Ok....I heard back from one of the guys in the Elder Geeks forum about creating that SP3 cd and this is what he says:

Unfortunately it seems slipstreaming SP3 into XP Media Centre isn't supported by Microsoft...



I found conflicting info. on the Net about SP3 and XP Media Centre, one person said you end up with an XP Pro SP3 CD if you do it !



First, a 'repair' install, you boot from your XP CD and install over the existing XP, this should leave your Data and Programs intact, you will have to re-install all Updates/Service Packs but if you start with SP3 then there aren't many to get.

Second, uninstall SP3, it should be in Add or Remove Programs as 'Windows XP Service Pack 3' but it's presence there may depend on how it was installed.
Then try sfc/scannow again, this will only work if the files on your CD are at the same Service Pack level as the XP installed, hence the removal of SP3.

I should say I have no personal experience of XP Media Centre so the above may not apply, hopefully someone here at TEG or on that other forum will post and clear this up.

Maybe you could mention my 2 ideas on the other forum, see what response it gets ?

What do you think??