Problem Updating to Windows SP3

[PamJ]

Hello again!  Hope everyone is doing great!

My new computer purchased in December had SP2. Because of my aversion to updating Windows (always afraid of a major problem ), I hadn't tried to update to SP3 until tonight.  (Reading about that conficker thing in more than one place today made me decide to do it!  LOL)   I did a restore point for just before I tried to update.  Which is good, because I had to use it!

Anyone know how to get around this?  After doing the SP3 update, the computer restarts, goes to the desktop that shows my personal desktop but no icons or start menu etc., and a window that says, "Setting up personalized settings for Windows desktop."  I let it sit there for 10 minutes the first time, before pulling up Windows Task Manager and ending the task.  When I end it, it says it's not responding, and then I end it anyway.  Still no icons, start menu, bar at the bottom or anything, so I restart from task manager and try it again--three more times.  Same thing each time.

When I started in safe mode, some of the icons, start menu, etc., came up, which is, obviously, how I got to system restore.

I ended up using my restore point and am back with SP2.

Any thoughts or suggestions? 

Thanks, all...

Pam

[Tarq57]

Hi PamJ,
You still got that teeny weenie 40G hard drive, with 11% free space?
That could be a problem.

[PamJ]

Hi, Tarq57,

Actually, no, my new computer's hard drive is 320GB and has 278GB free. 

Pam

[Tarq57]

Did you try it via my suggestion here http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=40054.msg336272#msg336272?
What other programs were also running when you were updating?
(From the standpoint that it might pay to disconnect from the web, and exit some or all of them prir to installing.)

[PamJ]

I made sure as much such as possible was not running, which still left the long list of what's left in Task Manager. I closed the things I knew I could close without a problem. The other stuff--I have no idea what else I can delete and still have everything work right for the install.  I was disconnected.  Just went through Windows Update on the computer and the site told me what I needed was SP3, so that's what I tried to install.

[Tarq57]

Apart from the seemingly endless and obscure items listed in taskmanager (30-40 isn't unusual), set the taskbar to NOT hide anything (so it looks like mine) and report what is running in the system tray.
Just for fun, mine shows, left to right: Secunia PSI, PCTools firewall, Comodo Memory Firewall, Threatfire, Avast, sounds, safely remove hardware, a custom clock. Were I to be installing SP3 via the installer, I'd do a cleanup, disconnect from the internerd, exit the first five-except network connections- and install it. I'm not saying you need to do this, and it may pay to wait for other replies, just that's what worked for me. That and 2 reboots afterward.

[bob3160]

Pam,
If you downloaded SP3 from a reputable place, may I suggest that before you install it,
you stop all of your security scanners including the avast! on demand scanner.
There have been quite a few instances where all the background scanning causes errors in the installation of SP3.
Remember that installing SP3 is almost the same as totally re-installing your operating system.

[scythe944]

I've had good luck with downloading the full SP3 file and installing locally, not by using windows update service.

It could be worth a try.  Definitely shutdown any non-essential programs first before running the update (and I've found that doing things on the computer, no matter how small can affect Service Pack installations).

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=5B33B5A8-5E76-401F-BE08-1E1555D4F3D4&displaylang=en

Hope you have broadband though...

[bob3160]

If you don't have broadband, you can get a CD by following the directions here.

[PamJ]

Thanks for all the suggestions!

I had what I thought were all essential things shut down, and the main download and installation seemed to go okay. It's when it said I needed to reboot for things to finish that there was a problem.  I had the computer reboot, and when the desktop came up, the icons didn't load, and I had that window that said it was trying to update my desktop. It seemed to get stuck on that. (Is it possible that I didn't have everything turned off that I thought I did, and even though it seemed to go okay with the download and install, the glitch didn't show up until this time?)

How can I turn off everything non-essential in the above situation prior to getting that "updating desktop" window?  It pops up immediately after reboot once the desktop background shows up, but there are no icons, bar at the bottom, start menu, etc.  Maybe I could go in Task Manager and close things there, but at this point, that window is already up, so would it do any good then?

Things come up in safe mode (normal stuff for safe mode), but that "updating desktop" window doesn't.

I downloaded just SP3 from the Windows site. Is this really the one to download (Windows XP Service Pack 3 Network Installation Package for IT Professionals and Developers) even on one computer?  I know you guys know what you're talking about, but at this link, it says if you only have one computer, to us http://update.microsoft.com/windowsupdatev6/default.aspx?ln=en-us.  Which is where I was last night. The whole process for me started off by saying I needed to let it download the ActiveX control for Windows Update from Microsoft Windows Component Publisher" before it could even check to see what things I even needed to update. And then it went on from there.

Yep, Comcast broadband.

Pam

[scythe944]

(Windows XP Service Pack 3 Network Installation Package for IT Professionals and Developers) even on one computer?  I know you guys know what you're talking about, but at this link, it says if you only have one computer, to us http://update.microsoft.com/windowsupdatev6/default.aspx?ln=en-us.  Which is where I was last night.

Yes, you usually don't have to download the entire thing, because windows update finds the updates you need and applies them.  But... sometimes the windows update site goes screwy, and it's better to just download the entire installation file locally, and run it from there.  You can always delete the file once you are done.

As for your computer finishing up the SP3 installation after the reboot, the only thing that I can think of is that something was interfering with the installation (or windows update screwed up) and it couldn't continue.

I think that after you download the entire file, disable all non-essential programs, the install should complete successfully.

Let us know. and hope it works!

[Tarq57]

But... sometimes the windows update site goes screwy, and it's better to just download the entire installation file locally, and run it from there.  You can always delete the file once you are done

So true. You can delete the file. But I'd hang on to it.Having it handy in a reserved folder somewhere makes a re-install so much more straightforward.
PamJ, you hang on to that thing. All 307~Mb of it. You may need it again someday. Put it on a separate partition to the OS. If you don't have one of those, maybe save it to a CD or flash drive that may have other handy programs on it.

[DavidR]

I would certainly hang on to it, I have a copy on CD, I had to get a friend to download 316MB (I think that was the size) of SP3 as there was no way I could on dial-up. I rarely delete anything that I download.

[scythe944]

I rarely delete anything that I download.

Heh... My server has stuff that I've had since I was 16.  I try to clean it up sometimes, but there's so much there, I don't even want to look!

Anyway, I work on computers for a living (if you couldn't tell) so yeah, I keep service packs so I already have them to install on client's computers if they make it to my home.

I was just letting her know that if she wanted to, it's safe to delete the file once the install was complete, that's all.

[DavidR]

There weren't any personal computers when I was 16