Comments on: Oi. Microsoft. Where’s my XP SP3?

By: Neit

Neit — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 05:51:27 +0000

I have had the ballon popping up for a few days now looking to install service pack 3.
As I want to store a copy locally on my machine I went to the microsoft download center
to get a copy.
The only version available was for network admins and it was over 300mb in size,
I downloaded it any and during installation it froze and I had to power down and restart the
pc. On restart it woul not let me enter safe mode and just rebooted again, so I let it run
through and it detect that the sp had not installd correctly and it ran through a rollback to sp2.
I now need to decide if I want to try it again.

By: Barbara

Barbara — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:11:37 +0000

We’ve installed SP3 on 3 desktops and 2 laptops with no ‘unknown results’, but yes, it does need the updated updater + the latest validation tool before it will come out of hiding. Repeated manual updating to the breakthrough level seems to do the trick.

By: jamie long

jamie long — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 12:36:44 +0000

I wouldnt loose any sleep over it..I made the mistake of installing it when it finally hit release..Lots of BSOD’s (randomly) and free support from MS later..I opted to uninstall and go back to SP2!!

By: Gindylow

Gindylow — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 11:27:43 +0000

Make sure you have no rejected patches in the update manager from previous sessions. I found I had to accept these first, before SR3 would show its cheeky smile…

By: Peter S

Peter S — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 11:26:28 +0000

I also downloaded it manually soon after release but had to download some other MS software first (might have been the Validation Tool).

No problems. In fact my PC had been getting sluggish in the weeks before the SP3 download but the installation of SP3 cured that problem.

By: Colin S

Colin S — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 11:10:25 +0000

I have downloaded SP3 from Microsoft download centre and applied to all my Dell Laptops and Desktops, so far no issues. Maybe your correspondent should look at using his spelling checker a bit more in his searches as well as his copy?

By: Jeff H

Jeff H — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 11:05:10 +0000

Got it manually shortly after it was released – no problems from it, either…

Odd one, indeed…

By: Alan J

Alan J — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 10:53:00 +0000

Check your windows Update log file at c:\windows\windowsupdate.log to see if it’s downloading or is registered there.

By: Jon M

Jon M — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 08:38:03 +0000

I was also asked via popup whether or not I’d like to download SP3, yesterday. Clicked yes and haven’t heard anything since, nor have I noticed any additional bandwidth being used to download it.

By: Alan B

Alan B — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 07:14:41 +0000

Take a look at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/950717 and make sure your computer meets the requirements listed. But if you think XP SP3 is a problem, look in the real world at how many computers running Vista have never been offered SP1!