SP3-related problems
Jun 25, 2008 5:25:30 GMT
Post by CharlieChomper on Jun 25, 2008 5:25:30 GMT
As I had mentioned in an earlier thread, avoid Service Pack3 for XP at all costs. Not only did it appear to have been released prematurely (and was subsequently pulled) from the updates cycle, it has been causing some very serious problems for anyone who has installed it--and I'm hoping it was pulled to address the problems with it versus because of a mistake in timing, however, with Microsoft anything is possible...
This was a brief overview of some of the new things one may have expected of Service Pack 3, along with the original user scheduled dates for SP3's release prior to being pulled.
AMD users have by far been affected by it in some of the worst ways--HPs, in particular (please note regarding the first link that it will put you through asking for certificates--if you hit cancel and then "stop", you shouldn't have to be put through anymore such requests if you choose not to accept them). Intels are not immune from the problems either, but for whatever reason AMD systems seem to be more affected by it. Among the issues involved--aside from really bad crashing--has been an inability for the computer to boot or even reboot properly following SP3's installation (causing a "vicious cycle" of rebooting->complaining it couldn't boot properly->running in safe mode->normal boot->random reboot->cycle repeating itself), corruption of anti-viral/anti-spyware/any other security-related program, constant unnecessary random reboots to go along with the rebooting/booting problems, crashing upon booting into it, (for HP users or anyone using an AMD processor in a computer built by a company or who is using an OEM copy, another added "bonus": booting into safe mode and running a diskcheck will render even safe mode as useless and won't allow you to get back into safe mode if needbe afterwards--this does not appear to affect those using a boxed copy of XP on custom built machines), Windows itself ceasing to function after the install (moreso after performing any sort of maintenance--even just a simple defrag) and refusing to load, driver corruptions, filesystem corruptions, some instances of hard drive corruption, severe problems and conflicts with ATI drivers and corruptions (nVidia users, as with Intel users, are not entirely immune, but appear to have a lower frequency in comparison), severe graphical corruption issues (in some instances, it is possible to run XP using very basic VGA in this situation--which also, of course, means no gaming or even graphical work of any type), networking problems, random file corruptions, BSODs, problems with wireless cards (which can also cause Blue Screens of Death), registry corruption problems, software application corruptions, and devices failing to be detected or Windows refusing the recognize them. It also appears to be much worse for anyone running the Media Edition of XP.
On the motherboard side of things related to the largely-AMD processor nightmare with SP3, you may get complaints about your BIOS and a possible request to even update it and get treated regardless to computer shutdowns when you can try and boot into Windows. However, the problem has nothing whatsoever to do with the BIOS itself nor would updating it appear to resolve this problem even. One workaround that some people have used is to try and plug a USB stick (or even a an external hard drive which uses a USB connector--or just any other USB storage-related device) into the computer to avoid the message. The problem, however, is that Windows will no longer recognize that secondary device (or any other USB device for that matter) nor will it boot. So far, no one has managed to find a workaround to either problem that didn't in some way create more headaches and problems in other ways...
As I mentioned earlier, though, not all these issues are strictly limited to AMD users--some Intel users are also complaining of problems. Yet, for whatever reason, AMD users seem to have a much higher frequency of running into these problems. On a related note, again, ATI users seem to be more likely to run into other issues as note above (and as I also noted earlier, nVidia users are not immune either, but as with Intel, the frequency appears to be lower). Owners of OEM copies and systems purchased from computer manufacturers (HP, Gateway, Compaq, etc) also seem to have a greater likelihood of problems in comparison to systems which are built by individuals and which boxed copies of Windows.
Sadly, that's not all the "fun" this oh-so-"wonderful" service pack has to offer to torment users. It seems in addition to everything else, it has been causing certain types of routers to randomly reboot themselves and even crash at times (however, in fairness, it's not entirely Microsoft's fault as it was revealed to be a bug in the coding on the firmware).
Also, if you don't care for running beta software, you won't get a choice when it comes to IE--you'll be stuck with the beta for IE 8 whether you want it or not (you also can't remove it nor revert back to 7 if you wanted to--apparently Windows seems to think that doing so will somehow "break" your system in the process).
However, it appears that a problematic service pack isn't the only things recently shared in common between Vista and XP--some of the things that SP3 adds to XP are all actually things that came from Vista which were not without issues or problems in the newer OS either.
This is Microsoft's attempts at claiming supposedly SP3 isn't nor ever became available. However, in reading a number of boards flooded with angry users as well as having seen the update notice on my own system with my own eyes (I was more than a little surprised to put it mildly to even see that--since it wasn't supposed to be available for home use just yet--only subscribed developers. However, as I have my downloads and installs of them for updates set to manual with notices, I didn't install it--and, after reading about all the havoc it's created, am very thankful I didn't) this was not the case as it's not just developers who have been suffering from problems with it...
Also, as you can read in that same article, Microsoft has removed SP1 for Vista users from the automatic updates cycle--but it was not removed nor even fixed. Instead, anyone who wishes to chance installing and dealing with it can still do so manually off their site.
This was a brief overview of some of the new things one may have expected of Service Pack 3, along with the original user scheduled dates for SP3's release prior to being pulled.
AMD users have by far been affected by it in some of the worst ways--HPs, in particular (please note regarding the first link that it will put you through asking for certificates--if you hit cancel and then "stop", you shouldn't have to be put through anymore such requests if you choose not to accept them). Intels are not immune from the problems either, but for whatever reason AMD systems seem to be more affected by it. Among the issues involved--aside from really bad crashing--has been an inability for the computer to boot or even reboot properly following SP3's installation (causing a "vicious cycle" of rebooting->complaining it couldn't boot properly->running in safe mode->normal boot->random reboot->cycle repeating itself), corruption of anti-viral/anti-spyware/any other security-related program, constant unnecessary random reboots to go along with the rebooting/booting problems, crashing upon booting into it, (for HP users or anyone using an AMD processor in a computer built by a company or who is using an OEM copy, another added "bonus": booting into safe mode and running a diskcheck will render even safe mode as useless and won't allow you to get back into safe mode if needbe afterwards--this does not appear to affect those using a boxed copy of XP on custom built machines), Windows itself ceasing to function after the install (moreso after performing any sort of maintenance--even just a simple defrag) and refusing to load, driver corruptions, filesystem corruptions, some instances of hard drive corruption, severe problems and conflicts with ATI drivers and corruptions (nVidia users, as with Intel users, are not entirely immune, but appear to have a lower frequency in comparison), severe graphical corruption issues (in some instances, it is possible to run XP using very basic VGA in this situation--which also, of course, means no gaming or even graphical work of any type), networking problems, random file corruptions, BSODs, problems with wireless cards (which can also cause Blue Screens of Death), registry corruption problems, software application corruptions, and devices failing to be detected or Windows refusing the recognize them. It also appears to be much worse for anyone running the Media Edition of XP.
On the motherboard side of things related to the largely-AMD processor nightmare with SP3, you may get complaints about your BIOS and a possible request to even update it and get treated regardless to computer shutdowns when you can try and boot into Windows. However, the problem has nothing whatsoever to do with the BIOS itself nor would updating it appear to resolve this problem even. One workaround that some people have used is to try and plug a USB stick (or even a an external hard drive which uses a USB connector--or just any other USB storage-related device) into the computer to avoid the message. The problem, however, is that Windows will no longer recognize that secondary device (or any other USB device for that matter) nor will it boot. So far, no one has managed to find a workaround to either problem that didn't in some way create more headaches and problems in other ways...
As I mentioned earlier, though, not all these issues are strictly limited to AMD users--some Intel users are also complaining of problems. Yet, for whatever reason, AMD users seem to have a much higher frequency of running into these problems. On a related note, again, ATI users seem to be more likely to run into other issues as note above (and as I also noted earlier, nVidia users are not immune either, but as with Intel, the frequency appears to be lower). Owners of OEM copies and systems purchased from computer manufacturers (HP, Gateway, Compaq, etc) also seem to have a greater likelihood of problems in comparison to systems which are built by individuals and which boxed copies of Windows.
Sadly, that's not all the "fun" this oh-so-"wonderful" service pack has to offer to torment users. It seems in addition to everything else, it has been causing certain types of routers to randomly reboot themselves and even crash at times (however, in fairness, it's not entirely Microsoft's fault as it was revealed to be a bug in the coding on the firmware).
Also, if you don't care for running beta software, you won't get a choice when it comes to IE--you'll be stuck with the beta for IE 8 whether you want it or not (you also can't remove it nor revert back to 7 if you wanted to--apparently Windows seems to think that doing so will somehow "break" your system in the process).
However, it appears that a problematic service pack isn't the only things recently shared in common between Vista and XP--some of the things that SP3 adds to XP are all actually things that came from Vista which were not without issues or problems in the newer OS either.
This is Microsoft's attempts at claiming supposedly SP3 isn't nor ever became available. However, in reading a number of boards flooded with angry users as well as having seen the update notice on my own system with my own eyes (I was more than a little surprised to put it mildly to even see that--since it wasn't supposed to be available for home use just yet--only subscribed developers. However, as I have my downloads and installs of them for updates set to manual with notices, I didn't install it--and, after reading about all the havoc it's created, am very thankful I didn't) this was not the case as it's not just developers who have been suffering from problems with it...
Also, as you can read in that same article, Microsoft has removed SP1 for Vista users from the automatic updates cycle--but it was not removed nor even fixed. Instead, anyone who wishes to chance installing and dealing with it can still do so manually off their site.
There is such scary things going on out there, it makes my mind 
