XP Service Pack 3 Froze my Computer

[Andy]

I had a pop-up from automatic update to suggest installing XP service pack 3 and close all programs first. I was about to download a zip file an accidentally clicked the update button so may have caused the problem this way. After the service pack was installed and my computer rebooted into Windows it seemed to completely freeze after the usual boot up. All I could do was move the mouse.

I tried a few ideas out such as quickly opening the task manager but the CPU activity dropped to zero with no obvious process causing a problem.

Before the service pack installed it saved a system restore point but this was the unstable point I started from so it didn't help.

Then I tried a previous restore point but the automatic update seemed to kick in resulting in the freeze again.

To get back to normal, I unplugged my network cable so nothing could be downloaded and did a system restore to a few days ago. This worked. After this I went to the automatic update settings in the control panel and set it to ask me before updating things.

I couldn't find any good answers to this problem on the web. Some very bad answers you see on forums are like reformat your hard drive and re-install the OS. This takes so long since you need to reload hundreds of updates since your copy of XP may be years old. Also, you may wipe out all your software and documents. If your OS will not boot up then you can do a "repair" operation from your install disc, this keeps your software and docs intact.

So, I am not sure if XP service pack 3 will work OK on my PC or not. I may try it again sometime but it can wait I think since I am happy with the way my computer is working right now.

[donecweb]

Andy sorry to hear of your troubles and I am glad you had a relative restore to use. I have heard of this several times and the best answer I have seen is the one you used.

[Andy]

Andy sorry to hear of your troubles and I am glad you had a relative restore to use. I have heard of this several times and the best answer I have seen is the one you used.

Thanks Don  You do get a bad feeling when these problems happen, but I found that they are usually isolated to the OS and the data and programs are not affected. The restore points work well.

In our house we have a separate box running as a server, so I backup my important data there, plus a lot of my stuff is on the web so as long as my house doesn't burn down, it should be OK. But the house is comprised of a lot of very dry lightweight wood and we have many violent thunder storms, plus we are near a river that flooded recently, and we have earthquakes so it is best maybe for me to remotely locate much of my data

[SensoVision]

I've only installed SP 3 on fresh systems and it's worked without problems. Not sure what kind of problem you got but it probably better not try to upgrade to this service pack for now. Probably the best solution would be to install it on fresh system on your hardware and see if it works or not.

[Andy]

I think it may be that my OS is from a Fujitsu OEM disc that is maybe an image from an Intel machine. My computer is based on AMD which is known to be a cause of the problem. I have a valid product key, the computer was bought in Japan so we wanted to install a UK language OS on it. Hmm, I have another one that is based on AMD so may need to use that or never upgrade XP again.

How different is XP SP3 from Vista?

[donecweb]

XP Sp3 doesn't compare with Vista at all they are 2 separate things. XP Sp3 is still XP and like XP Sp2 so much better than Vista.

[Andy]

I can do everything I need now so no need to upgrade. Even downloaded TV is in High Definition.

The only thing I don't like is that the boot up takes a few minutes. I wish it was in just a few seconds like say a Play Station. It seems like every PC I ever own takes several minutes to boot up no matter how fast the machine is or what OS is used. This one is a dual core with 2GB of ram, a special gaming video card and optical fibre internet. I guess the HDD is the slow point? There is no floppy disk drive.

[donecweb]

When was the last time you defragmented your HD?

[Andy]

When was the last time you defragmented your HD?

Thanks for the tip! I do need to defrag.