InstallShield fails to run?

by **griffman** » Tue Jan 14, 2003 7:34 pm

Hello, everyone ... first time post here, so please forgive any style errors!

I have a Dell Dimension 8200 running WinXP with all patches installed and no strange third-party hacks of any sort (other than an "activate now" screensaver toolbar module). My problem is that some, but not all, InstallShield package installers fail to work as expected. In fact, two of the last three packages I have tried to install have failed (an HP print driver installer and an accounting package demo).

In both cases, there are no error messages of any sort. Double-clicking the "setup.exe" file launches setup.exe (as shown in the Task Manager) but that's it. I can double-click again to launch multiple instances, but nothing happens. I have to use Task Manager to quit the process, or I can let them sit for about 10 minutes, and they'll eventually kill themselves off.

I'm not sure how to go about debugging this, as there are no errors that I can see, and there's certainly no on-screen feedback.

Any suggestions on what to look for or how to proceed?

thanks;
-rob.

by **Yappinator** » Tue Jan 14, 2003 7:40 pm

hey griffman

welcome to PROneTworks.

one of our techies Im sure can help ya out

:yesnod:

Yaps

by **SCgone** » Tue Jan 14, 2003 8:02 pm

Welcome Griffman. Glad to have you stop by. Here's a couple of fixes for the installshield problems. Don't know if I seen one that selective or not.

Go to Start/Run and run each one of these:

regsvr32 msi
msiexec /unreg
msiexec /regserver

Start/Run/gpedit.msc/Administrative Templates/Windows Components/Windows Installer/Prohibit User Installs

Look at the explain tab at the top and it will explain the settings. They're probably not configured if you haven't messed with them. Which in essence means you're not prohibited.

by **griffman** » Tue Jan 14, 2003 10:07 pm

Thanks for the suggestions ... here's what happened when I tried these steps:

1) regsvr32 msi

This got me a "DllRegisterServer in msi succeeded" message.

2) msiexec /unreg

This executed, no feedback visible.

3) msiexec /regserver

This executed, no feedback visible.

4) Start/Run/gpedit.msc

Launched the app and saw Administrative Templates section in Computer Configuration, went there and found Prohibit User Installs in the Windos Installer section. It said "Not Configured," which if I understand you correctly, means that everything is OK, right? "Not prohibited" means "allowed?"

In any event, I tried setting "Prohibit User Installs" to "Enabled" with "Allow User Installs." Re-running the installer still resulted in the same behavior.

Next I enabled logging, and turned on all reporting options. After running the installer again and letting it kill itself, I could find no evidence of a new "msi.log" anywhere on my machine (I found a few, but none dated within a week or less of today's date).

I'm quite stumped; thanks for the suggestions so far!

-rob.

by **SCgone** » Tue Jan 14, 2003 10:18 pm

Have you tried turning off any antivirus programs you have running when trying to install the programs? Norton ahs been known to cause this problem.

by **SCgone** » Tue Jan 14, 2003 10:24 pm

One other thing I just remembered. You haven't installed the Microsoft Bluetooth Supplement have you. This will cause that problem if no bluetooth devices are installed but the supplement is.

by **griffman** » Tue Jan 14, 2003 10:27 pm

Scary as it may sound, there are none running. I remembered that I have installed Apache, Python, and PHP, but those shouldn't have any impact.

I'm not sure if this helps, but I 'hovered' over the Setup.exe to see what it was, and got this info:

Description: 32-bit Setup Launcher
Company: InstallShield Software Corp.
File Version: 5.52.164.0
Date Created: 5/31/2001 1:14am

Also, I'm the admin of the computer (and logged in as such), so I'm really confused if this is a user problem...

Edit: Bluetooth: Do you know where I'd look for the driver? A search on Bluetooth found a device cache and a trusted devices list from my Palm Tungsten in the Palm folder, but I don't think I've ever used Bluetooth on this machine...

-rob.

by **SCgone** » Tue Jan 14, 2003 11:31 pm

Well, it's apparently a legit installshield, but darn if I can figure out why some fail and some don't.
Lemme think on it a little more.
Later.....
I've thought a little more. Another reason they fail sometimes is any type of background app running and a full temp directory. If your default temp directory is still "windows\temp" or wherever it is. Go in there and delete everything in it. Also try closing everything that's not vital while running the installer.

by **griffman** » Tue Jan 14, 2003 11:35 pm

It's quite possible that the one that worked wasn't an InstallShield app; I don't particularly remember the details (it was a game demo of some sort). Perhaps it was just an compression expanding that I remember working as an installer ... so maybe it always fails.

Can I create a new user and try running the installer as that user? Is that a useful troubleshooting trick?

-rob.

by **SCgone** » Tue Jan 14, 2003 11:37 pm

Sure, it won't hurt to create a new user and trying it. But try deleting everything in that temp directory first.

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InstallShield fails to run?

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