[Crossposted to Windows Update newsgroup]
Check your WindowsUpdate.log (%windir%\WindowsUpdate.log) for errors associated with the download/install.
How to read the WindowsUpdate.log file
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/902093
Absent any serious numerical Errors in your WindowsUpdate.log, you may be seeing a delay caused by excessive demand on the servers
("Update is not allowed to download due to regulation"). It can take quite a while for AU to download a Service Pack when so many
updates were released on that month's Patch Tuesday.
You can try downloading/installing WinXP SP3 via Windows/Microsoft Update: Understand that by doing so, you're pushing all the
Automatic Updates users further back in the queue (which may explain, at least in part, why Automatic Updates hasn't brought them
in for you yet).
WinXP SP3 - Read all prerequisites for a successful installation
http://msmvps.com/blogs/harrywaldro...requisites-for-a-successful-installation.aspx
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. Go to
http://support.microsoft.com/oas/default.aspx?gprid=1173 | select "Windows XP" then select "Windows XP Service Pack 3"
--
Windows Update-specific newsgroup: news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.windowsupdate
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-IE, Mail, Security, Windows Desktop Experience - since 2002
I have Auto-update set for "Notify me but let me choose when to
download." A month or so ago, SP3 was offered and I didn't dl it
right away, just left the shield sitting there.
About two weeks ago, I decided I had the time to install it so I
clicked on the "Download." The shield went away and I assumed the
update would be available for installation shortly. But two weeks
later it still hasn't shown up.
Is it normal for the SP3 update to take so long to download?
Reply-to address is real
John