froze.
Not a professional just a old mum trying to learn the computer.
Have had problems with sp2 hope sp3 will fix my problems.
not holding my breath waiting

I have installed XP SP3 on XP Prof. works fine. No issues.

Installed on work land pc's no problems, installed on personal laptop running XP Home and now cannont connect remotely to work PC. This is purely an SP3 problem as have a desktop running SP2 and having no connection issues

Installed today into XP Pro. Since then, Windows has stalled when completing one of its functions--uninstalling a program via Add or Remove Programs, and moving a shortcut within the Start | Programs list. But this happened only the first time I did it and has not recurred.

Installed xp3 and its great.

pbl,
Your advice on not needing to download security updates if you have AV, firewall, and safe browsing habits is the digital equivalent of telling somebody it's safe to play in traffic if they're careful.

Tons of websites are distributing malware not because their owners want to, but because somebody hacked the site.

I initially installed full release a week ago, after which my machine rebooted continuosuly.
i restored an image of the system
i then installed from the windows update site yesterday, smaller file size and it all wroked well.
Funny thing though my printing setup for Adobe under Autocad was messed up and needed a bit of tinkering , same on 2 other machines)
Otherwise works well.
i suggest only install from updates and then only what you need is installed.

Downloaded SP3 on my XP pro desktop and had to reset svchost in zonealarm.
Downloaded SP3 on my XP home desktop and had to turn AVG e-mail scanner back on.
Downloaded SP3 on my XP pro laptop, no problems.
Downloaded SP3 on my XP home laptop, no problems.
It may have dropped my download/upload speed just a little, but not entirely sure yet.
Overall it seems fine!

I installed SP3 on my AMD duel core. It failed to restart. I was able to gain access in Safe Mode. I removed SP3 and all is well with my machine. I will wait until MS fixes this bug before I reinstall SP3.

I installed SP3 with XP Pro today and I created a disaster.
1. Printer driver for Brother MFC 7820N did not work anymore
2. Printer driver for Brother MFC 8440D did nor work anymore
3. Printing tp ADOBE (6.0 Professional) does not work anymore.
4. Adress bar at the taskbar disappeared

I restored my computer back to it's previous state and everything is working just fine!

Absolutely fine win xp sp3 refresh.....
but with sp3 it first didnt support few drivers which i think worked fine with sp3 refresh.

Installed on my dads computer, bios would load, windows would fail, try to force it with normal boot, blue screen, tried safe mode, that failed to load, restored to SP2, yeah think you Microsoft, also, my computer isn't offered SP3, but my dads is

Installed on my dads computer, bios would load, windows would fail, try to force it with normal boot, blue screen, tried safe mode, that failed to load, restored to SP2, yeah think you Microsoft, also, my computer isn't offered SP3, but my dads is

is good

Installed on my Medion lappy.
Installed fine..PC still works fine no probs.
Running XP Home.

Installed yesterday morning as part of weekly maintenance on a Compaq, and saw same freeze (not able to reboot in any mode). I restored the system "out of the box" and am now putting it back together. SP3 is not for me, I'll wait the usual time until Microsoft figures out the issues through others work.

I installed it on a clients HP M7360n. It had the XP Media edition on it. Since the SP3 install I have not been able to do any recommended updates or updates to windows defender. I am currently uninstalling SP3 and hopefully this will fix the issues.

I installed it on a clients HP M7360n. It had the XP Media edition on it. Since the SP3 install I have not been able to do any recommended updates or updates to windows defender. I am currently uninstalling SP3 and hopefully this will fix the issues.

Its Marco again, I uninstalled SP3 and now I can do all updates. I can also update windows defender. If you install SP3 be sure to check updates.

Tried twice to update but each time it stopped towards the end of the process and wouldn't finish. I will wait before I try again.

Danger!
Ran the standalone update on a MediaCenter XP machine and the machine would only boot to safe mode after install. What a joke!

Ran the standalone update on an old Dell laptop and it took awhile to install but came back up Ok.

i just installed sp3, aside from a small slowdown due to not re-booting, the system is fine.

installed sp3 on a hp machine running xp pro media. endless reboots. was able to get a good restore point in safe mode. i'll wait for a fix before i try again.

installed sp3 on a hp machine running xp pro media. endless reboots. was able to get a good restore point in safe mode. i'll wait for a fix before i try again.

SP3 Installed it and the computer froze 3 times. 1st time I finally got the safe mode to work and got it back The other two times It just refused to do anything #3 Pulled the plug out and cut power off completely. Then when I got control of the PC, did a sytem restore. SP3 is gone bye bye and I did cart wheels down the main street. A better name "crap 3" It was a total waste of time. Now I understand it be installed in the near future as an automatice update.

Just update to sp3 on 3 computers without any problem.All xp home edition, Dell, Toshiba nad Compac EvO. To be fair...we do not see any diference. But, at the least, is done..!

Just update to sp3 on 3 computers without any problem.All xp home edition, Dell, Toshiba nad Compac EvO. To be fair...we do not see any diference. But, at the least, is done..!

Just update to sp3 on 3 computers without any problem.All xp home edition, Dell, Toshiba nad Compac EvO. To be fair...we do not see any diference. But, at the least, is done..!

Tried the SP3 update on my HP dv8327cl with XP media and SP2. It failed by going into what appeared to be an endless loop. I let it set for about 8 hours. No help. I closed the cover and then a few hours later opened it up and it came out of hibernate mode but still in the "installing" loop but with a message indicating that the installation was incomplete. I forced a shutdown by holding down the power button. Now when it restarts the windows onecare program says there is a problem. I've tried to the "fix", uninstall it, install it again, install the new beta, run onecare cleanup... all no help except now it appears I don't have onecare (firewall or AV). The MS windows security center says I have multiple AV programs installed but doesn't tell me which ones. That's a lot of help (not).
Did I mention I sure like Ubuntu.

Downloaded SP3 to my laptop. Wireless stopped working. No internet access. Tried everything I could think of, but no luck. Uninstalled SP3.....wireless works fine. I don't get it??????

computer wont boot up after installing sp 3. Another MS shoddy work product. Why don't I ever learn not be tempted by their "upgrades."

I installed sp3 twice & failed twice to restart my computer. I had to go to safe mode & restore my comuter to a previous date in order to get it to reboot. I am back to sp2 now. Can you tell how to overcome this problem?

Thanks

Installed SP3 on my Dell desktop with XP Home. All my network connections and settings went away. Also, My Computer now shows a blank page. Device manager also shows a blank page. I uninstalled SP3 but all the problems still persist. Worse, System Restore will not restore to any restore point. I must format and reinstall everything again. But not SP3!

Did 12 or so Dells at work and my Home, Pro and MCE machines and 2 Pro VM's with no issues

Installed Thursday on Panasonic Toughbook XPPRO and have had 4 BSODs when in IE. Error says driver issue.

Upgraded 2 HP PC's (1 desktop, 1 laptop) with AMD processors, all updates had been kept up, and both were in prefect working condition running SP2.

1 survived without incident - thankfully.

1 didn't. Wouldn't reboot, required a system restore to bring it back to life, also meant I had to reinstall SP2, IE7, and a lot of time and work wasted. Still don't have the wireless working, I wish I could bill HP or MS for my time..

Installed XP3...now can't encode video in MPEG 1 or MPEG 2 in Adobe Premiere 1.5. WAIT to install XP3!

Three failed attempts to download XP3 and the fourth attempt didn't show that it was downloaded but as it went on to the installation mode I let it run (sat and watched with all fingers and toes crossed!) It seems to have worked alright BUT time will tell!

Installed it yesterday and crashed couldnt boot up to my settings after numerous trys..After running the recovery disk tryed it again today and also same problem,crashed...

Choked because it couldn't find beethoven9.wma.. I had to change permissions on all users\doucments and settings and then it worked! Microsoft is just getting worse and worse. I will probably never buy a machine with XP or Vista for myself. Thank goodness the OS is becoming less important as everything moves to the web..

Have decided NOT to install SP3 on any of our Windows PCs.

Given the problems we've been having with our Apple PowerBook G4's (not Intel) since downloading recent Apple software updates (aimed primarily at the new Intel-based computers), we've noticed many problems (vertical lines one-pixel-wide suddenly appearing on PowerBook screens immediately after each download & remaining; inability to print from ANY program; inability to access Bookmarks after most recent download; more frequent "beachballs" and "force quits", etc.) ...

We are wondering if the latest software downloads from both MS and Apple are perhaps designed to make users of older systems so dissatisfied with their older systems that they decide to spend the money to just buy a new computer with the latest OS? Sort of a surreptitious backdoor way of encouraging new computer and software sales?

I'd love to see an article about the Apple "vertical screen lines" problem. I watched 4 lines appear immediately after restarting after a recent download of 4 updates (Quicken, iTunes, Security Update, Safari upgrade), and watched a 5th line "shimmer in" over time until it is now also a permanent fixture. The latest Safari upgrade also caused me to lose access to my Bookmarks.

Both sons-in-law are computer techs and can't find anything anywhere about Apple admitting to the "vertical screen lines" problem on any Apple-oriented or otherwise sites, blogs, etc.

Both my husband's and my Apples are afflicted with the vertical screen lines (his was affected first after installing PowerPC), and one daughter's Apple and son-in-law's Apple are also afflicted, and they know numerous other Apple owners similarly afflicted.

Our Apple-owning son-in-law tech says that the older PowerBook G4's are more reliable (sans new upgrades) and safer from viruses, etc. than the newer Intel-based Apples. But it is nearly impossible to find any PowerBook G4's for sale any longer.

We've written to Apple warning that unless they admit to known existing problems with their computers, which are the crux of their company, their continuing denial of the known problem (e.g., the "vertical screen lines") will likely wind up causing Apple to lose more computer business as more people will turn to Linux or UNIX instead, and Apple will be left relying on its iPods and iPhones to financially carry their company.

We asked for a response re: the vertical screen lines problem but although my email was personally acknowledged as received (by a representative in the Small Business Dept) and forwarded to appropriate personnel, I have not as yet heard anything from Apple regarding the problem either directly or indirectly.

Other than the problems mentioned above, we've found the Apples to be vastly more reliable and safer than any of the Windows PC's or laptops we've owned (from various mf'ers including HP, Dell, etc.)

However, given the propensity of viruses written for Intel chips (regardless of OS), we don't want a new Intel Apple and may wind up going with Linux instead if Apple doesn't start offering an alternative to Intel-chip-based computers.

No problems, got rid of a minor but annoying disk error after installing 3. So Windos works better now than before.

Lost all printer and file sharing on home/office network after SP3 upgrade. Removed all network connections/devices, renamed host computer, made sure firewall allowed file/printer sharing, made sure folder/file properties set to share. Still no luck. Going back to SP2. Can't wait till I purchase my next machine with Vista. Not!!

Apparently SYS above thinks the rest of the world (or the Washington Post for that matter) cares about disadvantaged families using ancient versions of Macware.

Just got "Access Denied" with no details followed by "Service Pack 3 installation did not complete. Select 'OK' to undo the changes that have been made. This was after hours of downloading installing, etc. Great job Microsoft! How is the view from the Ivory Towers?

As soon as XP3 was installed on my system, my CPU usage went up to 100%. Everything was a crawl. Being the noncomputer expert, and the advice received, I was told my computer had been hijacked. See how nieve a lot of us people are out there?

I then proceeded to wipe out my hard drive and reinstall my operating system, and it worked fine. Went to Windows to install updates and immediately after XP3 installed, it began running at 100% and crawling. I will stick to XP2, now that I have read that I'm not the only one with problems.

On another note, my boyfriend installed XP3 on his computer and it crashed it immediately!

Having read the above warnings and others' I'll wait for long.

Recently installed SP1 on Vista and all h* broke loose. Lost connection both on wired and wireless - drivers were up to date. Luckily uninstalling recovered the machine. Since my old ADSL modem blew up in the same days and was replaced with a newer one, I won't be able to find out if the serious incompatibility of Vista and older IP address negotiation was solved.

I just installed SP3 on a machine that had been giving me problems, the biggest one being a bad memory leak that affected both Firefox and IE: If I left a window open on a site like the WSJ that automatically refreshes periodically, the browser would quickly grow like the Borg to swallow up all available resource 'till the machine was basically little more than a space heater.

SP3 turned out to be a very pleasant surprise: Suddenly the machines is responsive again and that memory leak is fixed. I'm a happy camper.

do sp3 has improved firewall - i mean a two way firewall? please answer guys...

Installed in on my XP Professional. The computer couldn't reboot the first couple of times i hit restart. Had to manually switched off the computer and restart. It works fine then.

No problems installing XP SP3 on three desktops - two running XP Home, one running XP Pro. One machine hiccupped during the install and so SP3 install had to be run again.

My Toshiba laptop runing XP Home is a different kettle of fish. Five attempts to install and all failed. I get the 0X8007F0DA error code and a statement that says "Service pack 3 setup error. Set up could not verify the integrity of the file update.inf. Make sure the Cyptographic Service is running on this computer".

I checked the settings for the Cryptographic Service in Accessories>System Tools>System Information>Software Environment>Services>Cryptographic Services and it is set up exactly as the other PC's are.

Looks like the laptop is staying at SP2 level.....unable to install SP3 so I'm giving up on the laptop for now.
Phil (York, England)

Tried to install SP3 last night on one of my laptops, a Dell inspiron 1520. The installation program appeared to go into an infinite loop; consumed 100% of CPU for over 45 minutes, machine locked up, began getting hot, process explorer stopped advancing CPU/IO indicators, etc. Pressed the 'cancel' button on the install, but no response after 20 minutes of waiting. Finally did a hard reset. Spent some dicey hours trying to get the system restored, finally managed to recover after going into safe mode. System seems to have recovered and is now back to SP2. *Whew!*

Compaq Presarion XP home crashed on boot
Reformated to factory spec and intalled then crashed on boot again

SP3 will not go on this computer for any reason - sucks

Sony Vaio laptop XP Home worked ok

MS is going down fast

Service Pack 3?
No problems actually.
Plenty of 3 party apps.
Dual screen works fine.
Start up and shut down seems faster also.
Did not take long to install actually.
I dual boot with Linux Ubuntu and the dual book and Linux still work great like nothing happened.

About my comp:
Dell Dimension E521
Graphic Card XFX GeForce 7300 256mb with dual screen set up.
AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual Core Processor 3600 1.90 GHz
1 GB of ram.

This is Windows XP Service Pack 3. Bow down unto my superiority.

installed sp3 on a toshiba satellite laptop, now when i close the lid it hibernates but when i open it nothing happens

I installed Service pack 3, and i use the D-Link Wireless USB adapter, and i had problems with it...
after when i installed it, i got those 2 error messages...

"The procedure entry point apsGetInterfaceCount could not be located in the dynamic link library wlanapi.dll"

"The procedure entry point apsInitialize could not be located in the dynamic link library wlanapi.dll
"

i dont know why it does that

: /

XP Service Pack 3 - caused wireless problems.

I upgraded two computers in the agency where I work to XP Service Pack 3. Both computers connect to the Internet via wireless via usb adapters. One uses a D-Link (wireless N) and the other was Linksys (Wireless B).

After the installation neither computer would connect to the WAP. I had to completely remove XP Service Pack 3 from both computers to re-establish their wireless connection and the Internet.

I wasted approximately two and half hours to deal with this problem.

Since this problem occurred across brands I don't think it will matter what is being used and so I didn't think it necessary to list the exact models of the adapters here. The problem is specific to all as far as I can tell. Therefore, I don't recommend installing XP Service Pack 3 if the computer(s) in questions has/have to connect to the Net via usb wireless network adapters.

what is the meanning of widows xp service pack 3 explan

RE: Stuart:
This is another example of Microsh*t's "Shovelware".

They shovel it out and leave you to report the bugs. It is cheaper than paying staff to do a diligent debug.

PLEASE will someone write an OS that actually works!!

3 x MCE2005 machines and SP3 = Not woking, first time system restore saved me for dayes of work. How can Microsoft do this blunder in 2008??

Installed SP3 today. My computer refused to reboot. I had to boot in safe mode and do a system restore to yesterday. So I am back to SP2. Guess I will give it some time like lots of others. I currently have Windows XP Media Center edition.

Oh yeah, after I did the system restore my Help and Support Center page from the start menu changed. Guess I will have to wait and see if anything else got screwed up and not changed back to the previous resore point.

Good going Microsoft. Maybe my next set of computers will be MAC.

I downloaded SP3 on my HP Media Windows XP & spent the 5 hours & all day saturday on-line with the HP tech to get it working again. It kept on rebooting after installation & had to go into recovery - keep changing my IP address so that I couldn't connect to the internet. Finally got it working but I am afraid of ever installing it again.

I've had 2 failures on XP PRO SP2 on older AMD machines. One was an Athalon 1400 with 512MB, the other a 2400 with 1 GB. Neither would boot to safe mode, had to boot to SP 2 CD and rerepair the install. Then was able to run the SP3 CD and do the update.

1 AMD Athalon 2000 with XP home SP2 installed with no problems

Installed SP3 on XP Pro, unable to reboot. Had to go to Safe Mode, restore to earlier point, back to SP2. All is well. I should have learned my lesson by now.

After updating 3 PCs with SP3 we can't install any MS updates. They simply fail. Don't know why.

SP3 totally broke my wireless connection. Initially thought it was spyware or something that didn't allow Internet Explorer to connect to broadband, however after many hours of scanning and anti-virus checking - nada. Uninstalling it was the only solution.

Installed SP3 a few days ago on a Thinkpad T42 and my Thinkpad a/b/g wireless stopped working. It shows that it is on and I have reinstalled the drivers but it is not able to detect any wireless networks.

May 21, 2008

For those with HP PC's with AMD processors, before getting XP SP3 go to www.hp.com to download and install "Microsoft Windows XP SP3 Upgrade Utility for Systems with AMD Processors" - sp37394.exe

So I did the install of SP3 on my desktop running XP Professional. It seemed to go flawlessly till it decided to do a restart.
It came up and froze (hung) at the MS logo screen. Had to use the manual reset button. It won't even load into any of the safemode options. (like the last known good boot)
Now I'm stuck with a total reload of windows from the CD. Thanks a bunch to MS for this worthless and dangerous update.

It deleted my devices from device manager and does not recognize the network adapter. I have had it with big Bill, I am going to my MAC, this is a bunch of crap

XP SP 3 has been a real nightmare for me.

I am the IT person for a property management company. When XP's SP3 was released recently, I installed (via remote) on all the computers in that company.

Four days go by and I hear that the Pavilion was stuck in safemode. I go in to check it out and the computer is in real distress. (This particular machine sits in an temporarily unoccupied office. This machine has been thru quite a bit prior to this.) Several of the employees will use this computer for time sheets and different things.

No one could tell me when it went down, or why. The owner told me she would turn it on and go back to work, then check it later and it would be restarting itself in safemode. I took it home and checked the hard drive (because it acted as though the hard drive was going, and was giving similar messages). I figured it was either a bad driver, or the hard drive going bad.

All the tests came back fine. So I jerked out the drive and hooked it to my PC to back it up while I could. The hard drive turned itself off 3-4 times while I tried to back it up with Acronis.

I went thru Recovery Consul umpteen times and used the SeagateTools which found a bad block.

It would test OK, then test bad. I began to suspect the motherboard.

So I use the built-in recovery system and had to begin reinstalling all the proper goodies and updatess.

I get to the last items on my list: XP SP3, IE7, Mike's NoAdHosting, McAfee Site Advisor.

I download/install the XP SP3 then reboot and WHAMEE! The machine is totally wack-o-la again!

Do you realize how embarrassing and just plain goofy it all is? The time I wasted?

I didn't realize there was a problem at all until the owner of the company called me. And I asked her when the problems started, but she couldn't pinpoint it.

Pretty ironic all the way around! :) But at least I solved the mystery and this computer has had the best tune-up it's EVER had. ;)

Thanks for letting me contribute,
Native

Update, I just uninstalled the offending XP SP3 thru Add/Remove Programs and rebooted. VOILA! It's back to normal without the constant rebooting and safemode only garbage! Yippee skippee.

Anyone who starts off something like this saying "I'm an IT professional" is lying.

People, did any of you brilliant posters think about posting your system specs?

Likely, most of the boxes you've been experimenting with are pre-loads off a mass production image because you lot certainly couldn't build your OWN machines - so thank Dell, Gateway, and those mongrels for your problems, not Microsoft.

Honestly, I think just reading these reviews has inspired me to =never= place any faith is such as this - as the level of idiocy and sheer ridiculousness amazes me.

Do what the real professionals have been doing since NT4 - wait several months before installing any SP - and have a known good backup of the OS BEFORE you install.

Regards,

Frey

To make a long story short "Beware XP Media Edition users with SP3." It seems to be a common cause of problems. I didn't enjoy it! Learn from other people's mistakes as well as your own. Back up, back up, back up!!

Win XP SP2 MCE 2004 well-maintained w/ all updates and no malware. It auto-downloaded and installed SP3 last night and now it's impossible for me to get on the internet, even w/ going back to an earlier Restore Point.

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