[banky41]

ok, I will give it a try.

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nope. "access denied" again. and now the last two times I have rebooted it takes about 3 minutes on the Compaq screen before it boots to the XP screen.

[banky41]

nope. "access denied" again. and now the last two times I have rebooted it takes about 3 minutes on the Compaq screen before it boots to the XP screen.

[banky41]

does this look like it might work?


http://support.microsoft.com/kb/958043


also, how do I check to see what service pack I have? I still see the SP3 download that seemed to work in the windows update page. back on March 27th 2010. is it possible that I have the Service pack?

[RKinner]

Worth a shot.

Your XP3 download and Install was successful once but you had to back it out because of the reboot loop.

Microsoft offers free update support. Go to http://support.microsoft.com/gp/wupd and click on Contacts then choose the top option.

Ron

[banky41]

I have sent MS an email and have started working with them.

I will post on here what they have me do for future reference.

thank you very much for all your help Ron. GTG is the best.

Derek

[banky41]

here is what they had me do and it was successful. I have pasted the email they sent hope that is ok.

thank you again Ron for all your help on this.




Thank you for contacting Microsoft Windows Consumer Support.



This is Allen. Let’s continue troubleshooting the Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) install issue. To contact me, you may send emails to [email protected] with the case ID SRX1150448013 in the subject line.



From your description, I understand that SP3 failed to install with the error message “Access is Denied”. If I have misunderstood, please do not hesitate to let me know.



I understand the inconvenience you have experienced. Please be assured that I will do my best to help you.



Based on the error message, this issue can occur when current user account does not have the correct permissions to access related folders and registry keys. At this time, I suggest performing the following steps to reset permission.



Step 1: Take the ownership of the system drive

=====

1. Click Start, click Run, type: cmd and press Enter.

2. In the command console, please type the following command.



cacls C:\ /E /T /G Administrators:F (if you installed the system on C drive)



Step 2: Take the ownership of the registry branches

=====

1. Click "Start", and click "Run". Type "regedit" (without quotation marks) and click OK.

2. Right-click HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT and choose Permission.



3. Please check if "Administrators" is listed in the "Group and User" name list. If not, please click the "Add" button and type "Administrators" in the open window and click "OK" to add this group.



4. Highlight "Administrators" and check on "Full Control" under "Accept".

5. Click the "Advanced" button and choose the "Owner" tab.



6. Highlight the current user account in the list and mark the check box before "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects".

7. Click OK to save changes and wait for Windows XP to transfer the ownership of all the objects on the partition.



Note: if there is the warning information "Error: The Registry Editor could not set security in the key currently selected, or some of its subkeys", it is normal. Please click "OK".



8. Click OK again to save changes and exit the Properties window.



Please use the same method to change the permissions of the other four branches:



HKEY_CURRENT_USER

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

HKEY_USERS

HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG



After that, please restart the computer and reinstall Windows XP Service Pack 3 package in Safe Mode.



Install SP3 in Safe Mode again

====================

1. Restart the computer and keep pressing the F8 key until the Windows Startup menu appears.

2. Choose Safe Mode, and press Enter.

3. Double click the downloaded file "WindowsXP-KB936929-SP3-x86-ENU.exe" on the Desktop to install Windows XP SP3 in Safe Mode.



Note: In Safe Mode, your system display and Desktop will look and perform differently than in Normal Mode. This is only temporary. To return to Normal Mode, we can simply restart the computer.



Has SP3 been installed successfully? If not, please follow the steps below to capture a screenshot of any error message that may have been received.



Screenshot:

=========

1. Press PrintScreen (PrScrn) to capture a screenshot.

2. From Start, click "Run", enter MSPAINT in the Open box, and then click "OK".

3. Use Ctrl + V to paste the screen shot to the canvas.

4. From the File menu, go to Save and save as a JPG file to the Desktop.

5. Send it to [email protected] as an attachment.



Then, send me the SP3 installation related log files:



1. Click "Start", "Run", enter "%windir%" (without the quotation marks), and then click "OK".

2. Locate the files Svcpack.log and Setupapi.log in the opened folder.

3. Please send them to me at [email protected].



Please try the above steps and let me know the results at your earliest convenience. If there are any questions or concerns, feel free to contact me.



If you have any feedback regarding Microsoft support, we would be glad to hear from you. If you would like to provide your feedback directly to my manager, Monica Wu, please send your email to [email protected]. My manager will be happy to hear your comments and suggestions.



I look forward to your reply.

[RKinner]

Thanks for the feedback. I will keep the info in case I run into something like this again.

Ron