Microsoft Windows Installer 3.1 update not working
I have a Latitude D800 running XP Pro with service pack 2.
In the past week, Microsoft Automatic Updates notifies me that there are updates ready to be installed on my computer. When I run the program, I get a message saying, "The following updates were not installed: Microsoft Windows Installer 3.1"
I haven't a clue what process/application could affect the ren command; go offline, at Start|Run enter:
msconfig
Disable all the entries in the Startups tab. Apply/ok/close all and reboot.
Try the 4 'command' lines again. Same error message ? If so, you could try to run the steps from the Recovery Console or bypass stopping the cryptographic service and justdo a search for the catroot2 folder on your system and rename via right-click option on the folder. Or instead of renaming the folder (from the command prompt) you could try to remove it. The command for that is:
rd %systemroot%\System32\Catroot2
In this case the other 3 lines of this 'command set' would remain the same.
Actually the answer to your original question should have been short and sweet. You try what I've given you and I'll search Denny.
Hold the presses. This may be short and sweet. Try this:
Download the windows installer, 3.1 to the desktop.
On the desktop, double-clickWindowsInstaller-KB893803-x86.exe.
Follow the prompts to complete the installation.
Restart the computer.
Double-click the desktop installer file and see what happens; hope that error message doesn't pop up. If it does, disable all the startups as I outlined previously.
Thanks for all of your help. Unfortunately, the last suggestion did not work either. I decided to go ahead and start all over by reloading Win XP. I've finally gotten back to sp2 and all of the current updates. The problem with Windows Installer 3.1 is fixed.
Sounds like a corrupted update file. windows update will not attempt to re-download the file but it will try to install a corrupted file forever. After the first failed attempt to update, further attempts will list the file download size as zero. The corrupted file is saved in the Windows folder. Look in windows folder (C:\windows) for a text file named "windows update.log" and double click to open with notepad (there may be more than one but the logs have a date/time so find the one which corresponds with the last time you attempted an update).
This is the full log of update activity. look in the third collum for the word "failure" and note the file it is refering to. The file will be located in C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download .
Delete that file and re-attempt windows update. It should now re-download the file and install succesfully.
maxd
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Posted April 28th, 2005 14:00
First off I suggest you make sure all your other updates installed correctly. Download this utility to this folder:
(c:\windows\) system32
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=155c7c58-102e-47b0-a12a-bfab8cfccc03&DisplayLang=en
After the download has been 'placed' in the system32 folder go to the command prompt and enter this command:
qfecheck
Post back with the results (output on screen after running the command); all the updates should say "Current on system".