The subject computer has XP that was installed with an XP Home SP2 CD.

MSI RS480M = MS-7145 v. 2.x
ATI main chipset using onboard ATI video.
Sempron 3000+ cpu
Samsung SATA-2 hard drive on onboard SATA
512mb ram
Has an older Asus SCSI card but nothing is plugged into it at this time.

I have been trying to get the official final SP3 to install on a friend of my brother's computer. It already had the latest previous Microsoft Updates on it.

When SP3 checks out the computer it finds there is not enough free space, and quits the installation. It wants at least one more mb of free space, or two if I choose to backup somthing (definately mb, not gb). It has over 50gb of free space. I checked and SP3 requires about 1.5gb of free space.

I tried disabling everything I could in Task Manager, though I couldn't do that for an AOL 9 app and one Norton Internet Security app, deleting Temporary Internet files and cookies. It has no separate anti-spyware program running. I have tried disabling everything I could in Norton Internet Security 2008, the only other anti-malware installed other than AOL Antispyware which I have completely disabled as far as I can see. There is Yahoo Messenger and AOL Search running but I haven't figured out how to turn them off, both of which require a password I don't have. The absolute minimum in msconfig - startup is enabled. I ran Norton WinDoctor and was able to fix everything it found except an adobe flash registry entry - it won't delete. The hard drive checks out fine withn Samsung's Etool diagnostic utility. I ran chkdsk /f.

Still no go.

I don't want to un-install Norton Internet Security because if it's the same situation as my brother had with NAV 2006 re Symantec's anti-piracy protection, it may be a week before Symantec contacts me or the person who owns the computer and I or she can install it again and have it working.
She may preferably need that to be working by Tuesday.

Sorry, the link I posted was for an IMAC with this problem.

Musky
If the voices inside my head paid rent, I'd be rich!

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How large is the swap file?

Shot in the dark. This fixed 1 machine of mine for SP3. Run the installer fix and whatever you think will help but also run the repair permissions from the tool menu at the bottom.
http://wiki.lunarsoft.net/wiki/Dial...

I posted this fix a while back just after SP3 came out.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/949...

For other SP3 error messages here.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/950717

With all these crappy related boxes appearing one would have thought that it would have been amongst them.

Then again it could have been another forum with less ad carp on the site...

Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity...

"How large is the swap file?"

It was user set to 6xx mb minimum, 1xxx mb max - I re-set it to the default, have Windows manage it automatically.

Thanks per - I'll check that out, but it does look like a long shot so far.

I looked on the web for any mentions of the not enough free space situation being falsely reported but didn't find anything other than the legitimate situation.

Wombat -
I found those pages too - I don't see anything that applies, though I haven't checked out everything in the second one, regarding what must already be installed. The SP3 install starts up fine, so I doubt my problem would be because something was missing.

Onboard SATA controller(s) are Silicon Image. I believe the SATA drive is in IDE compatible mode.

I suppose if nothing I try works I could un-install NIS and install AVG free 8 temporarily if I had to.

Don't sell dial a fix short. It's a great tool. :>}

The best and easiest way of fixing it, is to slipstream SP3 into the Win XP cd with nLite. Then do a complete format and reinstall. You will have no problems what so ever.

I mentioned this in previous posts here as well. Then again this might be just me looking for the easy way with out a lot of pig rooting around...

Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity...

I installed a fresh install of XP Pro on someone's laptop about two weeks ago, and installed SP3 on that no problem.

She uses an oddball wireless ISP and I'd rather not install Windows from scratch, since I'm not sure if I have all the information required to get her connection working again.
She lives on an acreage too far from the nearest town for her to use ADSL or cable high speed. The ISP has a transmitter tower in the town and provided her with a small dish and receiver etc, and it uses oddball TCP/IP settings (he set it up, not her) and a static IP address in order to use it.
I have made note of the oddball TCP/IP settings, since I had to use standard dynamic settings where I am to get onto the internet, but I don't know if there's something else I need to set or know of. She's going away for the long weekend here (Canada day) starting either this afternoon or soon after she gets off work, right about now, and I don't know which of two wireless ISPs in the town she is using.

No offense, but what does that have to do with your original post? Or is it just rhetoric.

Hey Tubes, I'm sorry to say it, but I don't think it will work unless you uninstall ALL Norton programs on the PC. Disabling them is not enough (based on my experience).

WinSimple Software

If I understand things, a full re-install is not an option.

Did you try dial a fix?

Heya Tubesandwires,

It looks like you might be leaning towards NIS being the reason for the failed SP3 install.

Did you disable the SymProtect feature in NIS?

Have you tried stopping the Symantec / Norton services in services.msc?

Is it possible to install SP3 within Safe Mode so that fewer services and hidden services load?

Just a few ideas I could come up with, not sure if they're the right way to go though.

per

"No offense, but what does that have to do with your original post? Or is it just rhetoric."

Part of that was to explain why I didn't want to install Windows from scratch. The rest was rhetoric I suppose - a Virgo trait. I had not encountered that kind of wireless high speed connection before - it's like a satellite connection except you don't need a dial-up connection for uploading, and there are no limits per month or whatever.

Rayburn

"Hey Tubes, I'm sorry to say it, but I don't think it will work unless you uninstall ALL Norton programs on the PC. Disabling them is not enough (based on my experience)."

Good to hear about.
I thought that might be the case.

OtheHill

"Did you try dial a fix?

Not yet.
A friend called about his computer that I also have had for a few days, which has the IE Antivirus 3.3 carp on it. I'm cleaning it up right now since it shouldn't take long.

btk1w1

"Did you disable the SymProtect feature in NIS?"

Yes, and everything else I could in the settings in the NIS program. Actually what it does is turn it off and give you choices of how long till the feature is turned on again for most things. I set that to an hour. The SP3 install generates the message about 5 minutes after you start it, then quits after you click on message.

"Have you tried stopping the Symantec / Norton services in services.msc?"

Not yet - good point.

"Is it possible to install SP3 within Safe Mode so that fewer services and hidden services load?"

I don't know but it's worth a try.

Ever done this, as M$ suggests ---
http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...
Description of the Disk Cleanup Tool in Windows XP

btk1w1

"Have you tried stopping the Symantec / Norton services in services.msc?"

You can stop them but they remain on Automatic, or one changes to Manual.
When you then go to Microsoft Update, start the Express scan, the green squares disappear after a short time in the box you usually see them going back and forth in, and nothing further happens. Weird.
...

Other things came up that I needed to attend to, and I have have run out of time.

As far as I know SP3 is not installed by AutoUpdate, so I'm just going to give her back the computer as is - it's running fine otherwise - and she can uninstall NIS if she wants to install SP3.

Thanks for your suggestions everyone.

Microsoft issued a hotfix for Windows XP Service Pack 3 last week that it says "could resolve" a Windows registry corruption problem associated with third-party security software. The problem was first discovered just over a month ago, and it notably affected users of Symantec's Norton Antivirus suite of products.

Neowin http://www.neowin.net/</>

Details here...

http://entmag.com/news/rss.asp?edit...

Or read the Microsoft KB here, has the patch download link.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=...

Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity...

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Wombat

Thanks for those suggestions , but I already knew about those problems.

XPuser had already pointed to one of both fixes mentioned on the same day just before I originally started this thread, and he pointed to the Symantec fix in a later post....
http://www.computing.net/answers/wi...

....but I wasn't getting that far - both those apply to the situation and symptoms seen after the SP3 install has successfully finished.