Should I install Windows XP SP3 - yes AMD, yes afraid

LordBritish

LordBritish

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Should I install Windows XP SP3?

I have the following system:

Opteron 165
DFI LANPARTY UT nForce4 Ultra-D S939
WD 250G HDD
2 GB memory
8800GTS 512mb

Will SP3 kill my system?

I'm so afraid :(
 
The suggested course of action: make a properly integrated XP SP3 installation CD and then back up your data. Do a clean installation of the integrated OS and then go from there.

People are having issues with "upgrading" their current systems to SP3 just as people had issues "upgrading" their systems from SP1 to SP2. No matter what Microsoft or anyone else tells you, such a practice truly is science gone mad. :)

Clean install is the only way to go, but if not then there's only one other solution:

Image your current installation and go from there using software like True Image or Ghost - but do your best to get as much personal data like movies, pictures, music files, etc off that drive before you image it. That type of data won't compress worth shit and will require a lot of space wherever the image file is going to be stored, be it a secondary partition or another physical hard drive itself (preferred storage target).

With this method, if things go horribly awry you can restore the image and be exactly where you were before you made the attempt to "upgrade" your boxen to SP3.

Good luck, regardless...
 
Personally the only reason I think it's good for is when you're doing a clean install of XP. No real benefits to installing it on a fully patched system. A few network tools added, that's about it.

That said unless you're running Norton AV you'll probably be ok. The issues I have read about are HP OEM pc's with AMD procs, a possible issue with one of the ASUS deluxe mobo's, and an issue with Norton AV and possibly some other anti-malware products.

I've already posted this link once, but here ya go. I has a fix for the AMD issue if you come across it.
http://windowssecrets.com/2008/05/29/02-Norton-software-conflicts-with-Windows-XP-SP3
 
Ditto. I've also upgraded to SP3, but only as a fresh install. Backup your files and upgrade via windows update and see if anything goes wrong. If so, you still have your SP3 disk mentioned above for a fresh install.
 
Back up your data and/or create a system image before upgrading....but that should be a given anyway.
 
Wow you guys sure are picky.

The SP3 problem with AMD machines was only caused by Manufacturer images that came pre-installed on systems.

Some manufacturers like Dell and Acer used the same images for both Intel and AMD machines. There was some kind of driver conflict during the install of SP3 that is caused by those images.

You will probably be 100% ok after installing SP3.
 
Well, after repairing/fixing/tuning up about 28,000 machines after XP SP2 came out because of "issues" when people upgraded to SP2 from vanilla XP or XP SP1, I learned to just keep it simple, silly:

Don't upgrade, do it the right way the first time: clean.

Got no reason to stop making that suggestion even if I am retired now (and today's my 41st birthday so... NYAH NYAH NYAH) ;)
 
Joe Average said:
Well, after repairing/fixing/tuning up about 28,000 machines after XP SP2 came out because of "issues" when people upgraded to SP2 from vanilla XP or XP SP1, I learned to just keep it simple, silly:

Don't upgrade, do it the right way the first time: clean.

Got no reason to stop making that suggestion even if I am retired now (and today's my 41st birthday so... NYAH NYAH NYAH) ;)
Click to expand...

So businesses should reimage/install 28k machines? I don't think so.
 
We're not talking about business machines (and those 28,000 weren't business machines either, those were "client" machines meaning the customers I helped out over a roughly 6 month period of time). We're talking about an average Joe home user (not me, however). Big difference...
 
Clean install is always the way to go if you want your system to work right.

That being said, the SP3 issue that everyone is afraid of is due to two specific issues (neither of which you'll run into unless you have one of these configs):

1. HP software people being super lazy and crossing their fingers that an image they used with specific Intel hardware would work fine on totally different AMD hardware. Big no-no on their part, and totally not Microsofts issue or fault. It would be like putting a diesel engine in a car, and then trying to fill it with gasoline and trying to blame the gas station. FYI, if they had just done the image on AMD hardware first and applied that image to Intel hardware, we'd all be talking about how Intel systems are bluescreening/rebooting with SP3.

2. Certain ASUS motherboards that seem to have some BIOS bug (which hopefully they'll release an update for).

I've installed SP3 on many systems (Dell Intel-based, a 4-year old MSI AMD-based, a VirtualBox VM image, a Toshiba Intel-based laptop, etc) and they've all gone perfectly.

You should be fine.

-S
 
I installed sp3 on my amd system (x2 5600 2.8ghz). upgraded from sp2, which i've had installed for a long time, so it wasn't a fresh install.


so far so good, everything runs just fine.
 
Joe Average said:
The suggested course of action: make a properly integrated XP SP3 installation CD and then back up your data. Do a clean installation of the integrated OS and then go from there.

People are having issues with "upgrading" their current systems to SP3 just as people had issues "upgrading" their systems from SP1 to SP2. No matter what Microsoft or anyone else tells you, such a practice truly is science gone mad. :)

Clean install is the only way to go, but if not then there's only one other solution:

Image your current installation and go from there using software like True Image or Ghost - but do your best to get as much personal data like movies, pictures, music files, etc off that drive before you image it. That type of data won't compress worth shit and will require a lot of space wherever the image file is going to be stored, be it a secondary partition or another physical hard drive itself (preferred storage target).

With this method, if things go horribly awry you can restore the image and be exactly where you were before you made the attempt to "upgrade" your boxen to SP3.

Good luck, regardless...
Click to expand...

Do you think running the windows repair with a slipstreamed image will attain the same affect as reinstalling? I don't want to really wipe my system.
 
You can't use a newer integrated version of the OS to "repair" an older one, so that's a wash. Believe me, being a "tech" for the past 30 years plus has taught me one thing above all others:

People fucking hate starting over. They equate wiping their PC and reinstalling the OS and applications almost as much as being born again and having to learn everything all over again.

It's not that bad, really, but like anything else if you go into it with a negative attitude, the actual experience itself will be 10,000x worse than it would if you just say "Ok, let's do this and then I'll have a nice clean install where I can redo it the way I want and it'll be nice and fast and I can use newer more updated applications to keep it that way if necessary" instead of constantly being on guard for updates/patches/etc for most everything.

Consider it a right of passage, bite the damned bullet, grab your balls and go for it, and don't look back. :D

(edit: if you're a girl, well... you go girl and grab whatever the hell you want...) :D
 
Joe Average said:
You can't use a newer integrated version of the OS to "repair" an older one, so that's a wash. Believe me, being a "tech" for the past 30 years plus has taught me one thing above all others:

People fucking hate starting over. They equate wiping their PC and reinstalling the OS and applications almost as much as being born again and having to learn everything all over again.

It's not that bad, really, but like anything else if you go into it with a negative attitude, the actual experience itself will be 10,000x worse than it would if you just say "Ok, let's do this and then I'll have a nice clean install where I can redo it the way I want and it'll be nice and fast and I can use newer more updated applications to keep it that way if necessary" instead of constantly being on guard for updates/patches/etc for most everything.

Consider it a right of passage, bite the damned bullet, grab your balls and go for it, and don't look back. :D

(edit: if you're a girl, well... you go girl and grab whatever the hell you want...) :D
Click to expand...


Thats not true. I can repair PC's with SP1 with a SP2 disc and they have SP2 plus any new updates. It never fails, I'm just curious if anyone has tried it with a sp3 disc.
 
Unless I'm sitting at my machine saying, "hmmm, this issue and that issue would be resolved/more efficient with SP3", I have no inclination whatsoever to upgrade until I'm ready to reformat.

And that will probably be this summer when I pack this thing up for sale and get a new monster.
 
If you have kept your PC updated like you should have, you most likely have 99% of what makes up SP3 already installed from the past two years worth of patches.


Joe Average said:
We're not talking about business machines (and those 28,000 weren't business machines either, those were "client" machines meaning the customers I helped out over a roughly 6 month period of time). We're talking about an average Joe home user (not me, however). Big difference...
Click to expand...

So... 28,000 machines you fixed.... and in only six months? It is roughly 155.55 machines a day if you worked 6 months with 30 days a month, nonstop 24hrs a day.

At 12 hours a day, that is 13 machines an hour you single handedly fixed. You are a PC god.
 
Met-AL said:
If you have kept your PC updated like you should have, you most likely have 99% of what makes up SP3 already installed from the past two years worth of patches.




So... 28,000 machines you fixed.... and in only six months? It is roughly 155.55 machines a day if you worked 6 months with 30 days a month, nonstop 24hrs a day.

At 12 hours a day, that is 13 machines an hour you single handedly fixed. You are a PC god.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I gave up... every thread I go into I see him touting about how wonderful he is... :D

PS: I've fixed 29,000 machines in 5 months!

edit: just realized it's bbz, where did your old account go?
 
Yeah well, sometimes things can and must change. Simple. As for the 28K machines over 6 months... don't you people know what Remote Assistance/Desktop is all about? Really, did you think I actually went to each one individually? :D
 
Using Windows Update to install SP3 worked fine for me on 3 machines. I like it (for lack of a better reason) because the install process (only about 20 min) eliminates all those Windows Updates in my program files, leaving you with only SP3.
 
Actually I had a system with SP2 and had to change the motherboard. Windows didn't like the new board and all I had at the moment was a slipstreamed SP3. I did a repair install and everyone is happy. Never say never. :D
 
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