Iam curious about SP3 and if its worth downloading and installing ? I know I could have googled SP3 for info about it ,however I want the opinion of the good people here at computing.net ! I have a utility I downloaded and installed from PC Magazine called the Bel-Arc Advisor ,according to that utiltiy I have SP3 ,however I maybe confusing it with either security patches for SP3 (dont know why Windows Update would download them ?)or hotfixes ? When I right click on My Computer ,on the general tab it list my O/S a WinXP Media Center Edition 2002 Service Pack 2 ! My main ? is on SP3 is it worth installing or should I stay with the "if it aint broke dont fix it" line on thinking ? Thanks to All Nick

I would not download it myself, It is close to 400.mb and there is allot of problems with it. My friend has tried to install 3 times with no luck, and now is computer is messed up.

I've installed SP3 on all 3 of my XP systems & other than a minor glitch with one wireless card (which was an easy fix), I've had no problems. I didn't download it thru Windows update though...I went to the M$ site & downloaded the version for network installation. I made copies & gave them out to a couple of guys at work & AFAIK, no one has had any problems with it. I've actually experienced a noticeable performance increase since installing SP3...a google search truns up numerous test sites that claim a 10% boost compared to the exact same system running SP2. When I get a chance, I'm gonna slipstream SP3 into a WinXP CD. "It is close to 400.mb" Actually, it's closer to 300MB. "And that's the fishing line, because Sharkboy said so!"

The issue had to do with OEM vendors that used the same file for both their Intel and AMD builds. If you have one of those units with an AMD processor you MAY have problems. I don't know if Dell was one of those OEM vendors or not. Their may be a patch already incorporated to fix the issue.

Yes the patch that supposedly fixed the reboot error (Stop 0x0000007E) on non-Intel-processor-based PC is HERE. EDIT As for myself I have already installed SP3 on a dozen or so machines (two were AMD not by HP) with no problems. i_Xp/VistaUser

I have installed on 3 machines with one giving me grief for 2 weeks and numereous downloads from different sites. Finally figured out it was a permissions problem. Used dial-a-fix tools to repair the permissions and it loaded right up. That problem is manifested as 2/3 thru the install you get "cannot access" fault. http://wiki.lunarsoft.net/wiki/Dial...

I am of the 'If it ain't broke' persuasion when it comes to computer software. I have downloaded it, but I won't install it until forced to.