Crap SP3 update

If anyone reads this DO NOT load this piece of junk update that destroys your
system. I upgraded and my system would barely boot up in safe mode after a
few tries. I did a resotre and my printer scanner doesnt work , can't
reinstall the softwaqre, Both my Symantic Norton and Stopzilla software
aren't working anymore and I'll probably have to do a system restire and have
to reload everything I had o0n my system again costing me tens of hours and
more in downtim4e trying to get my business back up. Mac is my next system ,
thanks Microsoft!!~!

Your results are NOT the results that many others, including myself, have had.

Sorry you had trouble updating your specific computer.
I have updated a few hundred with Windows XP SP3 without any major issues.

I suggest that you find out what with your specific system and settings
(software, hardware, etc) has caused the issue with Windows XP SP3. I would
then properly prepare in the future before you install something as large as
a service pack (SP3 contains SP1a, SP2 and 1174+ updates after SP2 until
SP3.) Here's some stuff to consider...

A place to get FREE support for SP3 installation issues *from Microsoft*...
http://support.microsoft.com/oas/def...3&gprid=522131


Release Notes for Windows XP Service Pack 3
http://download.microsoft.com/downlo...1/relnotes.htm

Key things to note:

Internet Explorer:
"If you have installed Windows Internet Explorer® 7 or a beta version of
Internet Explorer 8, and then install Windows XP SP3, you cannot uninstall
Internet Explorer. To avoid this, ensure Internet Explorer 7 or a beta
version of Internet Explorer 8 is not installed before installing Windows XP
SP3. If you have already encountered this issue, uninstall Windows XP SP3,
uninstall Internet Explorer, and then reinstall Windows XP SP3."

Windows XP Media Center Edition 2002:
"If you install Windows XP SP3 on a computer running Windows XP Media Center
Edition 2002 with SP1, Windows XP Media Center Edition may malfunction. To
avoid this, install Windows XP SP2 before you install Windows XP SP3. If
this issue has already occurred, uninstall Windows XP SP3, install Windows
XP SP2, and then reinstall Windows XP SP3."

It seems some people are unable to get further updates after installing
SP3... Seems some have experienced a symptom similar to doing a repair
installation on Windows XP - and the same fix seems to work for them for
that...

Updates are not installed successfully from Windows Update, from Microsoft
Update, or by using Automatic Updates after you repair a Windows XP
installation
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/943144

Some people experience an "endless reboot" issue...

Hi ther,

I feel your pain.

Howerver in life we have to learn lessons and we all pay the price for
those lessons.

One thing is sure: MS recommands to backup before making major changes to
an operating system.

A tool like acronis True Image or norton ghost makes a total systembackup in
about 15 minutes and takes about the same amount of time to restore that
total system backup.

So spending hours restoring is not needed at all.

Save yourself a lot of work and get a simulair tool and LET IT WORK FOR YOU,
so you can spent time on the nicer things in life ;)

Best regards,
Michel Denie




"Rick Williams" <RickWilliams@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:3D4C492E-92B6-4455-85D3-0BA7B7F6220F@microsoft.com...
> If anyone reads this DO NOT load this piece of junk update that destroys
> your
> system. I upgraded and my system would barely boot up in safe mode after a
> few tries. I did a resotre and my printer scanner doesnt work , can't
> reinstall the softwaqre, Both my Symantic Norton and Stopzilla software
> aren't working anymore and I'll probably have to do a system restire and
> have
> to reload everything I had o0n my system again costing me tens of hours
> and
> more in downtim4e trying to get my business back up. Mac is my next system
> ,
> thanks Microsoft!!~!

Hi
I have three PCs, all kept up-to-date and in 'good shape' (OSs clean and stable) - Windows Update has always been important for me - not least the security fixes - and my PCs have always behaved perfectly normally (as they should) to all Win XP SP2 updates previously.
However, XP (Home & Pro) SP2 doesn't 'like' SP3 and Microsoft are fully aware of that. I haven't looked at the beta testing but I would suggest that Microsoft will have to patch SP3 & re-release, fast.

Many people are experiencing moderate to severe problems with this update and it's not a simple issue. The issues vary from machine to machine (and install to install) and whilst the bickering between antivirus Companies is in full flow, they should take an out-of-the-box PC and test SP3 on a SP2 machine!

I would certainly agree with the previous poster who suggested making an entire image copy of the hard-drive and be in a state ready to format, if necessary i.e. all critical data stored on another drive or removable media. If you have not made an entire hard-drive copy, my suggestion would be to wait to install XP SP3.

I was careful to read the Microsoft criteria for prerequisites - all were met in all three scenarios below.

Unfortunately I didn't take my own advice (no full HDD copy was made) for my laptop and I installed SP3 - all non-essential software & services were disabled and all running software was closed, including McAfee (disabled in start-up, msconfig) and verified. Thankfully I haven't lost data or suffered any serious issues but I learned by that mistake. That laptop cannot now run IE7 (v 7.0.5730.13) normally - only with "all add-ons disabled", FireFox and others browsers do the trick ;-) IE8 is not a logical option for me, given the fairly disastrous SP3 release.
I uninstalled some ActiveXs and modified fifty-eight registry keys and it is manageable and usable. Flash Player cannot run as it causes an IE7 fault and fails to respond - Task Manager is then the only way to close IE by which time CPU usage is shown at 100% (though I know that's not a good indicator of true CPU usage). Disabling add-ons permanently doesn't work either, just to make the story even more bizarre. The laptop is AMD running XP Home, SP2 originally.
I should also say that no Symantec products have ever been installed on the laptop.
[Back-up of the registry is critical - Stay away from it if you don't know what you're doing? Use of programs to 'clean' or 'defrag' the registry is a poor choice, in my opinion.]

My second PC (Pentium III, XP Pro SP2 originally) was copied (the entire C drive to a second internal IDE drive; the OS is running on two SATA HDDs) and Norton Internet Security was disabled on start-up and confirmed as "stopped" before installing SP3 via windowsupdate.com. I had disabled all add-ons individually in IE7 as a precaution.
The registry was a mess. It was 10% larger than before the install! The PC was very sluggish and, again, IE7 failed to operate correctly. I couldn't face looking at the registry in detail. I uninstalled SP3 and IE7 and re-installed IE7 and then SP3 (as suggested) - no difference. Flash Player causes 100% CPU usage according to Task Manager and IE7 fails to respond in any way. I am convinced that Flash Player is not at fault here.
I reinstated the HDD copy which worked like a dream and then began again - closing ALL non-Microsoft services and software. SP3 installed, slowly, and I had hopes. No. The registry was still increased in size but that wasn't the problem this time as the PC failed to recognise some drivers ::shrugs:: and the system was so unmanageable that I just restored the same, good, back-up of the HDD. All's well there as SP2 is still running. It will see SP3 when Microsoft has a modified version available for download.

My third PC (Pentium IV, XP Pro SP2 originally) was due for a format and, running 3 IDE HDDs) I made a back-up of the C drive i.e. drive copy (just in case) and proceeded to format it. XP Pro SP2 installed perfectly from CD and all was well. NOTE: I did not install ANY software or additional drivers before going directly for the automated Windows Update site download of XP SP3. The machine was almost unusable and required me to format and begin again - this time staying with SP2 :)

My point is that whilst the large Companies bicker about who is to blame, there are fundamental flaws in SP3 and I have no doubt whatsoever that Microsoft support have been inundated with requests for assistance. There is no doubt in my mind that SP3 was released too early and that beta testing must have been positive enough for Microsoft to release but that beta testing was not sufficiently rigorous - the results on any given PC cannot be determined, or predicted, and Microsoft need to look very closely at their release before allowing (and promoting) its download by users who aren't au fait with computers.
Uninstalling doesn't work well at all - the reg keys aren't all removed and the system affected is unlikely to operate normally (according to my experiences, friends and family). 'System Restore' can't recover a PC after a Service Pack upgrade of this order - a fact that most people are unaware of :(

Time for Microsoft to look very closely at SP3 methinks.

I should finally add that no software firewall or AV software was running on any of the three machines above when installing SP3 - I disable Windows Firewall, of course ;-)

Again, my advice: make an entire hard-drive copy before starting the SP3 install if you insist on installing it now and certainly make sure you fulfil the Microsoft prerequisites and finally, good luck! :-)

Karl

Karl wrote:

> I should finally add that no software firewall or AV software was running on
> any of the three machines above when installing SP3 - I disable Windows
> Firewall, of course ;-)

The mean-time-to-compromise of an unpatched machine on the internet is on the
order of an hour, so this may explain some of your problems. (Did you apply all
post-SP2 updates before disabling the Windows Firewall?)

Harry.

I support Karl's complaint. I have a newish Asus Crosshair dual core PC with
no problems and retail XP Pro + SP2 with all updates installed.

I downloaded the MSI for Service Pack 3 and installed quite quickly with the
anti virus disabled. After rebooting, the system hung at the Windows
chucking bricks screen. I checked the MBR and boot.in and could see no
reason for boot failure so
I re-booted into Safe Mode. Safe mode with netwroking worked with out
problems.
As I did not know where to start fixing the problem in normal mode and,
since SP3 seems to bring very little that is new, I decided to go back to
SP2. System restore failed whcih I had anticipated. I had cloned the system
to my backup drive before beginning the SP3 trail so I was able to restore
the System Drive in twenty minutes with no problems.

Perhaps one should consider Service Pack 3 as only applicable to new
installs of XP+SP2? I did try this and there was no difficulty but of course
the time would be needed to reinstall all applications makes the application
of SP3 to a mission critical machine unacceptable.
What do others believe?

Indeed... They are, however, the results of many others, including myself...
SP3 sucks, the man is right!

The first time I've installed it didn't let me update the system, after the
upgrade, plus some Cpanel restriction. The 'support' from the technical
department was a very polite advice to repair the system using the Windows CD
(!?!). The guy was browsing my comp. with some remote access software and I
could see what he was doing - only browsing the cpanel, obviously he had no
clue what he was doing.

Now, stupid me, I decided to format the drive and reinstall the system,
since even after the repair the comp. gives some error messages when starting
(something about the generic host service being stopped...) and to upgrade
again to SP3; was thinking after a freh install will work fine the upgrade.
It did, but now I can't update my system anymore. The updates are downloaded
but not being installed.

One thing is sure: I'm not upgrading the third time to SP3. I'll see if the
guys from AutoPatcher have an update pack and if not,... back to Linux with me.

I just finished a clean install of Windows XP Pro with SP3 on a new high-end
machine. Windows Update (and Microsoft Update) now fail. I have tried all the
tricks to fix the problem that worked for me previously with SP2 to no avail.
I am a 58 year old IT Manager who has built, upgraded and fixed MANY pc's
over the years. There are definitely problems with SP3.

Fortunately I have discovered this relatively early in the process with
little else in the way of other software installed. I will avoid SP3 next
time around until it has been out for a while and properly vetted.

I will NOT install SP3 on any of our machines at the office because we
simply cannot afford down-time.

If 5 out of 1000 machines have problems with a major OS service pack, that
is too many!

John Kotuby wrote:

> I just finished a clean install of Windows XP Pro with SP3 on a new high-end
> machine. Windows Update (and Microsoft Update) now fail. I have tried all the
> tricks to fix the problem that worked for me previously with SP2 to no avail.

Including reregistering wups2.dll?

Harry.