I recently updated my laptop and home computer to Windows XP SP3. I waited several months before making the plunge. I thought that after that amount of time, Microsoft would have most of the major kinks worked out of the Service Pack.

Migrating to SP3 has been the bane of my month. My home computer now has to be reboot at least once a day in order to keep my USB devices and my DVD burner working properly. Other undesirable side effects have crept up also.

My laptop cannot hibernate or sleep without wreaking havoc on my network connectivity. I found that once I came out of a sleep or hibernate mode, I would get a “Generic Host Process for Win32 Services” error.

I tried several combinations of service restarts, etc to get it to work again, but to no avail. I would always end up rebooting my laptop to get back on the network.

The other day, I searched through more threads regarding other suffering from the same issue – and there are plenty of people. One approach that seems to be working so far for me is a small work around.

Here are the instructions:

1) Create a batch file with the following contents:

NET START “wuauserv”
NET START “browser”
NET START “cryptsvc”
NET START “dhcp”
NET START “trkwks”
NET START “ersvc”
NET START “helpsvc”
NET START “hidserv”
NET START “irmon”
NET START “seclogon”
NET START “wscsvc”
NET START “lanmanserver”
NET START “srservice”
NET START “schedule”
NET START “themes”
NET START “audiosrv”
NET START “W32Time”
NET START “wzcsvc”
NET START “lanmanworkstation”
NET START “fastuserswitchingcompatibility”

2) Run this batch file after every time you come out of a Sleep or Hibernate state.

I still get the windows error, but I just run this batch file and I can connect back up to my networks.

My conclusion is that Microsoft must be using SP3 as a migration incentive tool for the lagging XP customers such as myself. These rampantly critical defects remaining for months after the release are a signal to folks like me that XP’s days are indeed numbered.