you running any 3rd party boot or logon randomizers?

What vista customization pack did you have installed?

I had a popular one which was called 'windows vista customization pack'. The link to it is here: VCP . However, after the installation, (which, mind, neverworked proprly- in the middle of the installation it came up with that annoying 'such-and-such must be closed. Sorry for any inconvenience.) , I realised that i had clicked accsess core files, but it never got to that. Then i downloaded another from download.com and it went through all the way BUT This time a notce came up saying that protected system files were being overwritten and I had to insert the CD so windows could replace them. When the Service Pack Didn't work, I tried reinstalling the OS, but it came up with the same Q327101 message.



Ive already been there and done that and nothing works.

Thanks, ill try the recovery console on the windows xp disk.

Windows XP Service Pack 3 Release Candidate

All right. I´ve installed sp3 rc2 on xp pro build 2600 and first had erros Q327101. I´m using Tuneup 2007 aswell and had modified everything. I openned it and restored default logon screen, bootscreen and default desktop settings. Didn´t need to uninstall nothing. I ran sp3rc2 installation and have to boot twice. After that everythin was running well. I hope this will help someone to fix them probs on installing sp3 on xp.

Cheers

http://fastest963windows.blogspot.com/2008/05/windows-service-pack-install-error.html

There is your solution.

SP3 is still a 'Release Candidate' - which means it is a beta version.

First stupid thing - trying to install something for Vista on a XP machine.
Second stupid thing - allowing it to change core OS files.
Third stupid thing - installing a beta SP for the OS.

How not to be bitten by the same bug?

Stick with software for your own OS.
Wait for the full release version of any SP.

So, I stand corrected.

I'll still wait a bit before I install SP3, just to see what other users experiences are with it.

I have installed WinXP SP3 and I had the same problem. The solution is NOT to uninstall TuneUp. This won't help. You have to restore visual style of Windows to its default state. Use TuneUp to do this. After you do this you will be able to install the service pack.

If you have used a 3rd party boot or logon randomizer like tune up utils then this will stop sp3 from installing ...All you need to do is open up tune up and goto screen customisations and put the logon and boot screens back to default as these are microsofts own screens and sp3 will be accepted ..once you have run sp3 you can then change your boot and logon screens to tune ups own........  

This must be dead thread reincarnation week.