XP Service pack 3 BSOD's laptop

OK, broke the cardinal rule and fixed what wasn't broke. I tried to install Serivce Pack 3 on my Dell laptop. starts to boot, hits window launch screen, flickers, goes blank, BSOD memory dump, "page fault on non page file memory."

In safe mode it gets as far as mouse pointer and service pack 3 window border, then crash.Safe boot and use last known configuration, same results. safe boot with command prompt, same thing. i haven't found the restore disk that came with it from dell, but hoping someone might help. so far I can't get a window.

Any suggestions on how to get 'er back?

Try booting to the Ultimate Boot CD, and restore your system to the state it was in prior to installing SP3...

Ultimate Boot CD
http://www.ubcd4win.com/

Use system restore? or is there another method?

and thanks. Downloading now.

i have been looking at sp3 but yet to download and now i think i wont

hope you get up and running m8

I installed SP3 on my Dell laptop (Intel based) and no problems. mrgreenjeans, is your Dell Intel or AMD based? If it's running an AMD proc you might be having the same problem a lot of HP owners are having with their AMD based machines. They had a blurb on the Inq about a fix for this problem this morning.

No it's Intel. I'm checking out the software but it seems it's recommended to use the DELl recovery CD but I've misplaced it really well. I'm trying to find if I can use another XP disk for the boot files?
and stay away from SP3 fro now!

Stay away from SP3. The machine errors before even reaching the windows screen when booting off a CD! i've been on the phone with M$ for over an hour and so far no suggestions. They haven't gotten any further than I.

Of course its a 3rd party driver or memory error, not theirs, but I won't accept that. The computer ran fine for almost 2 1/2 years until yesterday and now I suddenly have hard drive and memory errors!
Still on hold, third time in 45 minutes!

Whatever, don't do it! I'll keep oyu posted on the outcome.

Can you boot off a linux CD or memtest CD?

Ok. Now apparently the repair console errors because i was using a copy of XP pro and not Media center, which Dell didn't supply but are shipping at no charge. But, repair efforts will be on hold until the disk arrives from Dell. I did find a good article on using the repair console and command prompts for uninstalling XP3. Will post as soon as I get the bookmark off the wife's computer.

Man, I miss my lappy.

Link for removing Service pack 3 from Microsoft.

ngen.exe not installed

Latest update:

Dell was super fast in shipping the disks, they arrived via DHL yesterday.

With the XP disk from DELL I was able to access the repair consloe, however the uninstallation procedure as outlined by M$ link didn't work.

M$ techs had me try a repair install which continued to get an error message: "ngen.exe not installed. mscoree.dll not installed" which M$ ignored. Even upon a 'repair' install it went through all the motions, displaying the above error message at least 10-15 times as it finished set up, and when rebooted would go through all the motions up until it was time to see the desktop and then an error message, "system not completely installed" and shut down and reboot.

M$ is claiming a hardware problem although I've run DOs utilities checking RAM and hardrives, all passing 100%. MS had me run chldsk /R which completed with no errors.

Any suggestions before i spend the next few hours with M$ or Dell on the phone? M$ is pushing 'hardware issue' even though I explained the computer had been working fine for 2 years up until the moment I updated to XP3. Dell's warranty has expired so i kinda know what to expect from them.

Is recovery out and should I just go for a reinstall? Luckily the drive is partitioned so I can install windows on the 'other partition and salvage most of my data.

Suggestions? And why is the mscoree.dll file missing. It is the .NET framework driver by the by, i googled the ngen.exe file and the .dll file.

I did the reapir dance after chkdsk and same results. i feel the ngen.exe file is more important than they're admitting. I've installed windows nmerous times and NEVER had an error message during installation.

Should I call DELL or M$ first?

Do a clean install on the other partition and get your data...then wipe it all out a do a proper install. You've wasted far too much time already and even if you do get into windows it sounds like it would be unstable anyways.

Yep. That's what i'm doing now. it's possible the uninstall might've worked if M$ hadn't of tried the WINXP disk instead fo the MediaCenter disk, but that's supposition. dell had a separate installation program run after the MEdiaC install so I doubt it would've worked at all.

Oh well, copying files now and will wipe and reinstall from scratch. No data loss so i guess that is a successful upgrade.?!

Well, lappy's on the stool in front of me formatting the new Windows partition. This will be my forth install of windows in half as many days. This will be the last. I installed another copy of windows, accessed the drive and copied all my data files out and have wiped the drive and am reinstalling for the final time.
The real kicker is about a year ago i set up a hardware 1T RAID1 array on my 'home server' with cobian backup to cover just this occasion. Unfortunately I got sloppy and started putting files all over the drive rather than in the back up partition. Cobian8 had done its job, in fact backed up the drive the night before, but I hadn't done my job of storing critical files in there.

the moral of the story...."don't fix what ain't broke" and turn off auto update!

PS: the tech told me this morning that what M$ is recommending is to boot into safe mode and install SP3, reboot, sort out driver issues, and reboot. Still doesn't sound too stable. SP3 is supposed to be on the auto update board around the first of June. I reccommend turning off auto update.

The installation program just started copying files so I'll be busy for the next several hours. I think I'll fire up S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Obilvion Lost and shoot some critters while Lappy and Microsoft do their dance of Joy! : Hope all have a great day! See ya!

Oh and thanks once again for everyone's help. This is a great place to be!

from what I have been reading this seems to only effect AMD/HP machines or AMD users running a specific ASUS motherboard. Appearently there is a way to easily shut off the driver causing the problem (for the HP users) and supposidly, plugging in an booting with a USB storage device installed(like a flash drive), fixes the error for the ASUS/AMD motherboards allowing the system to boot. Wierd!?

And as I stated earlier, this is a Dell with an Intel chip.

Got windows in and all drivers installed. Loading Norton now and will defrag and head over to the pool for a swim. Next M$Office and windows update. Get the motor purring before add any apps.

Final Note:

All back and working, better than original, just a loss of 5 days productivity. And what's the first thing windows prompts for after installed.."critical update to Service Pack 3!!!! AARRGGGHHH! I still plan on leaving it alone for a while.

I did take the time to set 'er up good and put all my data files on a separate partition and configured Cobian to back up nightly. Thanks for all the suggestions and input. If anyone encounters similar issues, fell free to jump in.

I suggest upgrading to Vista

Gee. Can i order 3 copies? Might get bored otherwise! I'll just upgrade 'em all! shouldn't be any probs!