Safe to download XP SP3?

wazza

I know this has been discussed before and some people had problems. I have a compaq laptop with AMD Turion64 x2. Months ago i downloaded SP3 but it froze. I managed to restore it to SP2. Just wondering if it is okay to go ahead and download it now. Just heard that there is some issue with AMD processor.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

Airwolf1

It appears this could still be an issue, I'd play safe and stick with SP2 at the moment. Read more here http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Windows-XP-SP3,5334.html

basmic

Airwolf1 wrote: »

It appears this could still be an issue, I'd play safe and stick with SP2 at the moment. Read more here http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Windows-XP-SP3,5334.html

Partly true, the first release of SP3 did have problems: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05/12/windows_xp_sp3_reboots_amd/

But I seem to recall them releasing the fixed version of SP3, and AMD users don't have this problem.

Changing the OP's question slightly, but why not do a complete backup, reinstall XP fresh, then install SP3? There's nothing slower than a machine which has been constantly been patched through it's installation life, and never reinstalled. I always reinstall about every 6-9 months.

basmic

Hmm, I might be slightly wrong - maybe they never released a fixed SP3.

http://www.crn.com/software/207800622

In his blog, Johansson notes that on HP desktop images, the Intel PPM registry key exists under HKML\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet, and directs the driver to start. On HP laptop images, the registry key doesn't exist, which is why the issue affects HP desktops and not laptops, according to Johansson.

"It is not the presence of the driver on disk that is the problem. It is the instruction to load it that HP put into the registry that causes the problem," Johansson wrote.

aerostar

If you download the FULL version (300mb I think) of SP3 from Microsoft, you should not have a problem, it appears to be when it is done via updates in your computer that seems to be the problem.


Here is the download

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=5B33B5A8-5E76-401F-BE08-1E1555D4F3D4&displaylang=en

Ignore the bit on page about "if only updating 1 computer...."

aliEnRIK

Heres the patch (if its needed)
http://www.softwarepatch.com/windows/windows-xp-sp3-amd-stop-0x0000007E.html

totalsolutions

You need SP1 or SP2 first before SP3 will load, not sure of the full version will work out, remember it for site admins use....

John_Gray

totalsolutions wrote: »

You need SP1 or SP2 first before SP3 will load

Where on earth did you get this idea from? Each Microsoft operating system Service Pack update is cumulative, so you could install SP3 directly on top of a newly-installed base release of XP.