[hagrid78]

Hi there,
I am running windows xp home edition service pack 3. Automatic updates stopped working so i went to do them manually on the mircrosoft website this would not work either i kept getting a message saying my service pack was not up to date etc. I looked around the net for a solution one was to uninstall service pack 3 and then reinstall it so i tried this. The uninstall didnt work i ran spuninst but it said that windows service pack 3 could not be found! Although when i look at system information it says that service pack 3 is the current one installed. I tried all the microsoft methods of uninstalling but nothing worked. I then found something that said to try reinstalling service pack 3. So i downloaded the stand alone version of service pack 3 and ran it but it kept saying internal error setup could not complete. I ran it in safe mode disabled antivirus etc like the windows site said to do. I also reset all of the registry permissions using the script on the microsoft site this did not work either. I kept getting the same message. I also noticed when the service pack 3 install was running it crashed when the installer got to "checking product key". I have a legal copy of xp and a product code on the top of my machine. Is there anyway of fixing this issue so i have service pack 3 on the pc and will be able to download microsoft updates?
Thank you for your time and help.
Hagrid

[shadow6224]

Hello, I'm going to need the specs for your computer. Please run the TSG Tool and post the results here.
Thanks, download link below.

[lightglobe]

Hagrid I much the same problem after doing a recovery, and when I reinstalled from my recovery disks and found that I only had SP-1, and I assumed that I could do the SP-3 update, but naturally I had problems.

I then did automatic updates, which led me to SP-2 update, after SP-2 I then did an automatic update.

After complete SP-2, I then did the SP-3 update, and then the automatic update.

It's a slow process about 200 updates later.

[shadow6224]

I would agree with lightglobe, install the SP's in the right order. It will take a while, but at least you'd have an updated computer.

[Elvandil]

The best way to install any service pack is to do a repair installation of XP with the CD. If you use an XP SP3 CD and repair, it is more likely to succeed without problems, you will save a great deal of space since no former files will need to be saved, and you will need an XP SP3 CD to do repairs or replace files later, anyway, since any earlier versions of XP will not work for that. It will also repair most other problems with Windows in the process. And the next time you want to install XP, you will have the CD to install directly to SP3, saving you problems like you are having now which arise with SP updates.

Make yourself an XP SP3 CD and make things simpler.

Automatically Slipstream Windows XP with SP3 and All Post-SP3 Security Hotfixes with a Single Command