The AMD issues, accoding to reports, are specifically tied to certain items.
1. Hewlett-Packard/Compaq AMD machines, where the company tried to cut corners by making ONE install image to use on BOTH Intel & AMD machines (which everyone from Microsoft to Intel & AMD have said is a BAD IDEA). HP was told to NOT DO IT when the EXACT same issue occurred with the jump from SP1 to SP2, yet they persist to this day to do it, resulting in the issue coming back in the SP2 to SP3 update.
Quote:
According to Johansson, there appears to be two separate issues. One affects only AMD-equipped PCs sold by
Hewlett-Packard Co. "The problem is that HP, apparently along with other OEMs, deploys the same image to
Intel-based computers that they do to AMD-based computers," said Johansson. "Because the image for both Intel and AMD is the same, all have the intelppm.sys driver installed and running. That driver provides power management on Intel-based computers. On an AMD-based computer, amdk8.sys provides the same functionality."
Running the intelppm.sys driver on an AMD-powered PC isn't normally an issue, but on the first reboot after a service pack installation, it causes "a big problem," Johansson said. The machine either fails to boot or crashes and immediately reboots.
2. ONE Specific model of ASUS motherboard is having issues.
Quote:
The other problem, according to Johansson, also seems to affect only AMD machines, and involves an error message indicating trouble with the PC's BIOS. Johansson said that the ensuing recommendation to update the BIOS is "most likely not your problem," but said that the problem may be isolated to a specific motherboard. "Possibly, it is related to computers with the Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard in them," he said.
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For HP/Compaq AMDs, simply disabling the intelppm.sys driver (and I'd remove it from the computer, as it will not affect an AMD machine in the slightest, and prevent accidentally re-enabling of it) will fix the issue, before installing SP3.
If your AMD machine isn't from HP/Compaq, search for this driver, and make sure it is not present or disabled, before installing SP3.