Friday, May 9, 2008

Warning - Windows XP Service Pack 3


For those running Windows XP on their computers, beware of the newly-released Service Pack 3, particularly if your computer has an AMD processor.

In an article published today, Computerworld warns:

Installing Windows XP Service Pack 3 sends some PCs into an endless series of reboots, according to posts to a Microsoft support forum.

Jesper Johansson, a former program manager for security policy at Microsoft Corp. and a prominent Windows blogger, has worked with users to tentatively identify the problem as involving only machines using processors from Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

Messages from frustrated users began accumulating on the XP SP3 support newsgroup Wednesday, just a day after Microsoft released the update to the general public.

"I just installed Windows XP SP3 and after completing the processes and when the system reboots, the system cannot proceed to load the Windows," said a user identified as "Olin" in a message that kicked off a long thread. "It just displays the flash screen of Windows then after it reboots again."

Most users who left messages on the forum said that they were unable to boot into Windows Safe mode — a last-ditch way to sidestep the normal boot process for troubleshooting purposes — or revert to a previously saved System Restore point.

. . .

A Microsoft spokeswoman on Friday said the company was aware of the problems and was looking into them. Earlier, someone identified as a Microsoft employee on the support forum had asked users to e-mail him information about the PC's system configuration and whether they were able to enter Safe mode, and to submit event viewer logs. But the company declined to offer any fixes for the time being. "Until Microsoft completes our investigation into this reported issue, we can't confirm the validity of any proposed solution or work-around," the spokeswoman said in an e-mail.


Read the whole article at the link for more information. Until Microsoft fixes this thing, I've turned off automatic Windows updates on my computer.

I have to wonder . . . Microsoft wants the world to switch to Windows Vista. Would it fudge a major update to its predecessor, XP, in order to force people to upgrade?

No, of course not! Microsoft wouldn't do that!

Surely?

Peter

2 comments:

Brad J (Kazrak) said...

Hanlon's Razor:

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

Anonymous said...

I had a similar experience during the last days of Win98SE in that one of the last automatic updates broke my windoze installation. Re-formatted, re-installed, re-applied all the updates - same result. No, of course M$ wouldn't 'accidentally' do thi$ to an outgoing Operating $y$tem...........