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SP3 Windows XP... what's the verdict?

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tockki
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SP3 Windows XP... what's the verdict?

#1 Post by tockki » Tue May 06, 2008 10:44 pm

I was wondering what you guys thought about the SP3 upgrade and also whether there were any problems with the upgrade along with any conflicts with the previous thinkpad settings. I just tried it out and frankly find it to boot a bit faster... besides that I DUNNO but thought it would be nice to hear what others have to say about it.

tockki
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#2 Post by tockki » Tue May 06, 2008 10:46 pm

Just want to add that it seems my office applications are running faster too.

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#3 Post by alacrityathome » Tue May 06, 2008 11:22 pm

Can see absolutely no difference.
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Brad
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#4 Post by Brad » Tue May 06, 2008 11:40 pm

I was skeptical at first.

On a few recoveries I ran SP3 instead of downloading 100 updates. A big time saver.

I have installed this service pack about five times so far.

Before I tried on my production ThinkPad I cloned the hard drive just in case. Ran the update and found no trouble.

On one particular desktop that was having trouble and I was considering a completely new install everything now works after this update. I was surprised.

I don't have any benchmarks but the seat of the pants feels a bit faster.

I would give it a thumbs up.

Brad
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Daniel
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#5 Post by Daniel » Wed May 07, 2008 12:45 am

Updated to SP3 a couple of days ago. There seems to be absolutely no difference in day to day usage which is a good thing.

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#6 Post by Jagoop » Wed May 07, 2008 2:08 am

I've installed SP3 on a desktop and an older Thinkpad T30 - the installations was relatively fast and painless, however I can see no difference after the installation ...
Jakob Bindslet, Denmark

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#7 Post by beGi » Wed May 07, 2008 4:55 am

Installation was painless and fast (under 5 min).....no noticable changes, although Office 2003 and AdobeReader 8.1.2 appear to start faster (but I reinstalled OS, so don't know for sure what is the cause)..... WinRar benchmark shows same score SP2vsSP3 (around 800kb/s @ T2300). Verdict? Saves time after OS instalation? Guilty. Improves performance? Not guilty......

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#8 Post by jdhurst » Wed May 07, 2008 5:07 am

Has it been truly released yet? As late as yesterday, it was still not available as a download. I have a version from a time before Microsoft pulled it from their site. I would like to get the final version, but it was not readily available from Mircrosoft when I looked. ... JDH

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#9 Post by KristianJ » Wed May 07, 2008 6:56 am

jdhurst wrote:Has it been truly released yet? As late as yesterday, it was still not available as a download. I have a version from a time before Microsoft pulled it from their site. I would like to get the final version, but it was not readily available from Mircrosoft when I looked. ... JDH
The Download Squad blog says that it's available through the Microsoft Update page. Since I've had it installed for a little while now on my T42p I can't verify whether or not this is the case. I'll check on my 700m, which doesn't have SP3 yet.
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K0LO
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#10 Post by K0LO » Wed May 07, 2008 7:16 am

Just installed SP3 from Microsoft Update last night without issue. The updated system had been fully-patched before installing SP3. So far I can't see any difference.
Mark

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Nick Y
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#11 Post by Nick Y » Wed May 07, 2008 8:36 am

Windows Update brought the offer of updating to SP3 this morning (in the UK.) Tried 3 times to do the update, including the suggestion in another thread of making sure the s/w update service was set to automatic. Download said that it would be 66MB (I recall). Each time it would not proceed into install.

So ended up trying http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936929,
which gave me to the download link under 'Obtain the latest Windows XP service pack from the Microsoft Download Center
' http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta ... 1555D4F3D4

This gave a me a download of 330MB. I was then able to run the installer. It took about 30 mins to install, but all seems OK now. Too early to notice any differences.
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Tim M
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#12 Post by Tim M » Wed May 07, 2008 10:15 am

I tried downloading SP 3 through Windows update last night. It took three attempts to get the 66 MB file to download. Installation was quick, but I noticed that all network connections stopped functioning; they were listed as being off/disconnected in Access Connections.

I'm suspecting some sort of software conflict (maybe SP 3 forcing Windows to wrest control of all network settings) on my T42 that I could not resolve. Uninstalling AC 4.52 and setting up a new connection through Windows did not work. I had to restore my system from a recent disk image to regain function as I didn't have the time futz around for a solution.

I also had this problem when installing the new version of PC-Doctor (v. 5) recently. Is there a known issue that causes these programs not to play nice with AC?

-Tim
T42(p) 2379-DXU | 15" FlexView, 2.0 GHz, 2 GB, 128 MB FireGL T2 mobo, UJ-842 Multi-Burner, 100 GB 7200 RPM, Dock II
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#13 Post by jdhurst » Wed May 07, 2008 10:24 am

Thanks all for the information supplied. I have downloaded the Service Pack (not applied it yet) and it is most certainly a different file name than the one I got earlier (with a verified hash). I will have to wait until this evening to determine if it is a different file.
... JDH

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#14 Post by Nick Y » Wed May 07, 2008 10:39 am

Update to my comment above. I seem to be unable to rotate the display on my external monitor (Iiyama H481S) which is a real pain as I am trying to extract data from portrait scans.

Reverting to Sp2 for the moment.
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icantux
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#15 Post by icantux » Wed May 07, 2008 1:44 pm

I picked it up here - straight from Microsoft (publish date: 5/6/2008):

XP SP3 Network Installation Package for IT Professionals and Developers
- Full stand-alone installer (316MB)

XP-SP3 for IT Professionals - Checked Build (Debug Build)
- Stand-alone installer (342MB)
- **NOTE -- This installation package is intended for IT professionals and developers downloading
to a machine intending to debug or develop software on Windows XP Service Pack 3 ONLY.




I'll be installing SP3 but I'll clone the drive (running SP2 right now) before committing to anything.

BTW, FYI regarding the loss of connectivity. This problem is a well-known issue with SP3 - more info available on technet forums and elsewhere. This new "update/upgrade" overwrites a number of LAN/WAN drivers (updates to newer version), which breaks the current connectivity drivers-set on many computers. You should be able to find out which drivers are changed by looking at the SP3 installation log and then replace the new ones with the older drivers, then you should be set.

Re-installing LAN/WAN drivers does not always work as a quick fix either ...
Last edited by icantux on Wed May 07, 2008 2:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.

icantux
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#16 Post by icantux » Wed May 07, 2008 1:46 pm

Nick Y wrote:Update to my comment above. I seem to be unable to rotate the display on my external monitor (Iiyama H481S) which is a real pain as I am trying to extract data from portrait scans.

Reverting to Sp2 for the moment.
You probably are running ATI drivers - right? SP3 breaks the ATI drivers and renders many functions useless. It's a known "issue" with SP3.

Here's a partial explanation of the issue (Microsoft help & support site):
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947309/

Nick Y
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#17 Post by Nick Y » Wed May 07, 2008 2:10 pm

icantux wrote:...You probably are running ATI drivers - right? SP3 breaks the ATI drivers and renders many functions useless. It's a known "issue" with SP3....
Quite Correct.

Many thanks for the post and the link.
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Tim M
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#18 Post by Tim M » Wed May 07, 2008 2:22 pm

icantux wrote:BTW, FYI regarding the loss of connectivity. This problem is a well-known issue with SP3 - more info available on technet forums and elsewhere. This new "update/upgrade" overwrites a number of LAN/WAN drivers (updates to newer version), which breaks the current connectivity drivers-set on many computers. You should be able to find out which drivers are changed by looking at the SP3 installation log and then replace the new ones with the older drivers, then you should be set.

Re-installing LAN/WAN drivers does not always work as a quick fix either ...
Good to know. Guess I'll stick with SP2 for the time being until IBM/Lenovo catches up with AC and the network drivers.

I don't need the SP3 "excitement" just yet. ;)
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#19 Post by mattbiernat » Wed May 07, 2008 2:36 pm

i have SP3 and no problems with my wireless internet here. at least not so far...

marcdw
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#20 Post by marcdw » Wed May 07, 2008 6:14 pm

One issue I need to know about is whether or not IE7 is included
in SP3. In Microsoft Update I have excluded IE7 from the updates
because I don't want it for various reasons.
I suspect that if I go for the 66MB update that IE7 will be
included.

I wonder if there's any way around that.

Marc
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#21 Post by jdhurst » Wed May 07, 2008 6:30 pm

icantux wrote:<snip>
BTW, FYI regarding the loss of connectivity. This problem is a well-known issue with SP3 - more info available on technet forums and elsewhere. This new "update/upgrade" overwrites a number of LAN/WAN drivers (updates to newer version), which breaks the current connectivity drivers-set on many computers. You should be able to find out which drivers are changed by looking at the SP3 installation log and then replace the new ones with the older drivers, then you should be set.

Re-installing LAN/WAN drivers does not always work as a quick fix either ...
SP3 didn't affect my WiFi driver (Atheros) and I thought it might. All is intact. But where is this log you mention? It does not appear to be in my local temp folder.

Also, I see the uninstall folder in Windows is well over 1/2 Gb, so between the download, install and uninstall capability, it chewed up over a gigabyte on a now-strained system.
.. JDH

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#22 Post by K0LO » Wed May 07, 2008 7:19 pm

marcdw wrote:One issue I need to know about is whether or not IE7 is included in SP3.
SP3 will not update IE6 to IE7. Here is further info.
Mark

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#23 Post by makai » Thu May 08, 2008 12:08 am

Has anyone noticed if SP3 has added/subtracted any background services? (Task Manager) I highly doubt it would subtract any, but thought I would include it in the question. :? Thanks!
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#24 Post by ashleys » Thu May 08, 2008 6:45 am

The link to the Full stand-alone install version was broken Tuesday evening (UK time) but was there Wednesday morning.

I downloaded it and it applied painlessly to a fully patched SP2 T30 system.

No problems or differences found so far.

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#25 Post by K0LO » Thu May 08, 2008 8:15 am

Phase 2 - updating the X41 Tablet PC did not go as well. The download from Microsoft Update kept stalling and I could not get it to finish. Each attempt left a 0.6 GB download folder in \Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Downloads. I tried several workarounds to get the installer to complete but they all failed, so I restored an image of the machine from last week, and then SP3 downloaded and installed.

After installation, the amount of disk space used had increased by 2.1 GB! Obviously, something went wrong. MU did not clean up after itself, leaving 0.6 GB in the \Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Downloads folder that had to be deleted manually. System Restore was consuming another 0.8 GB, and the \Windows\$Uninstall$\ file for SP3 was consuming another 0.5 GB. After deleting those the total disk space impact of SP3 on the X41T appears to be 0.2 GB and things appear to be working well.
Mark

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Multiboot w/Grub4DOS -- Windows 10, MustangPE, PartedMagic
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#26 Post by dlai » Thu May 08, 2008 4:05 pm

For those where the SP3 install didn't go right, can't one just use a restore point and go back? Just wondering, before I move forward on mine...

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#27 Post by uberT » Thu May 08, 2008 6:46 pm

(Dan, is that you?)

I've done three machines in the past 24hrs. I had to attempt the T30 3 or 4 times before the download process would begin. The other machines went somewhat quicker, probably close to an hour duration was the fastest time from start to completion.

I have to wait to update the 4th machine. Corporate office has to put their stamp of approval on it first.

Is there a simple list that describes major changes with SP3?

Thanks.
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bill bolton
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#28 Post by bill bolton » Thu May 08, 2008 7:12 pm

uberT wrote:Is there a simple list that describes major changes with SP3?
Microsoft Knowledge Base 946480. May 6, 2008.... List of fixes that are included in Windows XP Service Pack 3

Cheers,

Bill B.

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#29 Post by uberT » Thu May 08, 2008 7:24 pm

Thanks, Bill!

:)

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#30 Post by Tim M » Fri May 09, 2008 12:35 am

I take it that the stand-alone installer has the same version of the update as does what is obtained from Windows Update?

Hopefully there will be some sort of update/workaround for many of the software conflict issues caused by SP3. I'm not particularly keen on having to troubleshoot network problems for several hours after applying SP3.
T42(p) 2379-DXU | 15" FlexView, 2.0 GHz, 2 GB, 128 MB FireGL T2 mobo, UJ-842 Multi-Burner, 100 GB 7200 RPM, Dock II
T410 2516-CTO | 2.66 GHz i7-620M, 6 GB, 512 MB NVIDIA 3100m, 160 GB SSD

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