2 of my 4 personal xp computers will never complete installing XP3. Is it possible this is the reason or would this blocker have been installed only by choice? It’s a real pain because automatic updates continuously tries to install the downloaded SP3, then says it failed, followed by a lengthy uninstall process.
I've heard of this happening to other people also, which is one of the reasons I've never installed it. I usually have better luck installing from the Windows Update site instead of using the Automatic Updates (set to notify, but not automatically download and install). For the big updates, I like to go to MS downloads and download the update. That way I have it if I need to re-install or to put on another computer.
If you have an AMD processor in your computer, then that might be why Windows XP SP 3 doesn’t complete. Check the manufacturer’s website for the fix. Doe a search on FR too, as the fix was posted in on a thread here too.