The rants of a constantly ticking mind, combined with a mess of reviews and obscure titling methods.

Thursday, May 08, 2008

WARNING regarding Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3)

Quick heads up to anybody using an AMD (or other non-Intel brand) processor. If you have used a University or self-made XP-SP2 CD then you may have a horrific constant blue-screen-of-death approach to starting your computer which prevents you from even booting into safe mode.

The Microsoft-given response is 'don't install it' which is all well and good but you blatently already *have* installed it else you wouldn't be looking for the solution to the problem, would you?

UPDATE: Well, the stop error (the one I had was a 0x0000007e STOP error with no real description of what was wrong) is caused by one of three things:

1) You've got a sysprep'd disc, which is actually unlikely thinking about it, as sysprep is more of a 'disc image' than a 'installation'.
2) The installer has made a mess of your GDI32 driver.
3) You've got a slightly dodgy driver somewhere.
4) You have some slightly dodgy hardware somewhere.
5) You've got a RAID driver installed.
6) You're trying to install it on a computer with some kind of Christian Magic in it.
7) You just happen to be passing the computer at the time.

The main solutions are here:
Aumha.net
or by simply typing '0x000007e xp sp3 bsod' or words akin to that into Google.

However, personally after trying several of those, I took the coward's way out: I found the XP+SP2 install disc, clicked repair, gave it half an hour to revert back to the previous version and vowed not to install SP3. Problem solved.

UPDATE 2: Finally, somebody has produced a nice little script that fixes the problem. Get it here(ish), follow the instructions and be a happy AMD-loving bunny.

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1 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

I tried to install the sp3 update from Microsoft's site and my computer would boot to a blue screen. I had to have a tech from Friendly Computers come to my house to fix my computer. It took him about 45 minutes, and their rates were really reasonable. I am not sure what the problem was, but if you are having any problems, I recommend their services. Their site is www.friendlycomputers.com and you can find the closest location on their site.

10:23 pm

 

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