I knew it might happen, but I did it anyway. On many occasions, I tend to place myself at the the cutting edge and the bleeding edge of technology. In this case, it is all about Windows XP Service Pack 3 Beta. Yes, I know that it is a Beta release. Yes I read through Microsoft’s notes regarding the beta release. I told myself, “What could go wrong? Windows XP Service Pack 3 Beta is a collection of security patches and then some. Nothing is gonna go wrong.”
The first install on a relatively new computer encounters zero problems so far. The second computer also encounters zero problems to date. So I installed SP3 on a freshly installed Windows XP with SP2 on a Gateway laptop. Everything seems to be working normally with the exceptions of the audio driver. For some reasons, the system wouldn’t load the audio driver. I tried to reinstall the audio driver, but it wouldn’t install at all. OK, that’s just a minor setback, but it’d be a lot nicer to have audio on the laptop. After an hour of troubleshooting, it appeared that there’s some incompatibilities with Windows XP SP3 Beta and RealTek HD Audio driver. I then fresh install Windows XP with SP2 on the Gateway laptop to get it properly working again. No SP3 for this laptop.
Some friends called me and told me that their computer was not working. I finally got to their place and work on the computer. Found out that many things went wrong with this Compaq computer. I tried system restore, but it was not much help. After uninstalling and re-installing device drivers and applications, the computer is working again. Took me a good 3 hours to get that computer up and running again; without having to reinstall the system. For some reasons, I had the idea on installing Windows XP SP3 Beta on this computer. It took a little bit over 30 minutes for SP3 installations, and the computer rebooted. Then the computer rebooted. Then it rebooted. Then it rebooted. Obviously, it was a bad idea to install Windows XP SP3 Beta on this system. I managed to boot windows into Safe Mode, and uninstall SP3 Beta.
The lesson is that Windows XP SP3 Beta is still a “Beta”. It still has some kinks to be worked out.
We have been getting bad feedback from users that have installed the Windows XP SP3. One of the biggest complaints is Microsoft did not include Direct X 10. The service pack employs many features of Vista and seems to turn your current version of XP into a steppingstone for purchasing a full copy of Vista. Please be sure your current computer programs will be able to handle the transition to SP3 or you may not be able to use them anymore.