Hi I have just reinstalled windows XP on my deskytop computer and I'am wondering if it is worthwhile putting XP SP3 on it.

I have put SP3 on my laptop and it is now really slow, I have done this twice on my laptop, is it SP3 or is it something else?

Does any one else have similar issues?

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Sp3 shouldnt make any speed differences.

SP3 inrtroduces like 1 obscure new feature. thats it. Essentially its just a rollup of all the patches released since xp sp2 came out (basically in order to stop people who have to reinstall from having to download like 1gb of crap) so it should behave exactly like a fully patched xp sp2 system.

Is your laptop AMD though? XP SP3 doesnt like AMD machines...

Yes Both my laptop and desktop have AMD processors. Why doesn't SP3 like it?

Thanks for the info, I am cautiously going ahead with the install.

Just to add my 2c, yes SP3 should install fine and not slow your machine at all. Unless you have one of those HP AMD machines as jbennet points out. It's a good idea to be cautious about newly released patches but SP3 has been out for a while and no major problems have surfaced as far as I am aware.

Yup. It should perform prettymuch the same as you are used to. its just a traditional service pack as opposed to a radical modification like SP2 was.

Got it on my dell. Held off for a while because MS needed to fix one of thier hotfixes (the one for intel HDA audio). It wouldnt install on SP3 but didnt seem to be included in it. Got an updated version of MS and it now works fine. Havent had any problems on the other 5 or 6 machines ive applied it to.

Good once installed BUT I have had several computers coming to me with the continuous rebooting problem, including one with no system32 left!

Typically HP/Compaq AMD based machines seem to be the main ones but any AMD machine may have a problem if the intelppm.sys file is present.

Easy ways around BEFORE updating:
From command box, type "disable intelppm.sys", and/or rename/delete C:\Windows\System32\drivers\intelppm.sys.

If you have the reboot problem after SP3 then try the recovery console to rename/delete this file, but sometimes no access is available so my favourite is a Knoppix disk and then do the same.

Otherwise its good:)

BUT I have had several computers coming to me with the continuous rebooting problem, including one with no system32 left!

Are you using AVG?

AVG hates SP3. Deinstall it before installing SP3.

Have seen probs with AVG, but also with just about any other security app.

IMO its probably good to disable or uninstall resident security whilst doing major updates.

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