XP SP3

If anyone is having problems with this service pack update then perhaps my experience might help.

I tried using MS Update which was about as speedy as a garden slug. It then proceeded to give me weird error messages and I am pretty sure that whatever it had managed to load was in no way stable.

My advice if you have problems:

1. Go to the MS site and get the full download. It is called WindowsXP-KB936929-SP3-x86-ENU.exe and is 324,030Kb

2. Run it. If you get to the bit where it complains about "unrecognised files" and wants to revert to the old versions.............don't let it, make it load the new files. ;)

Hopefully that will resolve the issue, as it did for me.

I have no idea what these files actually were, but at a guess I would suspect unsigned drivers, as I did see it building a list of third party drivers earlier in the installation?

What's your impression of the service pack, nihil? Besides the installation problems, that is...

Thanks.

Hi there brokencrow,

Looks OK to me, apart from getting it to load using the MS website. I have not encountered any problems and everything else seems to be playing nice with it.

:)

As long as this has been in the works, you would have thought M$ would have worked out the "quirks" in the installer before roll out.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by isildur

As long as this has been in the works, you would have thought M$ would have worked out the "quirks" in the installer before roll out.

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Yea, you'd think huh?
They also released a vista update that corrupted startup files on 50% of our vista workstations. They would not boot until the startup repair was run from the CD.
We are stearing clear of sp3.

Isn't the general rule of thumb to wait about a month or two, especially when it comes to service packs (which often do kernel rewrites), before applying? I know the last batch of updates pooched one of my XP systems (1 of 2) so I decided to not download the other and just wait for the SP, in hopes that it doesn't cause problems.

Nihil, can you check and verify if SP3 includes NLA for RDP? Did they update that or not?

Amen MsMittens - I agree you always wait awhile IMO :-)

What's the logic to waiting to install SP3? Will MS release a revised SP3 (have they
ever revised an SP)? Or will some new patches for XP make SP3 in its current form
less troublesome? Fwiw, I downloaded SP3 today, no problemos. Haven't installed
yet. Like many here, I cast a wary eye.

Speaking of buggy software, I downloaded Xubuntu 8.04 for this old laptop, a PIII with
512 mb ram (Compaq Armada). Whew, Firefox 3 Beta is standard and it's poopy on
this old unit. And, of course, Ubuntu has to craft their own add-on for Mozilla so when
I downgraded to Firefox 2, I kept getting add-on errors and nothing worked. Finally renamed
the old .mozilla folder after uninstalling for the second time and now everything works.

Ubuntu's getting as bad as MS...

:)

Hi MsM,

Yes it is supported (sort of) but it may well not work "out of the box" ........ mine didn't, but then I found this:

http://web2.minasi.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=26700

brokencrow

Quote:

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What's the logic to waiting to install SP3?

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Basically to test compatibility with legacy, complex, and bespoke systems. Please remember that XP SP3 and Vista SP1 were delayed because they were not compatible with Microsoft applications, let alone anything else :D

Quote:

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Will MS release a revised SP3 (have they ever revised an SP)?

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No and yes. I remember SP 6 for NT 4.0 it lasted all of two weeks before they came out with SP 6a ;)

If you wait you can see what problems other people have and you can decide to upgrade or not

That is usually the argument for not being an early adopter of a new operating system or application release.

A service pack isn't an "upgrade" it is an "update". Usually they consist of a consolidation of patches and fixes to date (which you have most likely applied already), with a few new ones added for good measure.

This presents a dilemma, as if you don't apply the new patches, you will leave yourself vulnerable. I am sure that most of us are aware of the increasing trend to have exploits out in the wild hours after a patch release.

Incidentally, I am sure it is not my imagination, but I am sure that SP3 has produced a performance improvement in this box.

@ MsM:

Forgot to mention it, but SP3 loads RDP 6.1 and you need to uninstall RDP 6.0 or you will get an error message :)

Nihil,

Some services packs are upgrades (see SP1 for Win2k3 -- it did major kernel changes that affected how MSCS worked on virtualized environment). It's interesting that SP3 loads 6.1 but you have to uninstall RDP 6.0 beforehand. Wouldn't it have made sense that they have included an uninstall script in the SP?

Hey Mitts,

How is Mechicho, or whatever they call it :D

Quote:

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Some services packs are upgrades

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Indeed they are. However I think that you have to agree that the majority are not? In any case, this XP-SP3 isn't ;)

It is so bad, Bill Gates is going to have to send us McDonald's vouchers, there is so little additional work coming out of it :(

Quote:

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Wouldn't it have made sense that they have included an uninstall script in the SP?

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You mean "like everyone else"????????????

No, you will not draw me into M$ baiting, no way!!:D

LOL. Mexico is ok. Although I've lost my voice today so it's going to make today and tomorrow a tough teach. :eek:

And it's good to know that SP3 doesn't affect the kernel.

OH Dear!

All I can suggest is going to a quality pharmacy and getting some glycerine and "TCP", which is "an aqueous glycerol solution of halogenated phenols 0.68%w/v and Phenol BP 0.175% w/v" it is made by Pfizer, for example. You make a solution of the two and gargle.............

It worked when I was a choirboy ;)

No, not "THAT film"............. for "that" you need an ice-bath, fume cupboard, running water, 25% concentrated sulphuric acid, 75% fuming nitric acid, glycerine, and a 9volt battery, mercury trembler switch.............. errrrrr...... ummm :splat:yeah well............. command wire?

Good luck!

They do teach you some strange stuff in the military? :D

No problems with it here yet. Installed on my laptop only so far.

I came into an issue on 2 machines installing SP3 and had a "No Access" error. I found a forum that linked to a knowledgebase fix for the problem.

1. Make a backup of your registry.

2. Download and install subinacl.exe. (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en)

3. Create a file called reset.cmd with Notepad. Copy the text below into the file reset.cmd and run reset.cmd with administrative rights (it may take a LONG time):

cd /d "%ProgramFiles%\Windows Resource Kits\Tools"
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CURRENT_USER /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
subinacl /subdirectories %SystemDrive% /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
subinacl /subdirectories %windir%*.* /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
secedit /configure /cfg %windir%\inf\defltbase.inf /db defltbase.sdb /verbose

4. Reboot and try install SP3 again.

Worked with no issues. If that doesn't work you can always try Dial-a-Fix and select all options (http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4899.html). Dial-a-fix has fixed almost every other Windows Update error I've come across. Hope this helps someone.

Installed XP3 on my network. No issues so far :)

I have been monitoring this and it seems that some people are getting hit with a continuous reboot cycle problem. Particularly HP boxes with AMD processors.

This may help:

http://blogs.computerworld.com/fixin...3_reboot_blues

:):)

Hi there nihil,
Havent spoken to you guys in a while..I installed it and the only problem i got so far was that my internet connection did not want to work..Tried various things but to no avail..Restored to an earlier date and all was fine..I must agree to some extent that to wait a while would not hurt anyone i guess..

Some ppl here in SA recon that if your updates are done automatically through automatic updares turned on there would be less hassles..Do not understand that kind of reasoning anyway but is there any truth to that??

Hi there vanman I hope that you and yours are all well.

Yes, I can see a certain logic in that. I guess the point would be that if you just download and force an install or use a magazine cover CD there is no checking for compatibility.

Using the automatic update does let MS check your system first.

EDIT:

My experience was the exact opposite but I put that down to internet connectivity problems. It is very large (324Mb) whilst the auto installer only downloads about 60Mb and keeps going back for the rest.

Normally I use the autoinstaller or the manual one from the MS Updates site.

Checking an office of like 30 computers and having them all DL the service pack individually or first see if it is windows update and then do the standalone install - is this the logic.

Hi there Cider,

This is actually a bit of a strange one. XP SP3 and Vista SP1 didn't play nice with machines that were running the MS Retail Management System. If you went to the MS site for an online update or enabled autoupdate it would check your system, see RMS and wouldn't let you apply the update.

In the case of an office of 30 machines I would expect them to have similar builds. You should have a "reference machine" (labrat, crash test dummy or whatever :D) which has all your software on it. You run your updates (OS and applications) on this one first and check that everything still works before using your normal remote/unattended updates of all the production machines.

I am not aware of MS ever checking for other people's software...... that is down to you. However, you might use the MS update on the reference machine before downloading the administrator's update pack. That is what I normally do, but in the case of SP3 it didn't work for me, whilst the administrator's pack went perfectly. That is unusual, but I think that my ISP/Telco was having a few problems. The MS install was 60Mb and it kept going back for more. The administrator's pack was about 320Mb.

I always get the administrator's pack so that I can create a slipstreamed image and do unattended installs;)

If you are in an environment where every machine is significantly different then you have no choice other than to deal with them individually.:(

Thanks for that Nihil.

Can you explain this RMS for me, too be honest never heard of it :(

Maybe I have but just in a different context.

Hi Cider,

I know of it but have never had to work with it. It is a retail management system, which is basically an applications suite for retail stores. As far as I am aware it is aimed at small to medium retailers. I believe that the big chains still use their own bespoke software.

It is sort of like a front office applications suite for retail stores and can handle both instore and online transactions. You can read about it here:

http://www.cts-retail.com/Microsoft%...FRSb1QodWyeNnQ

Its full name is MS Dynamics RMS, and should not be confused with the RMS (Rights Management Service) in Windows Server :D

Thanks Nihil,

Ill take a look at it.

Following a point that Nihil made....

With Service Packs I never download to individual machines. On the first machine I use Administrator options and download an image of the SP cd.

With my connection it takes about 2 hours to download for one machine, I have 3 desktops with XP on them.

And as he said, you can slipstream a XP SP3 copy so on the rare chance you have to rebuild XP (I know that never happens right?) you have all the media on hand and not have to do an incremental load of a hard drive.

Yeah, for whatever reason trying to update an individual machine ran like a dog.

The actual executable installer is 324,030KB and I get around 5.2Mbps. So I reckon that is 5.2 / 8 = .65MBps and then 324.03 / 0.65 / 60 which is around 8 minutes, which is what happened. The ISO image is 557,932KB which took a little longer, but I thought: "what the hell?"

And I can clearly remember using 14.4 and 28.8 dial up voiceline connections :eek:

5.2 mb/s. OMW.

I get around 40 kb/s max. Im so jealous.

Been reading horror stories about AMD users with this update. Endless boot cycles and can't even boot into safe mode.

JPnyc,

I hve ONLY run it on AMD kit, but I know what you are talking about.

Possible solutions here:

http://blogs.computerworld.com/fixin...3_reboot_blues

Cheers,

Johnno

P.S. I think the problem is with OEM kit?

HEy all

I have this idiot whom keeps insisting that XP3 has done his system in.

In M$ Outlook 2007 if you open up an email window seperate to your main one and lets say forward the email, he says it stays on his taskbar, he cant open it or anything. He will then have to close Outlook in order to close this second window.

Anyone had anything similar?

Hi Cider,

Two questions mate:

1. What is his hardware platform?
2. Which pr0n site was he cruising?

:D

HEy Nihil .

1. Laptop :) Hp I think ...
2. I have no idea - hes the head techie 0_o

maybe he was making pr0n, after all he is the "head" techie.

Soorry, feeling a little sophmoric this afternoon.

Hey, ddddc,

If it is an HP with an AMD processor then there might be an issue?.... please check my earlier posts for the link.

:)

My kids' computers are both HP with AMD Athlon XP chips, I'm holding on updating those having read the posts. I haven't had any problems with any others.

Thanks for the info