The Horror of the New Windows XP SP3 and How to Escape it
I would have liked to spend the last 7 or so hours doing something more enjoyable than cursing, hitting my head on the wall, praying that time would turn back itself, wishing there was an “undo” button for life, and being brought close to tears, but the good folks at Microsoft were determined that I should complete such actions here last night into this morning.
“The Windows® XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) includes all previously released updates for the operating system. This update also includes a small number of new functionalities, which do not significantly change customers’ experience with the operating system. This white paper summarizes what is new in Windows XP SP3.”
“Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3), the update scheduled to release next year, runs Microsoft Corp.’s Office suite 10% faster than XP SP2, a performance testing software developer reported Friday.”
I made the mistake of downloading this shit from DOWNLOAD.COM/CNET.COM, a site I consider reputable, as I’ve been experimenting with lots of software from that site since I got my first computer. The comment on the board there were also positive..when I scrolled down I saw some people saying negative things but I thought forget them, this is an official Service Pack from Microsoft, what could happen? They probably did something wrong. Had I googled about downloading it from before though I would have realized that its actually a serious problem with the SP3…
After rebooting to supposedly finish the installation of the SP3, my computer came to a BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH which read :
STOP: c0000139 {Entry Point Not Found}
The procedure entry point GdiGetBitmapBitsSize could not be located in the dynamic link library GDI32.dll.
The only option is for you to reboot, where it will come right back to that screen, effectively stopping the user from accessing Windows, putting the PC in an endless loop of inoperability. It doesn’t stop there, you cannot boot up in Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking nor Safe Mode with Command Prompt. If you manage to get a boot cd to work, you won’t be able to access your C: drive, at one point I got the message access denied. So basically you can’t boot up, you can’t uninstall the service pack, you can’t use XP system restore from a saved point, my HP non-destructive system recovery didn’t work and you can’t access your files. Now that is one hell of a service pack. The only viable option seems to be to reformat your hard drive. But, seeing that over 50,000 people downloaded the SP3 at download.com alone, there just has to be someone who had the same problem, and managed to solve it harmlessly.
After hooking up my other PC, I found great help over at Tip and Trick which saved me a ton of trouble and headaches :
The solution is to restore the GDI32.dll from the service pack into Windows system folder with the following steps:
- Boot from aWindows CD or BartPE.
- At Welcome to Setup screen, press “R” to start repair option and open up a Recovery Console’s command prompt window.
- Select the Windows installation to use:
Normally is C:\Windows and just one option. If so, press “1″ and hit Enter.- If prompted for administrator password, enter the password (normally blank) and hit Enter.
(If unsuccessful because you can’t remember your admin password, use this program to reset it to blank. Also mentioned at the end of this guide.- Make a backup of existing GDI32.dll in system folder with following command:
REN C:\Windows\System32\GDI32.dll C:\Windows\System32\GDI32.dll.orig
(One line command, Replace “C” of the drive letter of your Windows installation drive if necessary.)
- Copy backup GDI32.dll from c:\windows\servicepackfiles\i386\gdi32.dll to the system folder with the following command:
copy C:\Windows\ServicePackFiles\i386\GDI32.dll C:\Windows\System32\GDI32.dll
(One line command, Replace “C” with your own system drive letter if applicable.)
- Restart computer.
Problem here is you may not be able to access your C: drive because your access is denied for some reason so you may have to use this great program to clear out your admin password as mentioned before (usually is blank, but it may contain a password which you conveniently may not remember) and then repeat steps 1-7.
You will also need an original Windows XP cd from which you will boot from as stated in the guide. If you don’t have one, get a copy of a friend’s. The process doesn’t require any serial numbers so you won’t be into any kind of full blown piracy…but you might as well since this is what Microsoft does to legit customers! Another problem you may encounter is it may not detect the CD, especially if its a burnt copy. In that case keep trying, and it should detect it eventually, as it did with mine after about 15 tries. If that doesn’t work you’ll just have to source and use an original copy of Windows XP. Luckily I got mind working with a burnt copy. I had no choice as I lost my serial number and the original CD got shattered into pieces in a drawer.
Last but not least, I hope you have another internet connection on your phone or Wii or something in order to find guides such as these else you’re screwed on your own 
Voila. It will work from there on once you had the prerequisites and you’ve followed that guide, don’t worry it worked for me and SP3 is now installed on my system, and its also operational, after much ado. When the PC boots up and you see the Windows logo and the message “Thank you for installing service pack 3″, it feels like you’ve completed training or passed a test.
But what got me the whole while is….WHY THE FUCK IS THIS FILE AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD??? Its there, stated as being from MICROSOFT and legit and everything…but it totally FUCKS up your system! The amount of hell this thing caused me warrants an apology from Gates himself! Some people have reformatted their systems just because of this! Do I hear the words “class action lawsuit”?? I’m totally sick of Microsoft. I can’t wait to have a totally clean new system with absolutely no Microsoft software..
BTW direct all thanks to the people at tipandtrick.net, that is their guide which I slightly edited and I’m just spreading the gospel of it. Glad to see that I actually helped some of you guys.
Greypowered said,
May 3, 2008 at 8:13 pm
Your time might be ripped for Linux and other open source softwares that offer the same services as Microsoft, but for free and with much better safety and stability. Here is where to start: http://www.linux.org/. And then, you can try out: http://www.openoffice.org/ or http://www.sun.com/software/star/staroffice/index.jsp. And don’t forget to use Firefox (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/) or other related browsers like Flock (http://flock.com/) instead of Internet Explorer! With these and other GNU software, you can have a fully functional computer without a single Microsoft package on it!
On the other hand, you’ll have to learn how to work a bit differently, so good luck!
Sp3 - Computer Related Discussion said,
May 5, 2008 at 1:02 am
[...] Pack 3 for windows Rusty .. the link didn’t take so i deleted it .. The Horror of the New Windows XP SP3 and How to Escape it The Undisputed Truth You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you [...]
Rafiosi said,
May 5, 2008 at 12:20 pm
Thank you, thank you and thank you very much!!!!
Greetings from Germany!!!
Philipp said,
May 5, 2008 at 7:49 pm
Ok, thanks for your advise! It worked great, except there was no window gratulating for succeding the SP3-Usertest!
permacarn said,
May 7, 2008 at 8:33 am
I had some major issues as well with my update process. I didn’t get the same error message but I was locked in a loop of restarts from a command prompt until I selected safe mode. Thank god it worked. It only took me about an hour and a half to complete the process since I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. I wish I would have checked around WordPress before I started.
Windows XP SP3 « Permacarn’s Weblog said,
May 7, 2008 at 8:38 am
[...] a similar horror story at undisputedtruth. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Mossberg’s MailboxWindows XP Update Adds [...]
Mario / Switzerland said,
May 7, 2008 at 8:51 pm
Thank you soo much for this hint. Fortunately I had a SUSE Linux system up and running to find this hint. You don’t believe it. This morning I warned my colleagues not to install SR3. But I tried it.
BTW I downloaded that crap (SR3) from official Microsoft page, the German one.
Finally my system works now. B-D
Cheers
Mario
Janko said,
May 8, 2008 at 11:54 am
Thank you so much, you have saved my head. I have installed SP3 on PC of my boss,
and the troubles began. I have almost given up hope till Google and this very site saved
the situation.
Greetings from the sunny side of the Alps!
phoenix said,
May 8, 2008 at 1:43 pm
hey thanks for the guide…
saved me from going overboard…
so my computer is working now, and there was luckily no need for reinstalling windows…
but, the rename command didn’t work . i’ve had to change it into:
REN C:\Windows\System32\GDI32.dll GDI32.dll.orig
cheers phoenix
Sara Jerk! said,
May 8, 2008 at 7:30 pm
where were you a month ago?! EXACTLY the same thing happened to me and I had to wipe my hard drive. i also bought my laptop second hand and it didn’t come with the install cds……………………..it took me a week to get everything fixed and i’ve since had near heart attacks when the blue screen of death came up twice since then. (a simple restart did the trick tho)
everything except my music was backed up and i lost over 300 hours of music. i’d switch over to using a mac if i hadn’t had to sit and laugh at my room mate go through 3 macs in 2 years. they might have a better OS but their hardware is awful it seems!
the SaNdMaN said,
May 8, 2008 at 10:58 pm
I can’t freaking believe how Microsoft goofed up on this one again after releasing bloatware Vista (?!!!) Steve Ballmer should fire somebody . . . or better yet, Steve Ballmer should get fired! I wasn’t able to see this site, had to pop in the WindowsXP setup CD and repair my installation . . . had to wait 30mins. for setup to finish and now am back to SP2 . . . have no plans of updating to SP3 . . . i’ve just had it!
Wolf - Germany said,
May 10, 2008 at 12:57 pm
THANKS!!!!!!!THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!
1000000 times THANKS!!!!!!!!
You saved my live and all the horror had an end within 10minutes!
You re great!
PS: Written on a mac, without i would not have been able to read this….
John Schaefer said,
May 14, 2008 at 2:00 am
Thanks for the update. I have limited knowledge working the Computer. when this sort of stuff happens, I am lost. Did microsoft ever acknowedge their error?
Alex Toronto said,
May 15, 2008 at 10:41 am
I’ve had this happen to me too. However, even though I’ve been trying to fix this for the last 7 hours when I made the dll transfer CHKDSK started and after it was finished GDI32.dll error recurred. I tried using the SP2 version with no luck either. I guess I’m going to end up reinstalling XP. I’ve been to MSFT HELL and I don’t like it.
TM said,
May 16, 2008 at 7:36 pm
You’re a dumbass for d/ling a “beta” sp3 from some place other than Microsoft.
You got screwed! The “official” SP3 from the MS download site works fine.
unexplained_anomaly said,
May 17, 2008 at 8:44 pm
How the fuck am I or even the average user supposed to know its a beta version? Cnet is a reputable site, and regardless of the version or stage of development, it shouldn’t be totally screwing up users’ systems, especially coming from Microsoft.
unexplained_anomaly said,
May 17, 2008 at 8:58 pm
anyway, i’m glad i helped out so many of you. thanks for stopping by
Smee said,
May 26, 2008 at 3:38 pm
THANKS !
Thank goodness you were kind enough to post this for us.
I have 4 XP PC’s 2 that have been running for 1-2 years and
2 that have been rebuilt since SP3 was released. The SP I have
is direct from MS and worked on 3 of 4. I forgot to turn off the
Anti-Virus and Firewall B4 doing the *upgrade* on the last laptop…
My own Damn fault - It worked flawless 75% of the time for me…
But 25% failure can RUIN a good day…
mrfixit said,
May 28, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Despite TM’s comment, my downlowad was part of Microsoft Update and NOT a beta, and I had/have this issue. This only reinforces my belief that we are all unwilling beta testers for MS regardless of the “release cycle”.
I had to do a repair overinstall and still have programs throwing up “*.dll is not a valid windows image” errors (Outlook 2k3, Messenger Live, Adobe v8.x Pro, etc.), so my pain isn’t over yet…
B.WARE said,
May 29, 2008 at 6:40 am
Service Pack 3 Extremely Sucks… I was doing a Windows update
Yes, yeahyeahyeah, wasn’t a download from somewhere else … ~ things started screwing up (>hey get rid of this service pack 3 thing) After uninstalling > > > > I couldn’t get on line / no device manager,
scan…… (I don’t know why (?) there has been so many times I have had problems after_ automatic / or downloading after they say I need to…
etc., etc., etc… I have an Acer laptop ~ totally lost everything on it and had to start over
blank.. The recommended, this is what you do to correct the service pack 3 root virus - didn’t work (others who had an extremely bad time with S.S.3) Microsoft their techs, don’t know how to solve / correct who ever created it in microsoft damage. Gee isn’t this wonderful. blabbity blan blah for you fault finders that come up with your sour B.S.
Sanjeev said,
May 29, 2008 at 9:24 am
Thanks a ton.
MSsucks said,
June 2, 2008 at 7:05 pm
I downloaded SP3 through windows update. It ran fine, rebooted once, then autoupdate downloaded 3 security hotfixes. It rebooted to the screen you got. Spent fookin forever trying to get that POS OS to boot. No safe mode, no nada, just an annoying loop that made me want to fookin shoot the fookin motherfookin thing. I hope Microsoft burns in hell. They suck, vista is craptastic and I am tired of getting hosed.
MSsucks said,
June 2, 2008 at 7:10 pm
got vista on my other puter btw. Was playin with the idea of tossing on the vista upgrade that came with it when I saw SP3 was on update. Figured I would hang on to my xp as long as I could since I cuss my vista machine for not having reliable driver support this long after launch. DOwnloaded the SP and got arseraped MS style. Probably woulda been some lube in it if I’d just installed Vista.
Just wanted to eliminate confusion before someone says “You’re puter’s fucked because you CAN’T install SP3 for XP on vista” hehe. I think the other sites people downloaded from DID download genuine MS shit. Just think MS fucked up and won’t admit they put the wrong shit out. Easier to blame someone else I guess.
Johnathan said,
July 5, 2008 at 4:07 am
I downloaded SP3 from the Microsoft Site at the same time I downloaded Vista SP1 (shortly after it was released). I have successfully installed XPSP3 on cleanly built XP computers (after loading SP1 - pre-requisite for installation) and it worked fine on 2 computers of varying configs. As soon as tried to install it on computers with SP2 installed (in a production environment) its gone hell-in-a-handbasket with the errors listed above. Can you imagine the drama’s that will potentially happen with Automatic Updates.
I successfully rolled back the GFD32.DLL and all is fine - I have since downloaded the “NEW” version of XPSP3 and guess what … yeap there is a file size difference of 1,250,816. The correct file size to use should be 331,805,736 - the version information (under file properties) are identical between both files. So it does look like someone in Microsoft put the wrong GDI32.DLL in the first released update.
Message is don’t necessarily blame other sites, or CD’s coming with computer magazines for supplying the new releases of service packs from Microsoft, they are only supplying as-is with no guarantee’s - if they did test the installs they probbly would have had the same results as I did when installing on cleanly built machines.
This in no way means MS is not to blame, in my opinion they should have done better QA prior to releasing to the general public..
Johnathan said,
July 5, 2008 at 6:01 am
Also found another quirk - after you reboot the system a second time and you end up with a blank screen ….. after the Windows logo etc, (I found this happened on 2 of my machines).
Start the PC in Safe Mode with Networking
Reinstall the latest version of XP Professional SP3 - see details in my above post for the correct one.
Restart your computer.
It should all be working fine now.