This is just an update on a previous thread on this subject, to record my 
personal experience of the upgrade.

Last week I used the Microsoft Update website to try and upgrade to SP3 for 
my XP Pro setup.    All appeared to be going fine ... the file downloaded ok 
and was verified ... the install process kicked off, but about half-way 
through the progress bar just ground to a halt although the hard disc was 
still thrashing about.  Not knowing how long this process should take, I 
just walked away and left it.  Shortly after I returned, nearly four hours 
later, an MS 'blue screen of death' appeared informing me that 'my world had 
come to an end and my PC was toast', or words to that effect, and that 
Windows would attempt to recover itself.   Which I'm very relieved to say, 
it did automatically via a very protracted two stage roll back process to 
SP2 status using a restore point ... PHEW!    I got very drunk that night!

Seems it was all my fault, I should have read the notes on the MS website 
before attempting the upgrade, and then I would have learnt that both 
Spyware and anti-virus software can interfere with the process by locking 
files they think are being illegally accessed.

So this morning, I repeated the attempt after disabling Norton Anti-Virus 
and Spyware Doctor.  The result was a faultless install and cleanup taking 
about 20 minutes.  Obviously you have to remember to re-activate your 
protection software immediately afterwards.

Apart from the above issues, it seems that the people having the worst 
problems with the SP3 install are those who have computers with AMD 
processors for which the supplier has installed Intel drivers ... something 
MS warned manufacturers not to do a long time ago.  Those poor unfortunates 
with this combination can look forward to a PC stuck in endless reboot loops 
after installing SP3 ... oh joy!  Latest info is that HP are the biggest 
culprits in producing PCs this way.

As others have commented, although MS make no claims for improved speed with 
SP3, it does seem that my PC is more responsive and simply slicker.  I'm a 
happy bunny.

-- 
Dave (Sgt. Pepper)       Epsom, England
     My photo galleries at  http://www.pbase.com/davecq
    "I will not tolerate intolerance ... Doh!!"

"Dave (Sgt. Pepper)" wrote:
> 
> This is just an update on a previous thread on this subject, to record my
> personal experience of the upgrade.

Glad to hear you got it sorted in the end and are impressed with it. 
Don't run any security software, except the firewall,  so no problems
here. Out of curiosity is Norton any good, I've heard only bad things
about it since Windows 95 came out.  The classic response I saw to a
problem on a board went something like 'You use Norton! - Aw you muppet,
I thought everyone knew Norton shagged your computer so hard it ain't
got the breath to moan for more" which had me in stitches at the time.

Wasn't aware of the AMD problem but the machine I put it on has a P4
anyway. The AMD has a mixture of PCI and ISA slots so I won't put XP on
it due to lack of ISA support. One day I'll acquire a copy of 2000 which
I understand does support ISA.

Much as I hate to admit it, with the TellyTuby stuff removed, XP seems
to have become quite a nice OS. 

Alec

wrote in message news:482D8840.57960EAE@hotmail.com...
>
>
> "Dave (Sgt. Pepper)" wrote:
>>
>> This is just an update on a previous thread on this subject, to record my
>> personal experience of the upgrade.
>
> Glad to hear you got it sorted in the end and are impressed with it.
> Don't run any security software, except the firewall,  so no problems
> here. Out of curiosity is Norton any good, I've heard only bad things
> about it since Windows 95 came out.  The classic response I saw to a
> problem on a board went something like 'You use Norton! - Aw you muppet,
> I thought everyone knew Norton shagged your computer so hard it ain't
> got the breath to moan for more" which had me in stitches at the time.
>
> Wasn't aware of the AMD problem but the machine I put it on has a P4
> anyway. The AMD has a mixture of PCI and ISA slots so I won't put XP on
> it due to lack of ISA support. One day I'll acquire a copy of 2000 which
> I understand does support ISA.
>
> Much as I hate to admit it, with the TellyTuby stuff removed, XP seems
> to have become quite a nice OS.
>
> Alec

Hi Alec,

    Well the only reason I use Norton is because it came free with my Dell 
workstation and with a lifetime of free online updates.  It's rooted out a 
few nasties for me in the past, including some deep Trojan infections, so I 
can't really complain.   You say you don't run any security, so you may not 
be aware just how many attacks your computer receives every day you are on 
the internet, firewall or no firewall.  I was truly shocked when I ran 
Norton and SD (see below) in 'loud' mode and watched all the reports of 
hacking attacks being thwarted as they occurred.  Scary stuff.

Best bit of security software I ever bought is PC Tools Spyware Doctor ... 
it has saved my bacon from would-be key loggers and other hacking software 
so many times (and that's with Windows firewall engaged).   I do a lot of 
on-line banking, so security is a must-have for me.

The AMD problems with SP3 have only surfaced in the last couple of weeks, or 
so it seems, and MS are quite reasonably saying 'well, we did warn you not 
to mix AMD processors with Intel drivers, so the suppliers responsible only 
have themselves to blame.

I love XP for its stability and, as I just proved last week, it's 
recoverability, and have absolutely no intentions of moving to Vista which I 
see as a wobbly bridge too far in MS's bid to become ever more rich and rule 
the world.  Not for me thankyou.

-- 
Dave (Sgt. Pepper)       Epsom, England
     My photo galleries at  http://www.pbase.com/davecq
    "I will not tolerate intolerance ... Doh!!"

"Dave (Sgt. Pepper)" wrote:
> 
>     Well the only reason I use Norton is because it came free with my Dell
> workstation and with a lifetime of free online updates.  It's rooted out a
> few nasties for me in the past, including some deep Trojan infections, so I
> can't really complain.   You say you don't run any security, so you may not
> be aware just how many attacks your computer receives every day you are on
> the internet, firewall or no firewall.  I was truly shocked when I ran
> Norton and SD (see below) in 'loud' mode and watched all the reports of
> hacking attacks being thwarted as they occurred.  Scary stuff.
> 
To be fair the PC gets little use, especially on line which probably has
prevented a lot of trouble. Since I got a router there is the benefit of
a hardware firewall and most of my browsing is done on a Mac running the
classic OS rather than OS X. In addition I use a very much non-standard
browser on which I keep Java and JavaScript turned off unless there is
no choice to access a specific site.

> Best bit of security software I ever bought is PC Tools Spyware Doctor ...
> it has saved my bacon from would-be key loggers and other hacking software
> so many times (and that's with Windows firewall engaged).   I do a lot of
> on-line banking, so security is a must-have for me.

Sounds as though Norton has got it's act together again as far as PC's
go and it sounds as though it's needed. I suppose I benefit from using a
minority platform although it doesn't me I should get complacent.

> I love XP for its stability and, as I just proved last week, it's
> recoverability, and have absolutely no intentions of moving to Vista which I
> see as a wobbly bridge too far in MS's bid to become ever more rich and rule
> the world.  Not for me thankyou.

You've hit the nail on the head there. Since installing SP2 I've quite
grown to like it, the one problem I still have is the integrated
Internet Explorer and the fact the MS have now fixed it so it can't be
removed. From what I have read the integrated IE is the source of a lot
of the security problems. I remember running IERadicator on 98 and was
amazed to see that there was an additional 31Mb of free space. 31Mb!
just to integrate IE. After removal, 98 seemed to be a much nicer OS and
I still have it on one machine. If only IE could be removed root and
branch from XP then you would have a near perfect OS. 
My neighbor runs a small IT company and most of his business customers
only wanted to buy new machines if they came with XP rather than Vista
which is, as you say, about extracting more money from the punters. Now
XP has matured nicely I'm sure they would get a steady income form sales
of that.

Cheers,

Alec

Top posting for a good reason??  I don;t want to clip and seems a shame to 
make you scroll down.
.
Dave, can I copy and print the salient bits of this post to a games sim2 
newsgroup?
A poster there has been helping a friend thrown into a complete loop with XP 
upgrades and any further bits of info will be gratefully received.
We are not computer stupid in there, but are XP  and directx frustrated, 
some having experienced all sorts of strange glitches following the service 
pack/s upgrades and we do tend to stick together.
.
Two of us are also virgin media sufferers, and I am even an ex virgin user 
of old.
Nice to see this group still going strong. 8)
.
GbGaslight.
It is worth saying that the glitches following the SP upgrades are nothing 
compaired to the horror that occurs to our game every time we purchase and 
install a new Sims2 expansion. Oh boy. 8(
.

"Dave (Sgt. Pepper)"  wrote in message 
news:ePidnSsSLZCVHLDVRVnygwA@giganews.com...
> This is just an update on a previous thread on this subject, to record my 
> personal experience of the upgrade.
>
> Last week I used the Microsoft Update website to try and upgrade to SP3 
> for my XP Pro setup.    All appeared to be going fine ... the file 
> downloaded ok and was verified ... the install process kicked off, but 
> about half-way through the progress bar just ground to a halt although the 
> hard disc was still thrashing about.  Not knowing how long this process 
> should take, I just walked away and left it.  Shortly after I returned, 
> nearly four hours later, an MS 'blue screen of death' appeared informing 
> me that 'my world had come to an end and my PC was toast', or words to 
> that effect, and that Windows would attempt to recover itself.   Which I'm 
> very relieved to say, it did automatically via a very protracted two stage 
> roll back process to SP2 status using a restore point ... PHEW!    I got 
> very drunk that night!
>
> Seems it was all my fault, I should have read the notes on the MS website 
> before attempting the upgrade, and then I would have learnt that both 
> Spyware and anti-virus software can interfere with the process by locking 
> files they think are being illegally accessed.
>
> So this morning, I repeated the attempt after disabling Norton Anti-Virus 
> and Spyware Doctor.  The result was a faultless install and cleanup taking 
> about 20 minutes.  Obviously you have to remember to re-activate your 
> protection software immediately afterwards.
>
> Apart from the above issues, it seems that the people having the worst 
> problems with the SP3 install are those who have computers with AMD 
> processors for which the supplier has installed Intel drivers ... 
> something MS warned manufacturers not to do a long time ago.  Those poor 
> unfortunates with this combination can look forward to a PC stuck in 
> endless reboot loops after installing SP3 ... oh joy!  Latest info is that 
> HP are the biggest culprits in producing PCs this way.
>
> As others have commented, although MS make no claims for improved speed 
> with SP3, it does seem that my PC is more responsive and simply slicker. 
> I'm a happy bunny.
>
> -- 
> Dave (Sgt. Pepper)       Epsom, England
>     My photo galleries at  http://www.pbase.com/davecq
>    "I will not tolerate intolerance ... Doh!!"
>
>

Yes by all means copy it Granny.  Incidentally, since upgrading to SP3, 
everything has continued to work perfectly and XP is rock solid.

-- 
Dave (Sgt. Pepper)       Epsom, England
     My photo galleries at  http://www.pbase.com/davecq
    "I will not tolerate intolerance ... Doh!!"


"Granny by Gaslight" <marrowjam@{getOUT}blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message 
news:RQK8k.129460$Ek2.108873@newsfe17.ams2...
> Top posting for a good reason??  I don;t want to clip and seems a shame to 
> make you scroll down.
> .
> Dave, can I copy and print the salient bits of this post to a games sim2 
> newsgroup?
> A poster there has been helping a friend thrown into a complete loop with 
> XP upgrades and any further bits of info will be gratefully received.
> We are not computer stupid in there, but are XP  and directx frustrated, 
> some having experienced all sorts of strange glitches following the 
> service pack/s upgrades and we do tend to stick together.
> .
> Two of us are also virgin media sufferers, and I am even an ex virgin user 
> of old.
> Nice to see this group still going strong. 8)
> .
> GbGaslight.
> It is worth saying that the glitches following the SP upgrades are nothing 
> compaired to the horror that occurs to our game every time we purchase and 
> install a new Sims2 expansion. Oh boy. 8(
> .
>
> "Dave (Sgt. Pepper)"  wrote in message 
> news:ePidnSsSLZCVHLDVRVnygwA@giganews.com...
>> This is just an update on a previous thread on this subject, to record my 
>> personal experience of the upgrade.
>>
>> Last week I used the Microsoft Update website to try and upgrade to SP3 
>> for my XP Pro setup.    All appeared to be going fine ... the file 
>> downloaded ok and was verified ... the install process kicked off, but 
>> about half-way through the progress bar just ground to a halt although 
>> the hard disc was still thrashing about.  Not knowing how long this 
>> process should take, I just walked away and left it.  Shortly after I 
>> returned, nearly four hours later, an MS 'blue screen of death' appeared 
>> informing me that 'my world had come to an end and my PC was toast', or 
>> words to that effect, and that Windows would attempt to recover itself. 
>> Which I'm very relieved to say, it did automatically via a very 
>> protracted two stage roll back process to SP2 status using a restore 
>> point ... PHEW!    I got very drunk that night!
>>
>> Seems it was all my fault, I should have read the notes on the MS website 
>> before attempting the upgrade, and then I would have learnt that both 
>> Spyware and anti-virus software can interfere with the process by locking 
>> files they think are being illegally accessed.
>>
>> So this morning, I repeated the attempt after disabling Norton Anti-Virus 
>> and Spyware Doctor.  The result was a faultless install and cleanup 
>> taking about 20 minutes.  Obviously you have to remember to re-activate 
>> your protection software immediately afterwards.
>>
>> Apart from the above issues, it seems that the people having the worst 
>> problems with the SP3 install are those who have computers with AMD 
>> processors for which the supplier has installed Intel drivers ... 
>> something MS warned manufacturers not to do a long time ago.  Those poor 
>> unfortunates with this combination can look forward to a PC stuck in 
>> endless reboot loops after installing SP3 ... oh joy!  Latest info is 
>> that HP are the biggest culprits in producing PCs this way.
>>
>> As others have commented, although MS make no claims for improved speed 
>> with SP3, it does seem that my PC is more responsive and simply slicker. 
>> I'm a happy bunny.
>>
>> -- 
>> Dave (Sgt. Pepper)       Epsom, England
>>     My photo galleries at  http://www.pbase.com/davecq
>>    "I will not tolerate intolerance ... Doh!!"
>>
>>
>
>

"Dave (Sgt. Pepper)"  wrote in message 
news:Mt-dnUzb3NY_Gv7VnZ2dnUVZ8t_inZ2d@giganews.com...
> Yes by all means copy it Granny.  Incidentally, since upgrading to SP3, 
> everything has continued to work perfectly and XP is rock solid.
>
Ta. I had no problems with upgrades, either. My favourite gripe is letting 
M$ have its wicked way and being told, halfway through a task 'Yoo-hoo! I 
have just upgraded your windoze files and aren't I kind? Unless you move 
pretty damn sharpish your computer will reboot in....'
ARGH!
.
Your words of Wisdom have gone zipping off into wonderful world of Sims2 
where respectable middle aged ladies set their little peeps to cavorting 
over lawns dressed only in a boater and bow-tie or invite bigfoot over for 
tea before turning it into a housemaid complete with frilly apron.
I would hate to think what a psychologist would make of us lot.
.
GbG
> --