Comments on: Windows XP SP3 Install Woes

By: GiSWiG

GiSWiG — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 18:27:55 +0000

Oh, this is just another reason why I love Linux!

I do HAVE to use Windows for a few job-related things and games, that just don’t want to work 100% in WINE (and that is becoming less and less of an issue) but I’ve had my problems with SP3.

First, I see no reason to upgrade my main PC, hardware wise (Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe 2.75GHz Athlon X2 4200+, 4GB RAM @ DDR500 and a pair of 7950 GTs – yeah, it’s a gaming/work PC.) SP3 causes issues with this board. After install, you need to unplug all USB Hard drives/Flash drives to boot into XP SP3! In my case, maybe because one was plugged in durring SP3 install, one flashdrive needs to be plugged in. There is no way around this, no Safe Mode available as it will just reboot before the F8 key can be used! Big problem after leaving my flash drive at work! Maybe this should go more to ASUS then Microsoft, but still, no SP3 for me.

Also, it kills a game on the PC I built and gave to my parents-in-law, the one and only game my father-in-law gets to play (due to time, mother-in-law, etc) and SP3 kills it. Again, not really a Microsoft issue? or is it? (wait til the end)

And I’ve checked out Vista – what a HOG!

So yeah, I’ve made the switch to Linux, in particular openSUSE and KDE4. It’s faster, and combines form and function much better than Vista and over the eye-sore that is XP and it’s 3 themes (4 if you count Zune and the 3 themes being one in 3 colors). Funny how I can get the same transparency effect on a P3 laptop that Vista would say at the beginning of the install ‘You’re joking, right?’

Even my wife has enjoyed using openSUSE over XP and Vista, and the educational programs available for our kids is great. Music and Picture management is also much better.

Ok, so I’ve maybe I’ve made this into more of a ‘Go Linux’ post, but that’s how I feel anymore, especially how updating the main system in linux rarely breaks my old apps/games from running (and the few that do, are so easy to fix). Going from KDE3 to KDE4 had no issues like how Win98 to XP did, and Vista. So the whole ‘major system update’ like SP2 to SP3 and KDE3 to KDE4 is the comparison. So yeah, I think Microsoft does deserve some blame in making your system (or parts of) not work after an update.

Yep, buy a new windows, buy new versions of your apps for the new windows, buy new hardware etc…

But Linux (unless you buy a support subscription for it) = $0!

Bye Microsoft!

By: Liyan Brown

Liyan Brown — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 21:20:12 +0000

I am not going to install SP3 until I know for sure all the kinks have been worked out… I tried to install it earlier (after I read Kat’s post about that worm) and it said that the update failed. I tried several times and it didn’t work. I have read this post before, I was consulting it to see whether or not I should actually install it at all. I don’t think I will, as I said at the begining. I was using IE (uhg) to go to the Windows Update site, and it didn’t wanna work…. So I’ll just leave it until a month or so in the future and come back here to see more opinions.

By: vrypan|net|weblog » @##^@*&# windows (XP SP3)

vrypan|net|weblog » @##^@*&# windows (XP SP3) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 01:04:47 +0000

[...] που έχει XP. Με τίποτα. Πόσο πολύπλοκο μπορεί να είναι; Τόσο μάλλον. Είναι πολύ αργά τώρα, θα χάσω κάποια άλλη μέρα [...]

By: require users to press CTRL ALT DELETE XP SP3 - Dogpile Web Search

require users to press CTRL ALT DELETE XP SP3 - Dogpile Web Search — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:24:32 +0000

[...] then press … forum.ultravnc.info/viewtopic.php?t=12289 • Found on Windows Live Windows XP SP3 Install Woes ~ Chris Pirillo Jun 4, 2008 … I feel that I am an advanced Windows XP user, but for the people that …. You can [...]

By: Len Lynch

Len Lynch — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 23:40:13 +0000

There is a script error on this page, sHover is not found.

Thanks for fixing this ecology of web services so that I will want to come back and pay attention to this site.

By: Greg Fiore

Greg Fiore — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 15:07:01 +0000

I was not able to install SP3 on my HP Media Center PC. The download ran O.K., but half way through the install, I would get an error window that said I did not have permission to install. I am a member of the Administrators group, and had turned off all the anit spyware and anti virus software.
After trying many web ideas, I went to the Microsoft web site and found the solution to my problem.
The problem:
Some programs change the system access control lists in the Registry so that administrator accounts cannot alter them. When the SP3 install tries to access these registry locations it can’t, and stops.
The Fix:
Go to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/949377
Microsoft gives 3 methods to fix the problem…most of us have
tried the first two. The third method involves a simple download of a file called Subinacl.exe…you save this on your computer. Then you copy and paste a 7 line script into a notepad (text) document, change its file name, and then just double click this file. The script executes the Subinacl file that you downloaded earlier, and goes through your computers registry and changes all those locations back to the permission level that they should be. It runs for about 15 minutes.
After running the script, I went to the Microsoft Auto update site (again), Let the site check my computer (again) and then the already downloaded SP3 started to install … again !!
THE INSTALL RAN WITH NO INTERRUPTIONS, AND WAS SUCCESSFUL.
Greg Fiore

By: Matthew

Matthew — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 19:46:19 +0000

I was going to try SP3 and share my experiences, but it turns out that the 64bit version is not out yet. It simply amazes me that as we all are using or upgrading to 64 bit processors Microsoft neglects to support the this technology properly.

By: kpslover007

kpslover007 — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 21:52:03 +0000

I have an old XP machine and I got to install SP3 without any difficulty. Vista SP1 on the other hand had an error at first but then I just reformatted my hard drive and reinstalled SP1. then it was great. The system starts up and shuts down faster. Plus, its a lot faster asd well. Vista SP1 is great. As for XP SP3, I noticed almost no change in system performance. It still is slow and old. Do I need to reformat that HD as well?

By: eldin

eldin — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 20:50:48 +0000

well i’ve install sp3 on a few computers without any problems. the problem most people have with installation is that there using windows updates. well its kinda of crazy that you would first install a whole bunch of updates and then use windows updates again to install sp3 which includes all the old updates that were previously available.

i first downloaded the iso image of sp3 available at microsoft website, and burn the image to CD.

2. backup everything

3. reinstall a fresh copy of windows xp, with sp2 from 2003.

4. after installation i installed all my drivers for my PC.

5. inserted the CD with sp3 inside, ran sp3 off the CD and it only took about 10 minutes with restart.

6. after reboot under my computer properties it said sp3.

7. i went to windows updates to see if there were any things left out. there were about 12 items left, all the net framework crap plus IE 7, and windows media player 11.

those updates took probably 25 minutes or so. after that

perfect installation of windows!!!! i boot in like 19 seconds. system is so fast.

By: Jake

Jake — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 03:36:31 +0000

my sound disapered on one computer and on the other it got slow very slow im going to get rid of it it’s junk

By: animation815

animation815 — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 22:14:24 +0000

i didn’t have any problem installing sp3 but 1 thing that i think is strange is after installing windows update said i have like 25 new updates…..wasn’t sp3 suppose to have them all???….and i made sure all my stuff was up to date a few day’s before sp3 was released so i should of had everything

By: Daan Berg

Daan Berg — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 21:20:51 +0000

I’ve not really have been having problems with the installation of SP3, although it did give me problems when I installed SP3 on a machine with Windows X’s Live Vista Transformation Pack (VTP). Now it doesn’t looks like Vista, but like a mixture between Windows 2000 and the colors of Vista. So I deleted the pack and just set the Media Center theme since it’s a Media Center and I like that theme also.

Does anybody had any similar problems like this? I’d like to know. Thanks!

Daan.

PS: Chris, how is the “Social Me”-problem solving going?

By: Phillip Dazley

Phillip Dazley — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 17:03:33 +0000

I haven’t the foggiest idea why everyone is having such a problem with SP3. I have had no problems at all with a straight install from Windows Update, none what so ever! I am a very experienced Windows user, I waited to see what everyone else was doing then I installed SP3 and waited for really bad things to happen…..and nothing did! Maybe I got lucky.

By: Luis

Luis — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 05:40:47 +0000

when it comes to vista you should really just look into setting up a dual boot. being in tech support iv been getting calls in regards to people getting all sorts of errors, i haven’t gotten a real chance to test myself but i don’t think ill go threw all thoughts steps any time soon.

By: trpjazz

trpjazz — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 05:35:47 +0000

I do some computer repair with a friend of mine and it seems that some computers actually function okay with sp3 and some dont… i still dont know if i would recommend it just yet but thats just my thought on it…