SP3 Issue

I have been reloading some PCs Lately... And this bug seems to have been fixed. So please do not think that SP3 has to be installed after all other updates. It works just fine to start your updates with SP3. But just in case, I am leaving this post up for anyone finding themselves having the problem of not having IE7 or the newest WMP install after installing SP3.


On Memorial day I decided to reload one of my PCs. I had tried to boot it days before with no luck... It had been at least six months since last time I had booted up the machine. So rather than trouble shoot, a fresh start sounded good to me.

So I reinstalled windows XP SP2. No problem. I began doing updates, this is where my problems lie. I thought that installing SP3 first sounded great... It should include those other 100 and some updates, right?

But this is where it went wrong... I had not installed Windows Media Player 11 before SP3. I was not able to install it nor a few other updates and drivers. For some reason SP3 would not install some remaining updates, one was even a "critical" updated.(capicom) Others were my audio and display drivers, which I feel were equally critical. I fought with my machine for hours... rebooting checking the updates in "installed programs." (which only showed SP3)

To make a long story short...

If you uninstall SP3 first - then you may install all the updates manually - and then go back to install SP3 it seems to work fine. I don't understand it but then again Microsoft products are not always the most logical. Or if you don't have SP3... make sure you get the new updates you want before installing SP3 or you may find yourself backtracking.

I hadn't seen any documentation on this issue, but I figured it will happen to someone other than me and I hope I can save someone some extra time and headache.