3 replies to this topic

[Scott Mayham]

I've seen a number of posts on this subject here at InstallSite, but my problem seems not to be covered by them.

Background - Windows 2000 Professional w/SP2 (one of our Sales/Demo laptops).  The installation was built using ISWI 2.03 (MSI 1.2).

A prerelease version of our product was installed on this machine a few weeks ago, and yesterday somehow it got "damaged", as evidenced by the Windows Installer constantly coming up and wanting to "repair" it.  The sales rep kept hitting "cancel", but the problem would keep coming back.  A helpful coworker hooked the machine back up to our network, and browsed to the server which held the installation package in question, and pointed to the .MSI file.  At first, the repair took off, but then seemed to stall (I'm told).  The helpful colleague used "end task" in the task manager to kill the Installer.

Today they got me involved.  First, I tried to install MsiZap, but of course that was not possible, since the Installer was "stuck" (persistent error 1500).  So, I used RegEdit to deleted everything under the InProgress key, and rebooted.  Not only did this not help, but as the system was coming up, the Installer came up and tried to resume it's repair; and the registry had all of the InProgress stuff restored!  (Is it possible that "delete" doesn't always mean delete in RegEdit?)

So, i also tried "stopping" the Windows Installer service using the MMC, but got a message saying it could not be stopped (or words to that effect).  I tried setting it's Startup Mode to "disabled", but again, rebooting still brings up the Windows Installer.   AAARRRGGHGHHH!!!!!

What I would like to know is how to get this beast (MSI) to give up on the repair, so I can install MsiZap and blow away the "damaged" product, and then reinstall it.

I'm stumped!

[aglenwright]

You can ignore this message if you have already tried this, but...

I have found that when MSI gets into "repair" mode, and you click cancel, it comes up (seemingly over and over again), but actually only three times.  So you could try clicking "cancel" really quick (before anything starts to actually happen) - repeat 3 times, then use MSIZap ?

[Scott Mayham]

Thanks for the reply.

Actually, I've seen the 3-times behavior in other situations, and they worked as you described.  I haven't actually counted with this one (you can bet I will, though!, but after canceling several times, I still have the problem of not being able to install MsiZap.  It consistently gives the Error 1500 ("I can't do this install because I never finished the last one").

This is getting quite urgent, as it involves a system we are setting up for an upcoming Trade Show.

Beyond this immediate concern, I've never seen this kind of scenario with MSI 2.0; has anyone else, or is this kind of problem only with MSI 1.x?

Regards,

[luke_s]

Have you check the *run* or *runonce* key in the registry? maybe this has something to do with the install trying to repair after the reboot?

Would it be easier to uninstall the product and install it fresh again?

Maybe try and re-install Windows Installer by using the instmsi.exe.

you could also check the event viewer to see if there are any hints of any strange behaviour that may be causing this.