Guest John McGaw Posted July 25, 2008 Posted July 25, 2008 Background: I was trying to install a new upgrade to Perfect Disk 8 using its standard built-in upgrade process which uses Windows Installer along the way. I got a consistent series of failures each culminating in a "The Windows Installer Service could not be accessed" - type error message. After a few rounds I tried the upgrade on my two other XP SP3 systems (Pro and MCE) and a W2K system and it worked fine on each. I researched everything I could find online about installer failures and found that the promoted fixes were few and far between but I think that I eventually tried every one of them, all to no avail. Then, following the axiom of "undo what you last changed" I uninstalled SP3 which had just been installed the day before and found that the PD8 upgrade worked as advertised. The curious thing is that the other two XP systems had SP3 installed within hours of this one from the same CD and those had no installer problems. So, what is it I should be looking for next? I can always re-install SP3 but I don't know that I can unwind the PD8 upgrade to the previous version to retry the same upgrade path a second time. Does anything I've written here seem at all familiar? Is there some generic way to test Windows Installer? Problem system is a 3gHz P4, 1gB memory, ATI 9600 video, Shuttle SB65G2 homebuilt system that has been quite stable for years now. John McGaw http://johnmcgaw.com
Guest JS Posted July 25, 2008 Posted July 25, 2008 Re: Sudden Failure of Windows Installer How to re-install Windows Installer: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org/how_do_i_reinstall_the_windows_i.htm Windows Installer 4.5 is available (supports SP3) http://support.microsoft.com/kb/942288 Also: Common Windows Installer Problems http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=555175 Windows Installer CleanUp Utility http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301 JS "John McGaw" <nowhere@at.all> wrote in message news:%23MFzPnq7IHA.2336@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl... > Background: I was trying to install a new upgrade to Perfect Disk 8 using > its standard built-in upgrade process which uses Windows Installer along > the way. I got a consistent series of failures each culminating in a "The > Windows Installer Service could not be accessed" - type error message. > After a few rounds I tried the upgrade on my two other XP SP3 systems (Pro > and MCE) and a W2K system and it worked fine on each. > > I researched everything I could find online about installer failures and > found that the promoted fixes were few and far between but I think that I > eventually tried every one of them, all to no avail. Then, following the > axiom of "undo what you last changed" I uninstalled SP3 which had just > been installed the day before and found that the PD8 upgrade worked as > advertised. The curious thing is that the other two XP systems had SP3 > installed within hours of this one from the same CD and those had no > installer problems. > > So, what is it I should be looking for next? I can always re-install SP3 > but I don't know that I can unwind the PD8 upgrade to the previous version > to retry the same upgrade path a second time. Does anything I've written > here seem at all familiar? Is there some generic way to test Windows > Installer? > > Problem system is a 3gHz P4, 1gB memory, ATI 9600 video, Shuttle SB65G2 > homebuilt system that has been quite stable for years now. > > John McGaw > http://johnmcgaw.com
Guest John McGaw Posted July 25, 2008 Posted July 25, 2008 Re: Sudden Failure of Windows Installer JS wrote: > How to re-install Windows Installer: > http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org/how_do_i_reinstall_the_windows_i.htm > > Windows Installer 4.5 is available > (supports SP3) > http://support.microsoft.com/kb/942288 > > Also: > Common Windows Installer Problems > http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=555175 > > Windows Installer CleanUp Utility > http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301 > > JS > > > "John McGaw" <nowhere@at.all> wrote in message > news:%23MFzPnq7IHA.2336@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl... >> Background: I was trying to install a new upgrade to Perfect Disk 8 using >> its standard built-in upgrade process which uses Windows Installer along >> the way. I got a consistent series of failures each culminating in a "The snip... > > Thanks. I've just downloaded the 4.5 installer and will try installing it after I re-install SP3. I looked and the version of installer that I downloaded earlier (a suggested repair action from somewhere or other) was 3.1 IIRC and it refused to install while SP3 was in place. I'll also check the "problems" and "cleanup" links you provided. Strange that they never turned up when I searched on the Microsoft site though. John McGaw http://johnmcgaw.com
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