SP3 is HORRIBLE. Don't do it -- at least not until we can confirm that MS has really fixed the problems.
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."
*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)
*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
*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.)
That was useful.
