xp naziWindows XP runs like a well-oiled machine, specifically a pinball machine. And just like pinball, it’s a real ball buster!

Despite having automatic updates on, I didn’t receive the Service Pack 3 update until yesterday (nearly three months after it was first released). And even with all that time for Microsoft to fine-tune it, it’s still fubar.

After waiting about an hour for it install and seeing my hard drive space mysteriously vanish (approx. 1.5 Gb gone for a 316Mb download), I restarted my computer expecting some major improvements. What I got was an endless reboot loop. When I finally managed to remove it, a quick Google search revealed the source of the problem… sorta.

Apparently it’s occurring in HP desktop computers with AMD processors (like mine) as for who’s to blame, HP and Microsoft are each accusing the other. The error stems from intelppm.sys, a driver that does not exist (aka the Michael Knight of computer files). There is however a registry command to load it and therein lies the problem.

Solution: disable intelppm.sys by entering either of the following in the Run Command Prompt:

  • reg add HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Intelppm /v Start /d 4 /t REG_DWORD
  • sc config intelppm start= disabled

And just to play it safe you may want to disable automatic restarts by hitting F8 during startup.