Hi GeoR,

You mentioning you are running an 'AMD Athlon' processor and having problems installing 
SP3 caught my eye.

I had been trying to install SP3 ever since it came out a few days back and had  
fallen flat on my face.

I was able to download it successfully but when the program prompted me to reboot 
to finish the installation I would get a message saying Windows experienced a problem 
because of a recent software change and could not start.  It then gave me four choices 
including 'Normal' boot, 'last known good configuration', etc., of which the only 
one that would work for me was to start up in 'Safe' mode.

Once in 'Safe' mode I went to 'Add/Remove' programs and simply uninstalled SP3 until 
I found the fix that worked for me.

While 'googling' and checking out some other forums I found a fix discovered by someone 
else that worked 
for myself and countless other AMD Athlon users. 

For the record, I am running a Compaq Presario AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3300+, 
2411MHz/1.93 GBs RAM, running Windows Xp Home Sp#2 (now SP3)., with IE7.

Now to get to the fix.  The key to a successful SP3 install on this type of processor 
(AMD Athlon) rests in changing one single registry value.

Simply go to:  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Intelppm\Start 
and change the 'Start' value to '4'.  Mine had been set on '1'.

This one digit change did the trick for me and many, many other AMD Athlon users.

I also had IE 7 installed and wanted to keep the option of being able to uninstall 
it anytime I wanted and to retain this option Microsoft recommends uninstalling IE7 
prior to installing SP3 ... so I did just that.

After uninstalling IE7 I then rebooted and I had reverted back to IE6 which is what 
shipped with SP2 a few years back.  

Then I changed the registry value I mentioned above and then shut down all open programs 
including my anti-virus, anti-spyware and Zone Alarm Firewall. Prior to shutting 
down Zone Alarm I activated the Windows Firewall.

I then installed SP3 and it went through clean as a whistle.  Once it was installed 
it prompts you to reboot which I did.  Booting up this time  takes a little longer 
than usual but this is normal.

Once my booting up was finished I then reinstalled IE7 and now I am up and running 
with an SP3 updated machine and everything seems to be up and working just fine. 
 Remember to reactivate your anti-virus, anti-spyware and third party firewall when 
the update is completed.

Hope this helps you if you are still experiencing problems installing SP3 on your 
'AMD 
Athlon' processor.

Good luck and regards,

Phil




" ....Nuff Said!  Keep Smiling Because I'm Smiling Too..."




On Friday, May 16, 2008 at 8:15 am, GeoR wrote:

>On 4/22/08, Microsoft showed the update gold shield telling us to download/install 

>and update. I proceeded to use Microsoft Update and the system scanned our laptop 

>Acer Aspire AMD base.

>After a long wait it inform us that we had the SP3 to be installed.

>Proceeded to install it and although I understand it is a large release, it took 

>over 1.5 hrs to come back with the Service Pack 3 Setup Error: "A device attached 

>to the system is not functioning".

>It does not tell you what device, just to select OK to Remove Changes.

>It goes to another long, long time before indicating that it failed.

>Now, over four weeks later, another gold shield showed up about SP3.

>Follow the same process as before, but it showed that the install was zero MB size, 

>and after 1.5 hrs, came back with the same SP3 Setup Error.

>It is obvious that it is detecting something but it does not help you to know what 

>you can do. Any suggestions? 

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