Resolved Problem updating to SP3

Greetings all!

I have been trying to help my mother upgrade a computer she recently acquired as a backup computer (a used HP computer w/WinXP installed.) It currently only has SP2 installed on it.

Going through the "windows update" doesn't work (she receives some type of message stating there was a problem....not sure of the exact message). Tried to download the service pack and save it to her desktop. But upon opening it, it came back with an error message "Extraction Failed File is corrupt ".

I am not currently at her computer to see what is/has happened, so I can't offer any more information at this time.

Any ideas on what/how she can get the SP3 installed on that computer? (Hoping that we don't have to "order" the CD from Microsoft).

Thanks for any suggestions you may offer!

 

I went to visit my mom yesterday and see if I could be of any assistance in helping her download the SP3....no luck!

I first tried the windows update homepage (?) and it started going through the part where it was checking for updates. The it came back with the message "there was a problem viewing this page" (or something to that affect, I didn't write it down).

Then I tried downloading from that link you provided, Pete, and saved it to a folder as you suggested. When I tried to run it, it came back with an error message about it not being a valid win32 application(?). I had written that down on paper, but forgot that at Mom's!!

I also tried downloading (from that same link), from her other computer and saved it on a flash drive, but still came back with the win32 error thing.

Really didn't expect this to be so difficult to accomplish! Now I'm concerned that even if we did get a CD with the SP3, we'd still have trouble getting it installed!

Am I missing something that we can't get it to properly download or install??

Thanks!

 

Sorry I haven't responded to this post (with either good or bad results).

I haven't had a chance to get back to my Mom's to run any scans for viruses or malware. I'm not even totally sure what she has on that spare computer for protection??

I'd ask her to do it, but she isn't a member of this forum and probably wouldn't know how to post the results anyway. (I've only done that myself once or twice and not sure I could explain it to her?)

Hoping that I'll be able to visit with her again next week and will certainly check into getting that done.

Thanks for the assistance!

 

Might try dry downloading SP3 again from the link above, I had the same problem after replacing the HD on an old laptop I've had for several years and doing a clean install of XP with SP2, windows update wouldn't work and was getting the same error message, finally downloaded SP3 (I thought), tried to install it and got the same error message. Finally looked at the size of the download and it was a lot smaller than the 316.4MB shown on the download page. Had to try the download again in order to get the full package, finally got it on the 2nd or 3rd try, installed it, and Windows update finally started working normally.

If you can get the full SP3 package I'd suggest burning it to a cd just in case you need it again, then copy it to the computer you're trying to update & run it from there, probably be faster than installing it from the cd. It also gives you the option to download IE8 and IE8 updates plus a 3rd update for windows, might be worthwhile to get IE8 if she doesn't already have it, SP2 installs IE6 which she probably has if the computer hasn't been updated in a while.

Just to be clear, the XP install disk I'm using is a legit disc of the Student Edition of XP Pro with SP2 I got from Microsoft several years ago which allows multiple installs & will validate with no problem, I've used it to bring back to life a few friends computers that are too old to run Windows 7 or Vista (the laptop I redid is a prime example, actually wanted to install Windows 7 Pro but the chipset isn't supported by 7).

Hope this helps.

 

I recently experience the exact same problem when attempting to clean up and update my nephew's college laptop (Toshiba w/ XP Pro)... The windows update page wasn't able to scan the system and continuously displayed a Win32 Program error/corruption. I "googled" the error and downloaded a "patch ". After that I began downloading updates and by the time I was done it took over 150 security updates before it got to the SP3 update. I did run Malwarebytes on the system before I downloaded the patch. I did take an inordinate amount of time as (I am assuming) that it was years behind any new updates... Hope this helps...ckl

 

Clitwin13, there's no need to install all the updates you did before installing SP3, it contains everything you need to update to SP3 (the full 316 MB isn't used, just what's missing).

After I installed SP3 Windows Update started working immediately, there were a few updates that came up but nowhere near what you mentioned. It did have to download and install a new Windows installer file, along with the file that checks that the copy of Windows is legit. Evidently the problem is caused by the installer file (version 3.1 if I remember correctly) not being recognised by Windows with SP2, before I downloaded & installed the SP3 standalone package Windows Update was working, after downloading & installing the (3.1) version is when Windows update started giving me problems & error messages that it couldn't locate the Windows Update page.

 

I originally thought that the SP3 package would indeed include all previous updates but it wasn't my choice to do all the installs individually. Once the system would talk to the Microsoft update website, I let it do a system search... it found 14 critical/important updates (as an example),..after I installed those I simply did another "check for updates ". Once that was complete it showed 20 (eg.) critical updates...and so on and so forth. By the time that all was complete a total of 214 updates had been effected. My question would be (probably for another forum at this point) is why the website search didn't just offer me the SP3 in the beginning. But to address the original problem of this thread .. the System Win 32 error was corrected by a downloaded fix which ultimately allowed the system to talk to the Update website and eventually bring the system into the 21st Century.....thanks for you input....Carl

 

SP3 install--downloaded!

Just wanted to thank everyone for the info I obtained on how to get the SP3 downloaded on my mother's back-up computer! (Thread started back in Oct. 2012!!)

I was finally able to spend some time visiting with my mother (mostly because it's Mother's Day!) and I was able to get the SP3 downloaded from the information provided by PeteC ('Windows XP Service Pack 3 Network Installation Package for IT Professionals and Developers').

I did mark that thread "resolved" but just wanted to update on what worked.

Thanks again for all the help I continually receive on this board!

And for any mom's out there-- "Happy Mother's Day!" to you!

~Vicki