h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Had a bit of a problem with windows and multiboot at the weekend and ended up rewritting the MBR and boot and reinstalling windows (no disk wipe though).

It's currently running with SP4 and setup with admin user and a general user. Assume admin user in the following.

It is now a clean install. I've put opera, avg antovirus, zonalarm, spybot and a few things like printer and nvidia nforce drivers on it. All with no problems.

However, when I've tried to install a few bits of application software I've had problems. Office 2002 installed OK but when I tried to install spss v12 ( a stats package) it said there was something up with ms installer and to run something called 'ISScript.msi' which I did. It then installed ok.

More troubling is that I've been unable to install Myst V on it. Before I did the 'ISScript.msi' it would get so far and then say there was an error. It seemed to do this whenever it tried to do the 'creating uninstaller' section - although this occurred at different points depending. Initially I did a web search and found nowt for win2k but did find an XP bit that said to make sure you turn off all the TSRs (did that) and services (did that - avg etc) and to make sure you have the JaveSE v6 installed. Did that.

No difference, still crashes out with a message about 'file1' which seems a bit generic.

After I ran the ISScript.msi it now gives 2 errors. One as before and one on an actual file.

I checked the error log and the problem seems to be with the Java extract ZIP functionality. I installed winzip on the off chance there was some hook in there but it made no difference.

If I try and open the JAR files with winzip it says it is an invalid JAR file. However, if I put the dvd into my works laptop (um, no, honest, I didn't do that) then I can open the JAR file no problems.

I have had problems with my DVD drive when warm but a few mins and it seems fine.

The DVD face is a bit marked but not excessivly so and the fact that the laptop reads it seems to indicate that isn't the problem.

The fact that the DVD drive can read an install other dvds seems to indicate lack of problem there - it's a sony one and only a year or two old so shouldn't be that dodgy.

So at the moment I'm wondering if my install of windows installer package is stuffed. Anyone know how I can check this? I'd like to verify it before forking out for a new dvd drive. Although I am suspicious of it!

Never had any probs with ms installer before so dunno where to start looking, but the message from the SPSS indicates that all was not well.

The only installer probs we had were it would get part of the way through and then cannot find location. InstMsiw.exe seemed to be something that helped. Here is the instructions that we wrote out for it....

The symptoms of the problem are that the computer comes up with messages saying it is trying to install programs and cannot find the location. When you try to run the InstMsiW.exe file which is the windows installer update program you get the message "the specified service exists". Here is the process to bypass this.

1. Logon as an administrator and launch a command prompt by going to Start -> Run 2. Type "cmd" in the box and press enter 3. At the C:\> type the following without quotes "msiexec /unregserver"
4. Reboot the computer
5. Logon as administrator. Close any messages you might receive. Then launch a command prompt by going to Start, Run, Type "cmd" in the box and press enter 6. Type the following without quotes "cd\winnt\system32" press enter 7. This part is tricky and needs to be done fast. Have the InstMsiW.exe file ready to be run immediately following the next step.
8. The command prompt should read c:\winnt\system32>
9. Type the following. "del msiexec.exe" press enter
10. Immediately run the InstMsiW.exe program. Note: If you don't execute it fast enough you'll have to redo steps 5 through 9.
11. You will see Windows Installer launch and install the program. It will then tell you it had been installed successfully and prompt you to reboot.

Once the computer comes back up you should be all fixed. Note Occasionally you may need to shut down services manually. You need to go into Start | Settings | Control Panel | Administrative tools | Services and stop any windows installer services that may be running.



....This did actually help with someone who totally hosed their machine (by turning it off when group policy was trying to install office), so it may be worth giving it a try. Let me know if you do, and how it went. Until later....
BCNU - Crescent

oooh, ta! I'll try that

didn't make a difference. It's gotta be something java-ish so have started a new thread for that.

But a useful bit of info nonetheless, and one to add to my knowledge of windows troubleshooting!