Are SP3 and system restor compatible?

**Votan** · December 4th, 2009, 05:12 PM

I am have been struggling with this problem for the past six months. It all began after a nasty virus struck my disk, my backup disk and my flash disk. I reinstalled XP using my SP2 disk that came with my Dell machine, and eventually I installed all updates from Microsoft download including ie8.

Shortly afterward the browsing began to be slow, gradually and slowly to the point where I could not navigate beyond my IP web page. I discovered that the system restore did not work at all early on in this saga. I also discovered that I could not uninstall SP3 that was installed by download from Microsoft updates.

So, as you can guess rightfully, I reinstalled the whole thing using my loyal friend SP2. I did this operation four times (with the Tylenol bottle by my side…) without curing the problem.

With SP2 installed, and all my applications installed with it, I could navigate with ie6 freely. So I installed SP3 installer exe file that I previously downloaded from Microsoft updates. That version of SP3 installs only two of the KB files. The system recovery works fine and the online navigation works fine.

I was encouraged and visited Microsoft updates and installed all 56 updates including ie8. Wow! The original problem recurs: I cannot navigate more than about 15 minutes and the browser freezes. I noticed that in this state of freeze ie8 installs itself twice on the task manager, yet there is only one visible website. The system restore doesn’t work any more, and I could not uninstall SP3 from control panel add remove software. I have to start with a new Tylenol bottle…

What is your experience with this kind of problem? Any suggestions?

**CCT** · December 5th, 2009, 07:08 AM

My understanding is that the double entry is due to the IE8 'crash recovery' component.

As to the freezing issue, have you tried disabling all add-ons?

**Votan** · December 5th, 2009, 10:24 AM

There were no add-ons, just plain SP2 updated to SP3.

**Niclo Iste** · December 5th, 2009, 01:14 PM

He means add-ons for internet explorer.

**Votan** · December 6th, 2009, 01:12 PM

Now the system iis up and working but the system recovery is not, and I cannot uninstall SP3. We are back to square one, this is how the saga started. How I can force system recovery to work, and how I can unistall install SP3 without reinstalling the whole thing? Any suggestion?

**Niclo Iste** · December 6th, 2009, 01:14 PM

Try the suggestion of removing the add ons for IE8 then let us know how things are working.

**Votan** · December 6th, 2009, 02:56 PM

Where these add-ons could have been stored?

**CCT** · December 6th, 2009, 05:46 PM

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/3892/...et-explorer-8/

**Votan** · December 6th, 2009, 06:19 PM

Earlier I posted a message reply but the brower got epileptic and the message did not display

Just before I got your link I logged on. I went to XP thread, the page opened but my bowser got epileptic again. I close the browser using task manager and I went to the page without logging on. I retrived the link you posted and I followed the instructions. That's how I managed to get to post this message.

I will try to check on the system restore and and we'll see how it goes.

**Votan** · December 6th, 2009, 07:16 PM

I came back to post a message, before this one, and here’s what happened.
I checked the add-ons. All were disabled.

I opened the windrivers page. No problem and it was fast. I typed my ID and password. As soon as I clicked log in the browser froze on me. The only way to delete it was using the task manager.

I cleared the cach from history, cookies and temporary files. I opened windrivers again. It opened. I typed in my ID and psw and clicked log in. It did and I typed my message and clicked submit. There the browser froze again.

I typed this message on notepad and came back here using the same previous steps. I pasted this message and clicked submit. If this message is appended past the stars line that follows that means the browser froze on me before it posted the message.
************************

**CCT** · December 6th, 2009, 07:25 PM

Votan: I am wondering if you have some kind of rootkit infection that hasn't been removed and need to do a zero-fill and reinstall again (worth trying anyway, despite the tediousness).

http://www.dban.org/

**Votan** · December 6th, 2009, 08:49 PM

So far, my browser gets epileptic only when I visit windrivers site. Peculiar Hm!

**MobilePCPhysician** · December 6th, 2009, 11:58 PM

It is happening to me also. I opened safari to be able to post this message. IE is locked up.Using 50% of the resources. HMMMMMMM

**Votan** · December 7th, 2009, 01:05 AM

dban is not working for me not with a CD not with flash drive, I don't have floppy. this is the fifth time I am trying to long on here.

**CCT** · December 7th, 2009, 07:33 AM

Well, I don't use IE8 anymore - I had issues with it and IE7 so I dumped them. IE6 has been problem-free.

All I can recommend for your issue is to ensure popups are blocked at Medium setting and that Third Party Cookies are blocked.

edit: you might want to turn the phishing filter off and restart IE8 and see how that works.