Top 5 Reasons For Installation Failures

Microsoft identified these as the top 5 reasons (and their knowledge base articles) for Service Pack 3 installation failures.

#1 : Prerequisite Failures

Windows XP Service Pack 3 installation fails with an error message, and the following error is logged in the service pack installation log: "8007F0F4 - STATUS_PREREQUISITE_FAILED". It can be due to :
   - AC Power
   - Incompatible applications / versions (Microsoft Shared Computer Toolkit, RDP 6.0 MUI Pack, Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs, x64 Edition, MCE 2002/2003, Windows Embedded for Point of Service)

Impact : Low - most of these issues are by design or can be self-resolved by the user by obtaining the correct update package.

KB Content : KB949388, KB950717

#2 : RPC Call Failed

Generic failure which is usually symptomatic of another problem

Impact : Low – issue can generally be resolved by reattempting installation or following general troubleshooting guidelines.

KB Content : KB950717, KB950718

#3 : Access Denied

When you try to install Windows XP Service Pack 3, you get one of these error messages :
   - "Access is denied"
   - "Service Pack installation did not complete"

Failure typically caused by antivirus or other 3rd party security products which may lock system files.  Additionally Registry ACL issues can cause access denied.

Impact : Low – Issues can be easily resolved by disabling AV or modifying registry ACLs

KB Content : KB949377, KB950717

#4 : Disk Space Failures

You get one of these error messages when you try to install Windows XP Service Pack 3 :
   - "You do not have enough free disk space on %SystemDrive% to install Service Pack 3"
   - "You do not have enough free disk space on %SystemDrive% to archive the uninstall files"

SP3 can require up to 1.3GB of free space if system restore is enabled

Impact : Low – issue can be resolved by freeing up additional space

KB Content : KB949385, KB 949375, KB950717

#5 : Download Failures

Failure to download SP3 via Download Center. When you try to install Windows XP Service Pack 3 from Windows Update, the installation fails, and an error code is logged in the Windows Update log file.

Impact : Low – download failures are typically implicit and  generally do not have heavy reoccurrence.  Can also be caused due to system file changes after the creation of the express package.

KB Content : KB949386, KB950717