[razz2]

I downloaded SP 3 on my pC and all went well. I am currently in the process of downloading SP 3 on my wife's PC. I have closed all running programs including AV and Firewall software. Approx 60% completed (according to the progress bar), it appears as though the download is frozen because the progress bar has not moved for approx. 1 hour.

Is that normal or has something gone wrong and, if so, what do you recommend?

Thank you very much for your help!

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

razz2, on Aug 30 2008, 03:40 PM, said:

I downloaded SP 3 on my pC and all went well. I am currently in the process of downloading SP 3 on my wife's PC. I have closed all running programs including AV and Firewall software. Approx 60% completed (according to the progress bar), it appears as though the download is frozen because the progress bar has not moved for approx. 1 hour.

IMHO, one should never download the same packages more than once unless the goal is to test the stability of Microsoft's download servers, your ISP's reliability and your home's power supply! One electrical hiccup, brownout/blackout or Cable/DSL Network reset in the middle of a large update is not my idea of fun!

Instead, just download this once. That is the complete ISO version of the SP3 update. Within that is a file named: WINDOWSXP-KB936929-SP3-X86-ENU.EXE. Place it on a CD or Flashdrive and copy it to the desktop of the computer you need to update. Now, read what comes next BEFORE you run that update file:

What is really important is whether the computer has some realtime antivirus product running. You say you closed all running programs including AV and Firewall software, I find this to be unlikely concerning modern Norton/McAfee style security suites. They can have almost a dozen processes loading from different points and often lock files and registry keys which can cause serious SP3 update problems.

My advice is to reboot from MSCONFIG by selecting the Diagnostic Startup and clicking OK. Then execute the above mentioned update file from the desktop. When complete, in MSCONFIG this time select Normal Startup and click OK.

Even this could fail because in a nutshell, some antivirus programs are now inserting themselves as core services which means a diagnostic startup might not be 'clean' anymore. In this event you should do those steps under SAFE MODE from the F8 menu. More information can be found in that above mentioned thread as well as links to a discussion at Microsoft about this very real problem. I cannot prove this, but I suspect even SAFE MODE is not 100% safe from McAfee/Norton in their recent releases.

Of course this could be avoided if McAfee/Norton provided a password-protected easy-off mechanism for a clean boot with *none* of their stuff running for these very situations of updating Windows, or playing a game or whatever activity that does not need or want some program scanning every open file and further restricting registry access!

[spacesurfer]

Recommend you download SP3 from here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...;DisplayLang=en and run it. Don't worry that it's for IT professionals.

Also, probably not necessary to turn off firewall/antivirus. I installed with Comodo Firewall and McAfee Antivirus and had no problems.

[jcarle]

spacesurfer, on Aug 31 2008, 07:59 PM, said:

Recommend you download SP3 from here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...;DisplayLang=en and run it.

I second that recommendation.

[Kindovic]

make sure u backup all your important documents before applying the service pack