Re: How good is SP3?
Ben Stevenson wrote:
>My automatic updates have downloaded SP3 and asking me to install. I am
>afraid to do that as I have been hearing that it causes problems to the
>computer in many cases.
>
>I would appreciate some expert advise.
>
>TIA
I'm not an expert, But here is my experience with four computers -- DON'T DO
IT!!! SP3 is HORRIBLE. In July MS admitted that SP3 was causing the
following significant problem: "Device Manager may not show any devices and
Network Connections may not show any network connections."
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=953979
Perhaps take advantage of MS's offer of free tech support for SP3 through
April 2009 (very secretive offer - I found it through a third-party tech
website - can't find it readily through MS support website)
http://support.microsoft.com/oas/default.aspx?ln=en-us&prid=11273&gprid=522131
Which they started this summer after admitting that SP3 was destroying
computers. Bug the hell out of them! Call them, email them, chat them up.
See also
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/950717
Background about my SP3 problems, in case you care....
SP3 has caused both device manager and connection problems on three of my
computers plus a different problem on my brand-new fourth computer. These
four computers have different antivirus programs on them, and are very
different ages (5 years, 3 years, 10 months, and two days old), and one is a
laptop. They have very different softwares on them. There is no explanation
related to MYSELF or my computers that would explain why all four of them
would be corrupted by SP3.
Having figured out how to uninstall SP3 on my brand-new machine, I WILL NOT
re-install SP3 until I get really solid confirmation that they have fixed its
problems.
The brand-new machine seems like a pretty good test subject -- absolutely no
software on it except MS software and McAfee and my HP printer software. It
immediately screwed up on day 2 of its life after downloading SP3
automatically -- as in, won't install the remaining 17 updates despite
numerous times turning off, turning back on, go to Update website directly;
turn firewall on, turn firewall off; etc etc etc and --
much much much worse -- refused to allow ANY program to open at all except
Internet Explorer and Outlook -- Error msg for everything was that it
couldn't locate usp10.dll. Yes, you heard me right - I could run no software
at all except Outlook (which I don't use) and IE.
Ironically, googling for a solution (using the one program that worked - IE),
when I used the search term "usp10.dll" it caused IE to crash every single
time. What the...??
I even got that same usp10.dll error msg when I right-clicked on Computer and
clicked on Properties. Would not open "Properties" at all.
So today I did a system restore to Friday (two days ago) and everything works
lovely. I turned off automatic updates. Will not reinstall SP3, thanks very
much.
1) SP3 made my 5-year old home desktop pretty useless by causing it to refuse
to browse the internet (on either IE or Firefox) -- though my internet
provider confirmed I was connected and they could even reset my modem from
their office. The error msg was that one you get when you're not connected to
the internet (even though it indicated it was connected, and when I plugged
my laptop into the same DSL cable it browsed the internet just fine).
Tried to do system restore but no dates old enough were available. So Dell
said "reinstall the OS." On a five year old computer - No thanks. Ordered a
new computer instead. See above for how that has gone.
2) SP3 made BOTH of the CD-ROM/DVD drives on my work desktop (10 months old)
stop working. Dell sent someone to replace the drives. Nope, they didn't work
either. Found I could SOMETIMES get one of them to work in safe mode. Too
late to do a system restore to pre-SP3 date. Dell (Gold Tech Support -- yeah
right) said, after hours of try this, try that -- reinstall your OS. NO THANK
YOU. What else do you have to offer? Oh, try this XP repair website. Ugh,
warning this, warning that -- basically, don't try this at home. I need my
computer every day at work, can't handle this! Frustrated, I waited for time
to do the complete backup and OS reinstall. Then, lo and behold, two days ago
there was an automatic update from MS and now ONE of the CD-ROM drives works.
Good enough for now. Sigh.
3) SP3 made my CD-ROM on my laptop (3 years old) stop working. Sigh.
BE CAREFUL!!!! (By the way, if you Google this issue you will see that
Symantec is being given part of the blame, and I certainly have had other
problems with Symantec, but my work desktop didn't have Symantec when it
screwed up -- it had AVG -- and my brand-new computer had McAfee, not
Symantec, when it screwed up. So I lay ALL the blame at MS's feet.)