Another SP3 upgrade failure and disaster

[TomT]

I'm running a HP P4 with XP Pro SP2. Nothing fancy, just a basic 2005
business machine with only a few application installed on it and all stock
hardware. Never gives any problem. I installed SP3 on it yesterday and
after a (seemingly) normal install, it rebooted and came up with SP3.

Then the problems began. First I noticed that the machine was virtually
nonresponsive taking ages to respond to any command except mouse movement.
Poping up the task manager showed that CPU usage was pegged at near 100
percent. A number of reboots did not fix the problem and other than the CPU
usage and nonresponsiveness, everything appeared normal.

I finally elected to uninstall SP3 and did a System Restore to the point
before the install. After unistalling SP3, system response returned to normal
and CPU usage was back down to about 3 percent. (Interestingly, at this
point the System page shows that the OS is SP2, as you would expect, but if
you go to Add/Remove Programs it shows that SP3 is installed. I didn't risk
trying to remove SP3 there since the system was now running normally again.)

So much for SP3; I'll stay with SP2 for the forseeable future!

 

[Alias]

I'm running a HP P4 with XP Pro SP2. Nothing fancy, just a basic 2005
business machine with only a few application installed on it and all stock
hardware. Never gives any problem. I installed SP3 on it yesterday and
after a (seemingly) normal install, it rebooted and came up with SP3.

Then the problems began. First I noticed that the machine was virtually
nonresponsive taking ages to respond to any command except mouse movement.
Poping up the task manager showed that CPU usage was pegged at near 100
percent. A number of reboots did not fix the problem and other than the CPU
usage and nonresponsiveness, everything appeared normal.

I finally elected to uninstall SP3 and did a System Restore to the point
before the install. After unistalling SP3, system response returned to normal
and CPU usage was back down to about 3 percent. (Interestingly, at this
point the System page shows that the OS is SP2, as you would expect, but if
you go to Add/Remove Programs it shows that SP3 is installed. I didn't risk
trying to remove SP3 there since the system was now running normally again.)

So much for SP3; I'll stay with SP2 for the forseeable future!

What preparation, if any, did you do for the SP3 install? Did you
disable your AV, all anti malware programs, etc.?

Alias

 

[TomT]

All running programs were stopped and all virus, malware, and other such
software was also stopped and disabled. Only basic Windows was running when
I did the upgrade. I've had many years of experience at this type of thing
so I'm no neophyte...

:> What preparation, if any, did you do for the SP3 install?
Did you

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

When I encounter a problem with an installation I fall back on clean boot
mode and try again. I haven't had to do that with SP3 yet but other have
and some have had success.

 

[TomT]

I may try that exact tack later but that was not my intent nor did I have
time to do so last night. Rarely have I found it necessary to do a clean
install for a Service Pack nor do I think it should be necessary. I almost
always do that when updating to a new OS, however, but that is a different
situation.

Tom

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

Steps to take before you install Windows XP Service Pack 3:
http://support.microsoft.com:80/kb/950717

Free unlimited installation and compatibility support is available for
Windows XP, but only for Service Pack 3 (SP3), until 14 Apr-09. Chat and
e-mail support is available only in the United States and Canada.

• US:
http://support.microsoft.com/oas/default.aspx?ln=en-us&prid=11273&gprid=522131

• CA:
http://support.microsoft.com/oas/default.aspx?ln=en-ca&prid=11273&gprid=522131

• UK:
http://support.microsoft.com/oas/default.aspx?ln=en-gb&prid=11273&gprid=522131

• AU:
http://support.microsoft.com/oas/default.aspx?ln=en-au&prid=11273&gprid=522131

• Other: http://support.microsoft.com/oas/default.aspx?gprid=1173 | select
Windows XP | select Windows XP Service Pack 3

 

[Gis Bun]

You should check with HP's site before installing. There may be some issues
[as there are with AMD systems].

 

[Patrick Keenan]

I may try that exact tack later but that was not my intent nor did I have
time to do so last night. Rarely have I found it necessary to do a clean
install for a Service Pack nor do I think it should be necessary. I
almost
always do that when updating to a new OS, however, but that is a different
situation.

You may be confusing "clean boot" with "clean install". They are very
different things.

HTH
-pk

 

[ANONYMOUS]

Nobody is saying that you should do a clean install for service pack
May suggest that you boot up your system in safe mode and then try
installing SP3 using downloaded (full-file version) file.

Very few people had trouble installing this latest service pack. I have
now installed in some 500 systems in an academic environment and our
systems didn't have any problems.

hth

 

[TomT]

I did a clean boot before installing it. I always do for such upgrades.
And I was using the full file version. I'll look in to it further when I
have less pressing matters since the machine is in almost 24/7 use. I've had
about a half dozen people at work report to me a similiar problem to the one
I experienced so far.