i downloaded service pack 3 yesterday and the latest yahoo messenger upgrade. My pc wont boot up at all now. It comes up with a blue screen with a fatal error message. Any ideas?
Have you an AMD processor and or ATi graphics. There are other updates you need to get to get it all to work together. Might be best to go to you PC or Laptop website see what there is.
Turn pc off then back on. Press F8 or F10.
Start pc in safe mode then do a System Restore.
Seems to be a fairly common problem do
a Google search of ‘XP sp3 blue screen of death’
^ good link above, i think “method 4” on that web page is what you’re going to have to use as its the only 1 that doesnt require you to start windows. good luck n let us know how you get on if you dont mind, i was an IT support technician in a previous life and (sadly) interested in these kind of things 
considering the pc already has a mystery fault would the easy option be to get the technician round the corner to wipe the system completely and reinstall the original software? Apart from a few recent pics everything is backed up anyway
Yes it would be, but bear in mind the mystery fault may not be software related.
true but once i have the laptop on broadband the guy can take as long as he likes. I cant find the password so i cant hook it up to the landline broadband. Once its up and running i can use the laptop as my main pc minus the office features since the software i have isnt compatible with vista 
both my pc’s are automagically trying to update to SP3 - is it safe to let them do this ?
Denis F:
both my pc’s are automagically trying to update to SP3 - is it safe to let them do this ?
i would set a restore point before letting it do any updates a dnt think i have it on my other pc so dunno mate 
and as for microsoft office i have ir installed on my lappy with no problems at all install then iirc it downloads an update patch and bobs ya mothers brother 
Denis F:
both my pc’s are automagically trying to update to SP3 - is it safe to let them do this ?
Not sure yet, personally I’m not installing it yet
You can setup your PC so you get a message that updates are available, an icon in the system tray appears. Means I can then go to the Windows Update Site and by doing a custom install, see what updates are available and pick and choose. Usually only the critcal updates.
Just checked my system and find its running SP3 - must have automatically downloaded, and so far not noticed anything different.
Microsoft Support is the MS support center for XP, it has a few links to things about SP3.
My laptop has XP SP3 on it, and it is just fine.
Hey, think about it, it could be “running” vista! 
She says, just having upgraded from Vista HP, to XP Pro… 
I did a reformat and re-install and put sp3 on it.
No problems and a couple of new features.