Beware Win XP SP3
 

I have been living through a nightmare today trying to get rid of Win XP service pack 3. It has taken over four hours but I think I might be back to where I started from.

This morning I decided to download and install SP3 since I wasn't going to be real busy today. Big mistake. At the very end of the update I got a BSOD (blue screen of death) saying there was a problem with win32k.sys. Win32k.sys is a Microsoft system file for God's sake. It started going on about turning off bios settings like memory shadowing etc. WTF!!!

After searching the net I discovered there are quite a few people having problems with this file and no one can seem to agree on what is causing it. Even Microsoft is very vague. To make a long story short I would strongly suggest to wait on SP3 until it has been out longer. My understanding is that it is going to start being pushed out to auto update users very soon if it hasn't been already.

Has anyone downloaded this thing and had no problems?

wow, de ja vu? i remember gtx posting exactly the same thing. you can search somewhere in 3x blah

what are you guys doing? nobody from my friends complained, is it original windows?

I had no problems whatsoever on my home PC (self-build).
Installed it a month ago.
Also installed it on several other PCs, home build ones with full XP (No OEM!) install on them, they gave no problems.

The problems began with Packard Bell PCs, mainly because of the godforsaken OEM XP version on it. Those brand PCs have some altered sysfiles, and yep, those were the culprit. But at the end all went swell, certainly after completely disabling that damned Norton security suite. What a crap.
Also some problems on ACERs, same reasons, same solution.

Talked to other peeps: most have the same experience.

Me guess that in time the SP3 will be .... upgraded(?) so that those problems will be avoided. :D

My advise is: if you have a brand PC with OEM XP: wait a bit longer.

And if you can't wait: make a HD sysbackup before you begin. Takes 10 minutes to make, and another 10 minutes to get your old system back in case of disaster.

Other questions:
What about those with starforce installed? Screwed?
What about third party window 'enhancers'? Screwed?
Etcetera .... Me guess that how more crap installed, how more problems?

Dell.

I set up a restore point so I was able to use that to go backwards. The strange thing is that some of the people that have had a problem with this file in particular are having it with XP SP2 and Vista as well. I have never had any problem with it until I tried to install XP SP3. Now that I am back on SP2 everything seems ok again. I guess SP3 tried to replace the file with a newer version that the OEM did not like for some reason. Not very re-assuring.

Note: If you have auto update turned on be careful. As I said above Microsoft is getting ready to have SP3 download automatically soon.

Well auto-update is anyway the first thing that is advised to be turned off after first startup of Windows XP. Updating recommended here or there, you might not want to sent Microsoft your personal data which is happening during auto-update, and if you're so desperate for those updates, you can always do it manually.
I never installed any updates for Windows XP Pro SP2, nor did I install the Service Pack 3, and I never needed any, either. But that's my personal experience since I tend to hold my systems in firm control and know where's what, it might be different for others and actually provide some benefit to them, especially with the newer hardware.


But so or so, if you remember how the system requirements doubled from SP1 to SP2 it might be woth considering if you need this SP3 at all. If the hardware already runs without problems with SP2, why would SP3 be necessary?

cause of security flaws

... and to kill some of the bugs ....
... and add some compability for newer progs ....


... and sometimes to get screwed, yes .... :D

[Edit]
... And to upgrade IE7 that I never use ... :nuts:

tell me about it, with the last point there comes another pain in the ass for us web developers :(

anyways, this belongs to technical

I've heard about lots of people that installed it with no problems. Me, I'm waiting for no particular sound reason... I read about some problem with AMD processors (I got Intel) that should be solved already (?), then got tired of googling after half a minute and procrastinated the upgrade... But I thought it was included in automatic updates a long time ago, at least I know that if you manually go to Windows/Microsoft Update you're prompted to install SP3 as a priority update--without need to look into the optional updates.

However, there are some precautions you MUST take (besides backing up anything crucial including a system restore point or something at least equivalent) before installing SP3, or any other big update for that matter (I know some of you already know but still):

- Log off from all accounts except the admin one you'll be updating from. A second open account may cause many Windows updates (not just service packs) to fail.

- Disable the resident protection of your antivirus or any other security software that protects system files from changes. (I bet a lot of screwups now and back when SP2 were caused by not doing this...) This is safe as long as installing SP3 will be the only thing you'll be doing--this kind of protection is just reactive anyway. When you're done and hopefully everything's working, enable those programs back.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/w...c164204.aspx#2

By the way what about Vista SP1, anyone?

The article I read said in June/July it would be added to the auto update agenda.