Vexing SP3 Problem

Any help with this problem would be greatly appreciated.

Yesterday I got put in charge of updating a dozen or so PC's that haven't been updated in ages in order to protect them from downadup. (Yeah, it takes a big scare to get some people willing to update...)

Most of them needed XP SP3 before they could move on to other updates. So I applied my usual method for SP3 installing: Create a restore point, close everything, disable antivirus and firewall, let windows update do its thing.

Most of the machines came out OK, but two of them conked out on the reboot after installing SP3. Every time they'd try to boot, Windows Explorer and/or Windows Logon would crash on startup and I'd have to reboot. "No problem" I thought, "I'll just use that restore point I so wisely prepared." Wrong! Even after restoring, the crashes on startup persist. Though, after a dozen or so boots, they will come up OK once and awhile.

Soooooo.... Anyone got any ideas what's wrong with these machines and how to fix it? I really, really don't want to have to reinstall windows if I can avoid it.

(One thought I have is that google desktop might be responsible. Both affected machines have google desktop and the error message lists explorer.exe's "mod" as googledesktopdeskbar2.dll.)

Will they boot in safe mode? GD shouldnt be running in safe mode. Then you can uninstall GD and try again

can you get a SP3 disc (or make one yourself) and try to install that over the current edition of SP3? It sounds like SP3 corrupted the registry or something... :/

Go into Safe mode, go to Add/Remove programs and remove all toolbars. Use HijackThis as well. While there, next run sfc /scannow

Happy to report the problem's fixed. Nuked Google desktop, Roxio, and PowerDVD off the machines and their problems all went away. All updated and (hopefully) safe from stupid users and downadup. Thanks to all who replied.

No matter what you do, your computers are never safe from stupid users.

Glad things are working out for you.

Toolbars = bad. Toolbars that install themselves by default when you install a program that you actually want = hangable offence.