XP Service Pack 3 endless reboot problem solved, on this one

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Running an AMD based system and, so far, have just solved a constant reboot problem with this system. This could be very mother board dependent fix. This is something to bare in mind if and when some run into this and more have a problem with this service pack then can be known, because they can't get on the net to say it. Windows XP service pack 3 update, which is/was live as of last Tuesday morning.

I'm running an Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe board on this one. After the SP3 download I could not get into Windows XP, no safe mode, no anything. Repeatedly hitting F8 during the boot gave me the error message and it said to try a few things, which did not work, including the F7 try and I know damn well my BIOS was up to date. I was given a link, as I have more then one computer, to a wonderful tech site that directed me to a blog that was dealing with trouble shooting the constant reboots and there was my main board listed as a big one. The first fix involved just slipping a flash drive in an empty PS2 port, it worked. I got into XP (I'm using the Home version), but upon reboot with the flash drive out, the constant reboot problem again. Reading the comments on the blog someone mentioned moving their mouse from a PS2 slot to the USB, it worked for them. They were then able to move the mouse back to the PS2 port, later. Now, this same person could not get the flash drive fix to work for them. I decided to try the mouse movement and mine was on the USB, so I moved it to the PS2. Problem solved. I cannot move it back to the USB port or I get the reboot glitch. I have since run CCleaner, allowed it to clean the registry, reset the old restore points, emptied my windows prefetch, compressed, etc...my usual house cleaning. It is still booting fine.

Now, who in the hell would have ever thought just moving the mouse port might be the fix to this "I do know" and why he would try it I don't know. I do know desperation of resetting the BIOS to default, but it wasn't needed, at least in my case. But I do know desperation will lead you down paths that one wouldn't normally think of and make no sense what so ever if you were to try to think it through logically.

So anyway, a heads up if you run into this problem with friends/work, etc. It might save you from a needless and fruitless reinstall of XP. And this is a good excuse to explain why I need a new main board to The Wife. :roll:

And thats why I don't install any microshaft updates until they have been around longer than my computer

Gives them a chance to attempt to fix the bugs!

I'm so glad that I didn't install SP3 yet...I don't think I ever will..

I have since installed it on two other machines. No problems with it on either. Apparently this board I had the trouble with is one that others are as well. I'm looking into it further and haven't notified Asus of the glitch. One of the other machines I updated to SP3 was also an Asus board and it had no trouble and The Wife feels it improved the performance of the machine. I haven't seen any marked improvement but I don't think I could go much faster because of a couple of bottle necks I have yet to deal with, like 64 bit operating sytem, faster milisecond refresh on the monitor, but I got use to the 8ms wide screen and don't want to hook up the 2ms 19 inch screen, not using all of the RAM nor am I using the full power of the dual core chip, only using 1 of my 2 SLI 8800 series nvidia vid cards, etc. I have yet to see if it has the new version of DirectX and I'm not speaking of 10, it's an update to 9c, I think, I'll know more later but if so, it should be Microsoft's concession to not putting DX10 on the XP systems, since they are going to support it now till 2014. It maybe a seperate download and iirc you will need SP3 to do it, like I say, I need to look into this further.

If you don't install security patches, well, that's your call. I'd rather take the odd chance with buggy stuff and this is the first patch I've had from them that has caused any major trouble. But again, I'm not sure it's Microsofts fault to begin with on my glitch, we'll see what Asus has to say about it and I did get a hold of MS as well. I need to double check to see if they came out with a BIOS upgrade I wasn't aware of first.

Interestingly, our four IBM Thinkpads at work started BSOD-ing at startup and constantly rebooting. Eventually I got one to stay up long enough to download a patch but with the other three, I just re-ghosted them.

This was between the first and second releases of XP SP3 a few weeks back.

Obviously it hadn't been tested too well.

I noticed that shortly after they withdrew XP SP3, they temporarily withdrew VISTA SP1 for some fixes.

Check this site out, some very good things, possible workarounds happening here. [url=http://msinfluentials.com/blogs/jesper/archive/2008/05/08/does-your-amd-based-computer-boot-after-installing-xp-sp3.aspx]Jesper's Blog[/url] It does seem to have some trouble with Intel based as well, but not being Intel oriented, I just can't say much about it. I am on another tech site that has some workarounds, but mostly is dealing with just normal run of the mill XP trouble, but a few possible fixes as well. [url=http://www.techsupportforum.com/]Tech Support Forum[/url] and I have no idea why the links aren't appearing as they should be and am so tired of reading and writing about computer problems I don't have the energy to sort it out. :?

Yes I do but I'm not waiting around while it allows me to use the HTML or updates itself to allow the little icon guys. This is "Jesper's Blog" addy a little clearer.
http://msinfluentials.com/blogs/jesper/ ... p-sp3.aspx

and this is the "Tech Support Forum" link a bit easier to copy paste.
http://www.techsupportforum.com/

I'm sure there will be a bunch of places discussing this as it is now live and supposedly out of beta...yeah right, let the real beta begin. Well I guess the server updated my profile, so here's a little silly face, just cause. :roll: Lol, ok silly faces not allowed yet.