Service Pack 3 and automatic updates

I have a friend who recently downloaded SP3 like the masses, and similarly like the masses his computer crashed and was stuck in an infinite reboot loop that did not allow for safe mode. I would like to know what he can do about the reboot loop. I also would like to know if there is anyway to stop SP3 from being downloaded via Automatic Updates if it does to begin with.

 

If he can't even enter safe mode, then the OS is completely hosed. As for updating to SP3, set Automatic Updates to notify you and download updates, but not to install them. That will be your choice, so you will have to uncheck SP3 from the available updates when it pops up.

 

why is is SP3 doing that? It's perfect here on my laptop....

 

I personally did a clean install of Windows before updating to SP3. No problems here. The only (very few) people who have had problems didn't do a clean install. So I highly suggest that.

As for the problem... I'm not sure what you mean by a "reboot loop". At what point of the computers boot process does it then begin to reboot?

Additionally, a recovery install via the Windows CD is always an option .

 

Hmmm..... I did a clean install of XP a week ago and installed SP 3 from an .exe. Seems to be working fine... bummer. Sorry. Hadn't tried it before. So perhaps I shouldn't install it on my Dad's desktop... hmmm.

 

I've installed SP3 on a few of my XP machines, and I must say that I have had to format and put them back on SP2. It broke a lot of my Thinstalled applications and a few other things here and there. I would refrain from installing SP3 right now.

For your friends drive, you can try booting into the recovery console and backing up any files he may need off the drive, but it may be impossible to determine exactly what files it is that is causing it to keep rebooting. There's a repair option in the XP installation options too, that may be of some help.