Windows XP Service Pack 3 problems continue

Sporadic complaints have been emerging of late regarding Windows XP's recently-released Service Pack 3. As you may recall, SP3 was originally delayed after a major incompatibility problem was revealed with Microsoft's Retail Management System.

One of the major problems that has emerged was from users of Symantec's Norton security products. One component of recent version of Norton is SymProtect, which is designed to protect Norton itself from being directly attacked by malware. Something within the combination of SP3 and SymProtect went awry, causing some computers to fill up the Windows registry with bogus entries. Symantec originally blamed Microsoft but is now accepting at least partial responsibility for the issue. A fix is now available if you've been affected. The fix and complete instructions on using it can be found here.

Another odd problem has cropped up for some users who are using Billion brand broadband routers (specifically model BiPAC 5200). XP3 apparently causes some of these routers to go into an endless reboot state, making Internet use impossible. The solution is to update your firmware, which is available via links at the bottom of this page.

Some computers using AMD processors (mainly Hewlett-Packard machines) have also had problems with a specific driver issue in SP3. Extensive suggestions on fixing the problem are available here.

Happy patching!