Windows XP SP3 - I'll Join the Chorus

Here comes yet another SP3 lament. As an individual end user, I try to keep my laptops up to date via Windows Update, or Microsoft Update, as appropriate. As I have mentioned previously, both my S6510 (Intel Core 2 Duo) and S2110 (AMD Turion 64) laptops had updated to SP3, as just another step along the way in the continuous update procedure, just fine.

However, as I have now decided to permanently configure the S6510 as a dual-boot Ubuntu/XP system, and the current XP installation has started to show the typical signs of flakiness that inevitably arise after Windows has had sufficient time to start corrupting itself, I decided to create a new system disk, with a fresh installation of XP and Ubuntu. It should be easy, as I have a Recovery DVD from Fujitsu, which will restore the C partition to XP SP2. I should just need to install a few updates on top of that to get to SP3 and be back up and running...

Unfortunately, it hasn't turned out that way (everyone here who is surprised raise your hands... ok, I thought so).

After restoring the Fujitsu recovery DVD, I let Windows Update pick up whatever it wanted. On the second cycle of that, it said that it wanted to install SP3. Fine, go ahead. After that finished, the next run through Windows Update said there were two optional software updates and one optional hardware update to install:

- Root Certificates Update
- Windows Media Player 11
- Agere AC'97 modem

I told it to go ahead and install those. It downloaded them, the installation thrashed for a while, and then it said "The following updates were not installed", and listed all three. All subsequent attempts to install them produce the same result. It now skips the download - at least it realizes that they are already available on the system - but never installs them, and they are always listed the next time I run Windows Update. Sigh.

I remember these updates from before SP3 came out, and I am sure they were successfully installed then. Apparently, something happened when it jumped to SP3 this time which is preventing those updates from installing. During one run through this, I told Windows Update that I did not want to jump to SP3, and then it offered me a long list of mandatory updates that would be installed. Perhaps one of those is what is necessary to get these three updates to install.

jw 25/6/2008