quote:
No it hasnt worked, sp3 is still making my pc freeze.
This is not a common SP3 problem, because millions of people running XP SP3 don't have it. It shouldn't matter whether you upgraded or used a slipstreamed install, either. It is something about your hardware or software, and it sounds more like software.
When you reformatted, which you mention you have done already, how much time did you spend testing it with clean Windows? If you do it again, I suggest the following:
1)When formatting the drive, do not choose the "quick" format options. Those skip checking for bad sectors, which can sometimes cause problems similar to yours.
2)Do not proceed to immediately installing all your other software. Test it out with just Windows first -- it includes some programs that you can play with, like Wordpad and Paint. Apply all Windows updates, add any necessary drivers and keep testing. If you are satisfied that the clean install works fine, start adding programs one at a time and testing in between, so that you know where it goes bad.
3)Instead of using what came on hardware CDs or you might have saved from two years ago, find and download recent versions of all the drivers you require. Older ones could have problems with SP3.
4)A top suspect here would be antivirus/antispyware software. If you are using a commercial product and can't just download the current version without paying for an upgrade, be sure to test extensively before and after.
5)Install any optional drivers (e.g. Intel chipset drivers and Matrix Storage driver, or whatever is appropriate for your hardware). Windows has generic versions of these drivers so they may appear unnecessary, but there is a reason why they are made available and I've seen a few times where they've fixed rare and mysterious problems.
6) (almost left this one out) -- make sure you have the most recent motherboard BIOS.
