A minor miracle! 

I installed the WinXP SP3 update on the MC machine (xw8000, 2 GB ram, QuadroFX 1100, u320 system and media drives, 0.5 TB media storage Raid 0 4x stripe) and it solved a long-standing problem originally brought on by an Xpro upgrade install procedure before there was the Hd versions.  I no longer find the error log in my system TEMP directory that contains the messages regarding xfermgrapi.dll not being found, or some such.    Here is the text of that file from my original report of the problem to Avid in 2003

[10/15/2003 16:11:16 1066259434] ApiLoader: DllName: xfermgrapi versionString
[10/15/2003 16:11:16 1066259434] ApiLoader: LibHandle::LoadAPI failure: 126
[10/15/2003 16:11:16 1066259434] ApiLoader::GetAPI: returning NULL
[10/15/2003 16:11:16 1066259434] ApiLoader::GetAPI: returning pApi; addr: 00000000
[10/15/2003 16:11:16 1066259434] ApiLoader: destructor had no handle to release

Over the upgrades within XPro and later to and through the current MC updates the message remained the same for each time the program was invoked EXCPEPT that xfermgrapi later got a version number attached, and periodically that number increased with a new Avid update. (The last reported version was 8).

Over the years I tried all kinds of things to recover after it appeared at the Xpro 4.3 update.  Installation of SP3 is the only thing that has worked.

Also, with SP3, things seem a little "snappier" and I have not yet experienced any problem with MC or other apps from the old studio toolkit.

 hmm What do you mean by things seem a little snappier? In avid or just in the OS it self?

I just did some reading baout SP3 after you posted. Dose SP# include all the updates from windows then? If thats the case wont there be some problems since there are only a few updates that Avid qualifies? although qualifies is a losse word...

"... since there are only a few updates that Avid qualifies?"

Where did you hear that?  Currently, all updates through April 2008 are qualified.

http://avidtechnology.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/avidtechnology.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=70738

Well they haven't yet qualified SP3

http://avidtechnology.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/avidtechnology.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=75628&p_created=1210157398&p_sid=TlM8WN3j&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9MSwxJnBfcHJvZHM9JnBfY2F0cz0mcF9wdj0mcF9jdj0mcF9wYWdlPTEmcF9zZWFyY2hfdGV4dD14cCBzcDM*&p_li=&p_topview=1

"Well they haven't yet qualified SP3"

From the Avid article you linked to:

"Microsoft released Service Pack 3 for Windows XP to the Microsoft Download site on May 6th 2008 "

... and I said, all updtaes throught April were qualified.  Where's the conflict?

I wasn't referring to your comment Randall. Just saying they hadn't certified SP3 yet as this thread is about wmcole's success with SP3 so far. Im all for trying it though!

I believe SP3 rolls up all the updates since the base-line XP release into one package, plus some additional security and kernal efficiency updates.  So yeah, it does contain updates that Avid has not "qualified".  But, my experience with both discreet and Avid is that they are overly cautious in these qualifications since they don't do regression testing each time an  updated is posted.  (Can't blame them - it would be a lot of work with no real return to the company.)

However, being a former software engineer before getting into the "video thing" back in '92, I take precautions to be sure I can back out of the changes if they prove to be problematic.  So I am not offering this advice as a qualification or encouragement to others to do it.  Its just that some are going to do it anyway, and I am just offering my experience of what happened when I did it.

By snappier, it is an overall observation.  the UI seems to be a tad more responsive on both the desktop and the apps I use all the time. Totally subjective,since I have not done any real before-after benchmark testing to see if it is true or not.

creativethinker:

 hmm What do you mean by things seem a little snappier? In avid or just in the OS it self?

I just did some reading baout SP3 after you posted. Dose SP# include all the updates from windows then? If thats the case wont there be some problems since there are only a few updates that Avid qualifies? although qualifies is a losse word...

 Ooops! Looks like they have qualified SP3.  (I shoulda read the entire thread first.