Everything using Windows Installer hangs

Factual Questions
1

I have this windows 7 x32 machine. I wanted to free some space on the HD to migrate to a smaller SSD so I uninstalled MS Office 2007. Somehow the Office uninstallation proccess didn’t finish cleanly (I don’t remember the exact error message).

Anyway, I continued to clone the hd using the utility that came with the SSD.

While everything worked just fine after the clone process, from that day on, I cannot install anything that uses Windows Installer. The progress bar gets stuck somewhere midway and I have to force close the installer, no matter how long I wait.

Any ideas?

2

Have you tried re-installing Windows Installer?

3

How can I do that?

4

To check which version is currently installed, type “msiexec /?” into the Windows Run box or command prompt.

Search for this version on Microsoft’s website. It should take you to a download page. Download and run the executable.

5

Thanks. Apparently the Installer 5 for windows 7 is contained in something called SDK for Windows 7. I am downloading and installing that right now, I hope the installation doesnt hang!

6

No luck, the SDK installation froze too :frowning:

7

Try Microsoft’s Mr Fixit. Had passable results with installer problems.

http://support.microsoft.com/fixit/#tab0

8

I downloaded the one about installation/uninstallation problems and it froze too :smack:

I guess the only thing I can do now is to format it.

9

Or better yet, download Linux Ubuntu or Mint. You get test out a “live” CD/DVD to see if it makes your system happy. If so install on a separate drive or partition. Unless you have a very specific need, there are open source programs for about everything. Fast bootups, less demanding on the system, no anti-virus overhead and free.

10

Have you looked at the event logs? Have you tried a simple install using logging and the looked at the log of that install?

The answer will be in the log. Doubtless some component shared with Office.

11

Check that you don’t have any problems with your RAM

Download (preferably on a machine with no known problems) and burn the .iso to a CD. Boot from the CD on your problem PC. Allow to run for at least 3 passes, preferably overnight.

If there are no problems with the RAM, verify the system files. Open a command prompt as administrator (start button, in the search box type CMD, right click on the cmd.exe it finds and run as administrator) and run

sfc /scannow

What program did you use to do the cloning process?

12

I enabled logging and tried to install only the Word component of Office 2007. It produced an almost 500kb log file. According to the log file it hanged in about 2 seconds after the installation started.

The last few lines are these:



MSI (c) (DC:1C) [14:57:49:089]: Closing MSIHANDLE (359) of type 790531 for thread 3100
MSI (c) (DC:1C) [14:57:49:089]: Creating MSIHANDLE (360) of type 790531 for thread 3100
MSI (c) (DC:1C) [14:57:49:089]: Closing MSIHANDLE (360) of type 790531 for thread 3100
MSI (c) (DC:1C) [14:57:49:089]: Creating MSIHANDLE (361) of type 790531 for thread 3100
MSI (c) (DC:1C) [14:57:49:089]: Closing MSIHANDLE (361) of type 790531 for thread 3100
MSI (c) (DC:1C) [14:57:49:089]: Creating MSIHANDLE (362) of type 790531 for thread 3100
MSI (c) (DC:1C) [14:57:49:089]: Closing MSIHANDLE (362) of type 790531 for thread 3100
MSI (c) (DC:1C) [14:57:49:089]: Creating MSIHANDLE (363) of type 790531 for thread 3100
MSI (c) (DC:1C) [14:57:49:089]: Closing MSIHANDLE (363) of type 790531 for thread 3100
MSI (s) (98:D8) [14:57:49:089]: PROPERTY CHANGE: Modifying CostingComplete property. Its current value is '0'. Its new value: '1'.
MSI (s) (98:D8) [14:57:49:089]: Note: 1: 2262 2: BindImage 3: -2147287038 
MSI (s) (98:D8) [14:57:49:089]: Note: 1: 2262 2: SelfReg 3: -2147287038 
MSI (s) (98:D8) [14:57:49:089]: Note: 1: 2262 2: Extension 3: -2147287038 
MSI (s) (98:D8) [14:57:49:089]: Note: 1: 2262 2: TypeLib 3: -2147287038 
MSI (s) (98:D8) [14:57:49:089]: Note: 1: 2727 2:  
MSI (c) (DC:1C) [14:57:49:089]: Creating MSIHANDLE (364) of type 790531 for thread 3100
MSI (c) (DC:1C) [14:57:49:089]: Closing MSIHANDLE (364) of type 790531 for thread 3100
MSI (s) (98:D8) [14:57:49:104]: Note: 1: 2727 2:  
MSI (c) (DC:1C) [14:57:49:089]: Creating MSIHANDLE (365) of type 790531 for thread 3100
MSI (c) (DC:1C) [14:57:49:089]: Closing MSIHANDLE (365) of type 790531 for thread 3100
MSI (s) (98:D8) [14:57:49:104]: Skipping action: MarshalPatchProperties_PublishPatchARPUser (condition is false)
MSI (s) (98:D8) [14:57:49:104]: Skipping action: MarshalPatchProperties_PublishPatchARPMachine (condition is false)
MSI (s) (98:D8) [14:57:49:104]: Doing action: InstallInitialize
Action ended 14:57:49: InstallValidate. Return value 1.
MSI (c) (DC:1C) [14:57:49:104]: Creating MSIHANDLE (366) of type 790531 for thread 3100
MSI (c) (DC:1C) [14:57:49:104]: Closing MSIHANDLE (366) of type 790531 for thread 3100
MSI (c) (DC:1C) [14:57:49:104]: Creating MSIHANDLE (367) of type 790531 for thread 3100
MSI (c) (DC:1C) [14:57:49:104]: Closing MSIHANDLE (367) of type 790531 for thread 3100

Most of the rest of log file is creating and closing MSIHANDLE

Should I be looking for something specific?

13

Sent you a PM.

Jasg (who is almost ashamed to say he worked with MSI for more than 10 years)

14

Download and run msicuu2.exe. It’s an older MS uninstall cleanup utility. I have no idea why they abandoned it, because it works like a charm.

15

The cleanup utility might help, haven’t used it in quite a while.

The log you sent was truncated, but it shows that Office is attempting to repair itself (from a network share?):

Calling process: \10.0.51.111\80gb disk\Shared\11 Software\Εφαρμνογές\Office 2007\Office 2007 Enterprise\setup.exe ===

and one of the installer databases it wants to use is missing :

MSI (s) (98:D8) [14:57:48:761]: Warning: Local cached package ‘C:\Windows\Installer\1f7fffe.msi’ is missing.

without the entire log, I’m not sure of the significance of that.

Are you now running from an SSD the cloned HD? Office has a lovely feature where it actually copies the ENTIRE distribution DVD (or download) to a hidden directory and then runs the install from that copy. Essentially, when installed you have two copies of everything. If you did not clone all of that stuff, the install could be hanging because it cannot find the cached copy. Without a full log, I can’t see all the return codes and really tell you what is going on.

If you still have the original HD, you might try running from that until you get it cleaned up, then clone the fully functional OS again. Sounds like your clone OS is not in the best of shape.

I would also search the Office newsgroups and websites and see what can be done for a severely broken Office uninstall.

I’ll look at another log if you care to send it. Just make sure the end of the log file shows something like this:

=== Verbose logging stopped: 2/24/2006 12:44:34 ===

16

I have access to a couple windows rebuild utilities I can use remotely, drop me a PM and I can set it up if you like

17

jasg, I have copied the contents of the Office 2007 DVD to my NAS and I am installing it directly from there. Never had a problem installing from a network location in the past.

The log file is incomplete because the installer hanged completely and I had to terminate it. I actually terminated it about half an hour after the last entry in the log, apparently it wasn’t doing anything the whole time.

I don’t know if it is relevant, but all Windows 7 installations I’ve seen for some reason create an extra 100MB system partition. After the cloning process this partition on the SSD was reduced to 27MB.

Jasg, thank you very much for your time. :slight_smile:

18

That’s interesting. Could it be swap file space?

19

The hidden “System Reserved” partition is for the bootmgr and system recovery purposes. Created by the Win7 install process.

Office creates a hidden directory named “MSOCache” which contains a directory for each part (Word, Excel etc.) of Office you purchased. These contain full copies of the installers to avoid the dreaded prompt for the original install media when MSI decides to ‘repair’ a damaged install of Office.