smoke and mirrors?

[qlark]

We have 5 identical 2kpro sp4 machines running on Dell Optiplex's P4 2G4 with 1G ram ... all running NIS 2k5

I have one application that needs to be installed on all machines ... we have 3 identical CD's provided ... the vendor has a setup.exe file which then runs an msi file.

On 2 machines this install worked fine ... on 2 others as soon as the Setup file is run either from a local drive or from a mapped network drive these 2 machines freeze

Vendor said to run cleanmgr ... cleanmgr also freezes until I removed the compress old files registry as per MS knowledge base on cleanmgr freezes

I proceeded to attempt to install other software on these machines and have had no problems

As a last ditch effort I went looking for a registry cleaner and did free scans from the top 5 vendors (PCMAG) to add to my frustrations they all return different results which doesn't give me any confidence in going down that path

Does anyone have any suggestions on either the install problem and or a way to go forward on a registry cleaner.

 

[teckystuff]

Are the faulty machines running the latest Windows Installer??

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...70-B259-4733-A914-A956122E08E8&displaylang=en

Long shot but may help.

 

[qlark]

Thanx some long shots work but this one didn't make any difference. I guess I will have to sit on the line with Dell for a while and see what they can come up with.

 

[teckystuff]

Have you tried shutting down your AntiVirus while you run the install?

 

[qlark]

No ... my assumptions are based on the premise that if it works on one machine that is virtually the same it should work on the other ... Dell has suggested I move the Hard drive from a good machine into one of the machines that freezes then attempt to install again ... if the machine locks up then I get a new mother board via warranty if not then it may be a system reload.

 

[teckystuff]

[Q]No ... my assumptions are based on the premise that if it works on one machine that is virtually the same it should work on the other [/Q]

True but thats the point - something is not "right" on two of your machines - I have my doubts its hardware related but not totally impossible. To solve problems like this I find its always best to start simple and work your way through it.

 

[qlark]

You were soooo close with your first post ... I hacked around and bypassed the setup.exe only to bump into this error;
The Windows Installer service could not be accessed. This can occur if you are running in safe mode or if the Windows Installer is not correctly installed.

Searching for more info on this I found and tried this fix and it resolved my issue.

Anyway thanx for listening maybe this will help someone else in the future.

This error is probably the result of a damaged registration service.

To resolve this issue:

1. Open a CMD.EXE prompt.

2. Type msiexec /unregister and press Enter.

3. Type msiexec /regserver and press Enter.

 

[teckystuff]

Haha - close. Glad you got it working in the end.