Can't install XP SP3 upgrade utility

[pvtford]

The patient is a used HP Pavilion a1540n, minus HDD. Original equipment is a 250-GB SATA with XP Media Center. I slapped about an 80-GB IDE in it and installed XP Home SP2, then downloaded drivers etc. from HP.

Driver installation has gone well, including chipset, graphics, audio, LAN, modem and a couple of updates, until I tried to install sp37394.exe, the Microsoft Windows XP SP3 Upgrade Utility for Systems with AMD Processors. The download page says this about it:

"•You must own an HP Pavilion, Presario or Media Center with Windows XP and an AMD processor.
•You must install this update prior to applying Windows XP SP3 update.

Released: 2008-05-19
Version: 1.0
Compatibility: Microsoft Windows XP Professional, Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, Microsoft Windows XP Media Center, Microsoft Windows XP

Fix/Enhancement: Prevents a condition from occurring that causes continuous system restarts or "Stop: 0x0000007E" errors after upgrading to Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 3 on systems with an AMD processor."

The problem is, the update won't install. The error message reads: "The system does not meet the minimum requirements for this update. Update has been cancelled. (9998)"

System Properties reports "Microsoft Windows XP, Home Edition, Version 2002, Service Pack 2; AMD Athlon (tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4200+, 2.20 GHz, 1.93 GB of Ram, Physical Address Extension."

This site identified a similar thread which included advice to run CCleaner, so I did that. It identified and fixed a handful of issues, but still no joy with the utility install.

A question about system restore discs from a third party, such as restoredisks.com or computersurgeons.com: What are the odds these places and their wares are legit? Even if they are, if I can save the 27 bucks and avoid the crapware, I'd rather do that.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[tgell]

If you did not use the HP image to instal XP, then you do not have to worry about it. It is only for machines that were imaged at the factory using sysprep. If you installed clean using an XP install CD, you should not have a problem installing SP3 but you can try installing the patch direct from Microsoft.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953356

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/downl....aspx?id=23751