Sudden Failure of Windows Installer

[Guest John McGaw]

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]

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]

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