"Meanwhile, Jesper Johansson, a prominent Windows blogger, has claimed that the problem only involves machines using AMD processors."

I'm not putting in another MoBo and processor just to do SP3 on XP

Bah and thrice bah.

As I am about to put SP3 on a machine I have just taken a snapshot of [it's for an image I am building].

After my previous defense of SP3, who wants to bet a pint that the machine shits itself?

[Dell optiplex GX620 MicroMachine thingy, P4]

Updates on this important event later this afternoon....

Steven R

Quite right, Windows users have much experience of their PC's rebooting randomly.

No change there then.

No spontaneous reboots on an AMD64 yet, just the usual resource hogging, hard disk splattering bunk we've come to expect from microsoft.

... how perfect this service pack is going to be in persuading people that vista is an UP grade.

I think it is Dell AMD systems, something to do with the power control. My AMD 3800+ X2 works fine with SP3.

Efros

Hmm.. it actually looks as though it's not really an SP£ problem, it's more of an OEM image problem which is being flagged up by the installation of SP3.

Basically, HP (and others) to save costs produce one hard disk image irrespective of the computer's processor type, and they install the Intel power management driver.

Now, it seems that until SP3 this didn't matter too much and the machine booted OK. However, something's changed in SP3 which means that the Intel power management driver crashes when it's run on an AMD chip (for which there is a separate driver which the OEM should have installed instead).

Don't blame Microsoft for OEM's penny pinching.

(Note: if M$ were to blame I'd be the first to throw the stone.)

I currently have a AMD 2500+ at home with XP SP2 and a AMD 64FX2 with XP64 SP2.

Could AMD use this in thier Anti-Trust lawsuit against Intel as Intel and MS are in bed together in so many details.

Oh, wait, i'm running OSX...

(The one clad in aluminium, please.)

More proof that quality engineering is what people will pay for.

I have installed SP3 on mine and it seem to work ok and i have got a FX AMD chip in my machine.....however i did shut it down after i installed SP4, which can be a fore warning of loop booting issues i.e. ground hog day screamers. You can tell that Microsoft are not really that bother about XP anymore and consentrating on Vista...trying to fix the bugs in that.

Let hope when i get home tonight that when i do boot up its ok.....crossed fingers and rabits feet... need more than one rabits foot for luck.

Happy Vista Home Premium SP1 user here, no issues or glitches. Maybe it's time for people to step up and get off of the legacy OS that is Windows XP. Microsoft should just pull the plug, that sucker is obviously on life support.

/mines the one with the full color silkscreen of BillG on the back...

As far as I know the overclockers are safe, as I have overclocked my AMD (Phenom too....yes yes asking for it I know) and installed SP3 and it has been running flawlessly since.

One thing I did do before installing was stop all of the extra processes that were running so only thing running was AV.

I say its people who have any version of the Sims installed, they deserve a dead computer

been cookin this cpu for 7 years... still can't kill it. gotta be the OEM issue that Stephen Usher mentioned. Suddenly I'm glad I build my own. I may have to bark at HP about my wife's laptop though. Think I'll back that machine up again this evening just for good measure.

Yes, I know you have all been waiting with baited breath to see if my PC is shafted.

Well, it's not. No issues at all, and an interim "SP3MitNeuProfile.gho" has been created so that I have something to fall back on if Sysprep causes the machine to shit it's biscuits.

Which it probably will.

Ah well!

Just the AXP2400Thoro@2200Mhz to put it on at home now....

Steven "can't afford an A64/Core2Duo" Raith

"Meanwhile, Jesper Johansson, a prominent Windows blogger, has claimed that the problem only involves machines using AMD processors."

Nope - just done several machines with Athlon64 x2 processors with no problems at all.

well i dont know what all the fuss is about ive installed the patch (on 3 normal pc's and also on my macs bootcamp/parallels setup) and also the slipstreamed version and had no problems whatsoever. is this another case of people with crap hardware or setups with loads of dodgy software installed.. but as usual blaming the last thing that touched their pc?????

My neighbour has just had this endless reboot problem (which I've been called on to fix) and at first i thought it was the gdi32.dll problem but after a few hours troubleshooting it turns out i was wrong.

I understand that the problem is with machines where XP was installed from a sysprep image where the original machine has an Intel processor and the target machine has an AMD. There is a registry key that tries to load an intel driver which is normally ignored but for some reason SP3 sets this off again and as the box has an AMD it barfs with a STOP 0x0000007E error which is immediately intelligible to serious windows dudes. Maybe.

So if you've installed your own copy of XP you should be OK.

If anyone wants to contradict this assertion, please go ahead I'm not a windows expert, i just use Solaris and Fedora.

I love these comments, it gives you the chance to show how stupid you are in front of the thousands / millions / one billion squintillion* supremely expert Reg readers out there.

* suggestion for a new unit. One billion squintillion = 1 Reg readership.

Even better, XP is now faster. Personally I don't know why MSFT did it, only reason that comes to mind is to put another nail in the coffin of Vista.

Still I prefer my home Ubuntu box over my Win work machine, even that work one is *much* faster. Ubuntu just feels so much nicer to use.

I have had this problem before sending an image from an Intel based PC to an AMD PC.

The fix is to boot up using the windows cd and enter the recovery console. From there type: disable intel_ppm

Reboot the PC and all wil lbe fine again

I'm quickly losing the remaining dregs of my belief in human intelligence.

Here's a new cut-and-paste comment for the Reg:

I haven't had any problems installing/running/removing/configuring the software/hardware/update on N systems. Since I do/don't/didn't overclock/interrupt the process/drink coffee/own a cat/believe in Xenu, it's obvious everyone who has had problems should/shouldn't overclock/sit on their hands/drink Jolt/[kill their/get a] cat/join Scientology. Problem solved.

SHEESH!

Buy a Mac.

Seriously. Why not? They are safer, faster and no more expensive. (Despite what a few XP Zealots who have never even tried one will tell you.)

If you've never tried a Mac in recent years, then don't even bother to reply since you have no right to talk about things you've never tried.

I've been running W2k then XP on the same machine for about 8 years now, its been solidly stable with XP SP2 (Xeon 550mhz & 2 meg VGA onboard) I however suspect SP3 will kill it? The patch is free but the new hardware required to support is will annoy me as its money that was ear marked for beer not M$ upgrade you kit tax.

[insert smug comment]

> Yes, I know you have all been waiting with _baited breath_ to see if my PC is shafted.

Yey! Another pleasing instance of that sneaky entrapment attempt!

Over the past fortnight I've updated 30 PCs and laptops of varying power and age with SP3, and they've taken between 11 minutes and 62 minutes. No, sadly, nothing went wrong...

Mine's the anorak with "Smug Git" on the back, in Gill Sans Extra Bold...

...maybe this story is just more of Britains current attitude of only talking about things when they go wrong...if it goes right, we just don't bother to say anything.

... a lot of people don't have a clue at all here and are quick to jump on the usual Microsoft-is-definitely-at-fault-honest bandwagon, when the actual issue is down to how Windows was installed on the PC in the first place.

OEM installs seem to be the problem here (at least something as specific as an OEM preparing an image of a pre-installed image of Windows on an Intel-based PC but using same image on an AMD-based one) so once again the silly fools who blame Microsoft without actually understanding the issue FIRST are the silly ones who look foolish.

At least they've provided some entertainment this Friday afternoon. It's always good to laugh at the people who make it so obvious that they haven't understood the issue at all.

After putting SP3 on my Acer AMD Turion laptop the machine refused to shut down. Eventually a huge crash corrupted the AV (Avast) and firewall (Comodo) plus programe settings for anything elsethat was running.

Eventually tracked the problem down to the Buffalo Drivestation attached to the Firewire port. After switching it to a spare usb port all is fine, fingers crossed

If you don't know what i need a computer for, you have no right to comment on what computer i should buy.