Chaps shall i install it or not?

unregistered copy of xp on 2nd pc.. Mmmm  has any of you popped it in?

Dunki

AAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaand that is xactly what I do

There's lots of folk running SP3 without problems.  It's just the 'if it ain't broke...' rule is especially true with PCs, I reckon.

 

Mr. Kramer has hit the nail on the head.

The only reason I installed it was when I did my last routine windows re-install, purely for the convenience of getting most of the xp updates in one package. I've had no problems with it so far.

I'm running an Athlon 64 dual core with XP SP3 and no problems. 

i've been running it for a few months and i find my system more stable than ever TBH, which is contradictive to Byrons findings.

Dave

Cheers for comments chaps,

running sp2 ok so prob stick with that. Shall i turn off auto updates?

dunki (learning all the time)
 

...which is contradictive to Byrons findings.

Hmm...  Byron's Findings could be an interesting thread for Spamanation - or possibly Bar Fights!

 

I popped it in.

It's not a scientific analysis, but...  I was running SP1 and it very rarely crashed and I never saw the blue screen of death.  But, lots of stuff wouldn't run on SP1 so I got a new HD and installed a new OS with SP3.

Have to say, the whole thing is a lot less stable now.  I haven't tracked down the problem yet, but there's definitely a spanner in the works somewhere.

I'm thinking, if you're not having issues with SP2 - stick with that.

 

 Oh man. I just realized. After all day yesterday crashing. I had the auto update add it the night before! Oh crap!. LOL.

Possibly he is talking about not long before that, they had announced quite the opposite, that they were stopping support early for XP forcing people to buy Vista. I suspect the backlash may have changed their minds.

to clarify i asked a PC engineer friend about SP3 a few weeks back here is some of his reply...  :dont look now:

Quote

That's without going into the nasty DRM that happens to nero and various rip/copy/burn/convert programs.
I don't run xp here at all so I can only go by what I see when I get called out to look at a malfunctioning machine in use elsewhere. I see "licence required" errors with WMP when attempting to play an mp3 ripped from a cd there and then.. and refusing to burn audio cd's from anythiong and with anything but the xp built in crap... then chucking the same "Licence required" or "invalid filetype" or "maybe missing codec.. want to search M$ for it?" errors.. and on machines that were working perfectly right before the update.

So it looks to me very like a DRM and validation update, and nothing to do with improvements or security (which is a joke on a 7 year old OS anyway.. you can't patch a turd, but you can make a new one.. as M$ know well)

 

That was an interesting read and I'm not doubting your friend's experiences but it prompted me to try it out for myself.

It seems to me that the machines he was talking about must have been pretty much trashed anyway. If that is only part of the troubles he's describing, I find it hard to believe that it can all be attributed to simply installing a service pack. One or two glitches maybe, but not all that.

Here's what I found so far:

I just took one of my cd's and ripped and burned it with Nero and played it back with media player 11 (and good old winamp) with no problems whatsoever. I'm now in the process of ripping one of my movie dvd's. I have no reason to believe that I won't be able to burn it with my usual burning software (not media player) and play it back through Power DVD, and all on my creaky old antique AMD machine too. I'll let you know how that goes.

Incidentally, call me paranoid but I've never ever used automatic updates simply because I like to update manually and pick and choose what I install on my machine without Microsoft presuming to install what they think I need! Just my take on it.

Like anything else there'll be pro's and cons and no two machines are identical, and even if they're identical on the hardware side, I'll guarantee they'll be configured differently and running a whole different variety of software. Basically anything can cause problems.

There will always be two camps in any discussion, so if you still want to try it, make sure you back up anything important first - just in case. You know it makes sense 

nice one for testing my mates theorum Tim. 

Anytime 

while your at it can you point to anything that has actually improved from sp2 any new features?
owt usefull at all?

Hmm, not that I've noticed really. It all seems pretty much as it was pre SP3. Having said that, as long as everything's running smoothly I don't generally take much notice. It's only when I want to do something and it starts complaining at me that I actually start rummaging around . Of course, as Sp3 comes in at over 300mb I suppose there must be something new in it.

or does it just say sp3 in control panel\system and that's enough to make us all feel updated and safe  :biggrin: 

Well, yes it does say Sp3 now instead of Sp2. I suppose that's meant to make us think we're now all warm and cosy and safe - "COUGH,COUGH,
COUGH!!!!"

It's well known that we are not, and never have been getting what we pay for, but at least it's now official - they've finally admitted it 

I wonder how quickly they'd send me an email if i throttled my payment on a sliding scale to suit the service I recieve at any given time?

I bet that would shoot down the FAT PIPE at an extaordinary velocity, rofl