“What are you doing this weekend? How about watching your PC continually reboot? That’s what some aggravated Windows XP users have been doing Friday after installing the XP service pack 3 (SP3),” Chloe Albanesius reports for PC Magazine.
“‘Microsoft is aware of these issues and we are investigating them further,’ according to a spokeswoman. ‘We will keep customers informed with our progress. Any customer who experiences a problem with Windows XP SP3 installation should contact Microsoft Customer Support Services,'” Albanesius reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: A much better and smarter way to make use of the weekend: eBay the POS — or better yet, spare the next sucker and just turn the thing in for recycling — and get a Mac.
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Perhaps this is an upgrade strategy. They can’t get people to switch from XP, so they are going to sabotage their XP systems with a crappy update in an attempt to force Vista.
Not to defend Windows, but mine worked just fine on Parallels.
YES, I DO NEED IT FOR WORK!
Some of us do that, you know.
I wish I didn’t need a windows partition on my MacBook. There are just WAY too many apps that I need that are windows ONLY 🙁
@CandTsmac
In that case Apple is probably just as bad: After buying Logic Audio, first thing they axed the windows version.
So, can´t really blame MS, at least not anymore than Apple.
@ iDon’t
That might actually be true. It sounds like wild conspiracy theory, but sabotaging XP to force Windows users to move to Vista is just the slimy crap Microsoft is known to do.
Apple really needs to jump on this situation with a new “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” ad.
Man, people on here can’t even admit to the fact that testing on an open platform with hundreds of thousands of hardware and software combinations is exponentially more difficult than testing a dozen or so combinations of hardware and software that was all built in-house. My point is not to say it’s okay for Microsoft to release crappy products, I’m just stating a truth. If someone cannot admit that, then I’d call them a fanboy.
To dd: I’d say it BECAME your problem when you bought a PC. MDN would probably even call you “stupid” for doing so.
Microsoft deliberately make XP SP3 go wrong, to encourage people to upgrade to Vista, but when they install Vista, that accidently goes wrong lol.
Seems like a lose-lose situation to me.
@ Noodle-Armed Choir Boy
Wikipedia:
Stupidity is the quality or condition of being stupid, or lacking intelligence, as opposed to being merely ignorant or uneducated
Since Winslop users have at least something between their ears, just being down right ignorant better describes them.
Man, people on here can’t even admit to the fact that testing on an open platform with hundreds of thousands of hardware and software combinations is exponentially more difficult than testing a dozen or so combinations of hardware and software that was all built in-house.
Yes it’s exponentially more difficult to test all the combinations.
And MS has to either face the challenge and test those combinations, or better manage their product so there are few combinations to support.
Shipping a half-baked, half-tested product that’s widely breaking is inexcusable, even for MS.
MS needs to either get in control of their own management, or shut the company down.
If someone buys a Ford and it breaks down every week, will they buy a Ford next time? No, but for some reason logic goes out the window when it comes to their PC.
It’s worse than that.
Imagine an automaker that intentionally mis-repaired cars (or issued “updates” that caused problems), with the idea of disgusting customers into buying new vehicles.
Even the worst-managed auto company could see the folly with that plan, and the certainity of alienating far more customers than making new sales.
Yet things carry on as usual at MS….
The wow restarts now, and now, and now….
windows rocks. stop your whining. why would anyone want to use a mac when so much more software is available for Windows.
@choo
Bless you
@ChrisM – Fair enough assumption. However, I have a Mac. It is partitioned to run Windows. I’d never buy a PC. I also didn’t mean to attack you personally. My point was, and still is, that MS MUST make sure its versions of Windows (and subsequent SPs) work with all the different boxes. MS took on that challenge when it licensed to all IBM clones. MS is a sinking ship. Can’t wait to hear all the excuses from MS lovers.
MW (since I forgot to login): Rest- Put MS to rest, already.
why would anyone want to use a mac when so much more software is available for Windows.
Because Macs don’t constantly reboot.
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All the software means nothing when the OS is broken. Nevermind that the only app that matters on Windows is Office. One could argue games, but the consoles (incl. MS’s own XBox) weakens the point.
Microsoft seems to continually fsck themselves into oblivion. Ballmer should be dragged out of the poor example of a tech company by his wagging tongue. At the rate things are going, Apple will be big enough to buy Microsoft in a few years and rid the world of the POS operating systems that continue to crap out.
Long live Apple.
[Man, people on here can’t even admit to the fact that testing on an open platform with hundreds of thousands of hardware and software combinations is exponentially more difficult than testing a dozen or so combinations of hardware and software that was all built in-house. My point is not to say it’s okay for Microsoft to release crappy products, I’m just stating a truth. If someone cannot admit that, then I’d call them a fanboy.]
Please. What is a person — if not an MS-apologist — if he can’t admit that:
MS CHOOSE to ‘support and accomodate, thousands of hardware and software combinations’ — INCLUDING developing Mac software — why is it their customer’s fault that they have a difficult time doing so?
Why is the public’s fault that MS can’t say no to every box-maker out there?
Why is MS so willingly to take all the money, on a promise they can’t/won’t keep.
Yet another great scenario to use on a Get a Mac commercial.
I installed SP3 on 4 systems with no problems whatever. I did have to remove my custom boot screen. Which is really dumb, but what can you do.
People stay with Windoze mostly out of ignorance and fear. It used to be that they would have to buy all new hardware (remember ADB anyone?) and software (before Virtualization), but those reasons no longer hold water.
So, what’s left is ignorance and/or fear of the unknown. And this is truly sad…
Well, maybe we’ll get lucky and Micro$oft will issue another service pack which will simply destroy XP installs and no one will have any choice but to turn to Macs.
Or maybe Apple will make a commercial about infinitely rebooting XP SP3 installs…
Man, people on here can’t even admit to the fact that testing on an open platform with hundreds of thousands of hardware and software combinations is exponentially more difficult than testing a dozen or so combinations of hardware and software that was all built in-house.
Which means testing/supporting Windows Vista (assuming it’s not already dead), with it’s several versions, will be several times again more complex than XP. No wonder MS can’t get anything released.
MS CHOOSE to ‘support and accomodate, thousands of hardware and software combinations’ — INCLUDING developing Mac software — why is it their customer’s fault that they have a difficult time doing so?
Agreed.
It’s like people excusing an automaker for building junk, because that maker has too many models & option combinations to support. WTF??
There’s a saying: Don’t make excuses, just make it right. MS needs to do just that, or get out of the OS business. It’s that simple.
“At this point, I want to clarify that the endless rebooting is not at all related to SP3 per se,” Johansson wrote.
The reboot problem stems from how HP configured their machines which have AMD processors. This isn’t a problem with SP3. Read the damn article before posting, morons.
I’ve installed SP3 on several PROPERLY CONFIGURED machines and it works fine.