[sue.words]

I am in the middle of doing a Repair installation of Windows XP and have got an error message. Help!

I have inserted the installation disk and everything until now has gone fine: the old files have been deleted and the new ones all copied. Now this has appeared on the screen:
"Setup cannot set the required Windows XP configuration information. this indicates an internal Setup error.
Contact your system administrator."

(I presume I am my system administrator and I haven't a clue what to do.)

At the bottom it helpfully says: "F3=Quit". Where on earth will I be if I do press F3? Come to that, where will I be if I don't?

I don't know which way to turn. Please advise me!

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Hello sue.words...

Might I ask what prompted you to run the repair installation?

If you press F3 it should quit the installation, revert to the original configuration, and either shut down or reboot. However, sometimes you'll end up in a setup loop where it will keep booting to the failed setup operation and fail again.

Microsoft attributes this particular error to hardware that's not compatible with Windows XP, but I've found that that isn't always the case and it's possible to perform a parallel installation to completion. A parallel install will give you a fresh installation of XP on the same partition as the old installation and will leave your files intact within the old installation from which they can be recovered. Any programs you had will have to be reinstalled.

That being said, go ahead and press F3 and let's see if it backs out of the setup or puts you into the setup loop. IF it lets you restart the repair installation, see if it will complete. If it won't we'll look at doing a parallel installation.

wannabe1

[wannabe1]

Hello sue.words...

Might I ask what prompted you to run the repair installation?

If you press F3 it should quit the installation, revert to the original configuration, and either shut down or reboot. However, sometimes you'll end up in a setup loop where it will keep booting to the failed setup operation and fail again.

Microsoft attributes this particular error to hardware that's not compatible with Windows XP, but I've found that that isn't always the case and it's possible to perform a parallel installation to completion. A parallel install will give you a fresh installation of XP on the same partition as the old installation and will leave your files intact within the old installation from which they can be recovered. Any programs you had will have to be reinstalled.

That being said, go ahead and press F3 and let's see if it backs out of the setup or puts you into the setup loop. IF it lets you restart the repair installation, see if it will complete. If it won't we'll look at doing a parallel installation.

wannabe1

[sue.words]

Wannabe
Thank you so much for responding to my post.
It is just past midnight now and I was about to shut down this (desktop) computer for the night and go to bed (leaving the one in trouble - a laptop - just as it is). I don't think I should start acting on your advice now, but I will do so tomorrow.

You asked why I was doing the repair installation. The laptop has been getting more and more sluggish and unresponsive and crashing all the time. I have defragged and done disc clean-ups, and done scans for viruses and malware, and probably other things as well in an attempt to get it to perform better. I always knew that as a last resort I could try reinstalling Windows and then (at http://www.which.co....epair-top-tips/) I read this:

9) Conduct a system repair
You will need your original Windows operating system disc for this. Put your disc in the disc drive and restart your computer. When the computer turns on, you will see an on-screen menu with a number of options. Select the repair option - in Windows XP you do this is by pressing 'R'.

WARNING - DO NOT select the option to install Windows – if you do so and proceed with a full Windows installation, it will wipe your drive and re-install Windows from scratch. This will lose all of your data. Using the repair option will not affect your data, but to be on the safe side, back up your files before trying this method.





(Actually I have been following detailed instructions on doing this at www.about.com. )

I think most people would say that my laptop (an HP Pavilion dv4000 bought in August 2006, please see attached PDF for System Information as of a month or two back) is a write-off but I am determined to keep it going as long as I can.

Anyhow, I must go to bed now but thank you again for your response.






Read more: http://www.which.co..../#ixzz1pEahqR77
Consumer Champions Which?

Under Creative Commons License: Attribution Non-Commercial

Attached Files

•  Laptop system information.pdf   41.54KB   280 downloads

[wannabe1]

I'll be here tomorrow, too.

[sue.words]

Hello again, Wannabe

Well, this afternoon the fact that you were virtually holding my hand gave me the confidence to press F3.

I can't give you a blow-by-blow account of what happened but I think it's possible that the installation proceeded from where it had left off. From when I pressed F3 till when we seemed to get a normal or near normal boot-up was about an hour and a half.

I did have to enter my product key (as I expected) but I didn't have to do anything with respect to the wireless network (which I had expected to have to do).

Now I'm exploring to see what has happened and so far everything looks intact.

To test the existence of the wireless network I went from My Computer (on the laptop) to My Network Places and it looks as if I can see My Documents on the desktop. (So far, so good.)

The only hiccup is that while I was looking (on the laptop) at the list of folders in My Docs on the desktop a funny little window popped up headed PhotoGallery. This is not something I intentionally did anything to make happen and I don't think I have ever got involved with anything called that. I left it for a bit, thinking it was a miscellaneous bit of set-up that took place rather late for some reason but in the end decided to try to get rid of it and it doesn't want to go. Below the "PhotoGallery" heading is one of those yellow warning triangles with an exclamation mark inside and these words:
The path
'C:\SWSETUP\HPhotoST\setup\PhotoGallery.msi'
cannot be found. Verify that you have access to this location and
try again, or try to find the installation package 'PhotoGallery.msi'
in a folder from which you can install the product PhotoGallery.

[OK]

Is it all right for me to keep trying to get rid of this message? (I do store photos on the computer but I don't ever remember using something called PhotoGallery.)

And if I keep on being unable to get rid of it can you suggest a way of doing so, please?

Does it seem to you as if all is well? Is there any test I could do to establish where I am?

[wannabe1]

Great news!

The Photo Gallery error is related to a preinstalled HP program. If you don't use it, it can be removed using Add or Remove Programs in Control Panel.

The best way to find out how things are working is to just use the machine like you normally would and watch for any hiccoughs.

IF you run into problems, just let us know.

[sue.words]

Wannabe, I'm really sorry but I could not get rid of the problem through Add/Remove Programs because PhotoGallery was not there.

Now, after doing lots of permutations of clicking OK and Cancel I have an error message that says this:

"Error 1706. No valid source could be found for product PhotoGallery. The Windows Installer cannot continue."

I have Googled "Error 1706" and it looks like a real pain. All the suggested remedies look scary in one way or another. It looks as if I am so nearly home and dry but just this wretched error message keeps popping up. Actually there seems to be a loop. You click OK or Cancel and this leads to something else where you can click OK or Cancel, and there's another change and then the next time you click OK or Cancel you get back to the first one.

[wannabe1]

There are several ways to defur a feline.

Let's take a look at the Windows Registry real quick and see if we can find a way to stop it from loading. Please don't make any changes unless I ask you to.


Click the Start button then click on "Run" in the right column. Type regedit in the input field and click "Ok". Registry Editor will open.

In the left pane, expand (click the +) HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, then expand SOFTWARE, then expand Microsoft, then expand Windows, then expand CurrentVersion, then single click on Run.

In the right pane, do you see any item or items relating to PhotoGallery?

[sue.words]

No.

[wannabe1]

Ok...no problem.

You can collapse everything you just expanded (click the -) and close Registry Editor.

Download the Microsoft Program Install and Uninstall Troubleshooter. Install it and run it using the recommended (first) option. After the troubleshooter finishes, reboot and see if the error persists.

[sue.words]

Just thought I'd let you know, Wannabe, that I'm still here! I haven't quite finished but I hope I will have done everything you say soon. It's all taking a very long time!
No need to reply to this. I'll tell you when I need the next instructions or when I have something to report.

[sue.words]

Wannabe, I think I may have to go to bed as it's now gone 2am and things seem to be stuck.
When I first tried to run Microsoft Program Install and Uninstall Troubleshooter I got a message saying I needed to update Windows. I did that - or so I thought. Eventually I got back to the point I'd been at before I was diverted to updating Windows and I began to run Microsoft Program Install and Uninstall Troubleshooter again and - unbelievably - again I got the message that I needed to update Windows.

At the moment I'm at the Update website and the green squares have been running along the bar "Checking for the latest updates for your computer" for ages - it must be a good ten minutes.

I think I will have to go to bed and, as I did last night, leave the laptop on. I don't believe what is happening is ... shall we say healthy or normal? ... but I don't know what else I can do.

In the morning I will see if you have posted and if you have not

STOP PRESS!
Things have happened!

Results:Download size (total): 154.4 MB
Estimated time at your connection speed: 5 hours 18 minutes

As these are described as "High-priority updates" I shall click "Install Updates" and then leave the computer to do its stuff while I sleep.

Will hope to be able to complete the Microsoft Program Install and Uninstall Troubleshooter tomorrow (well, later today).

Goodnight and thanks for all your help - but please don't go away!

[sue.words]

Oh dear, Wannabe! When I went to bed last night I was fairly optimistic that I was well on the way, but now I have discovered that although a lot of updates have been installed five have failed to do so.

I tried to run the Microsoft Program Install and Uninstall Troubleshooter again about an hour ago and eventually got the same old message about needing to go to Windows Update.

(Actually, when I was going to sleep last night I realized why I had had to update twice last night. The first time I clicked to go to the Updating website I was invited to download a new version - Version 8 - of Internet Explorer. I don't know why I decided to go with this as I routinely use Firefox, but I did anyhow, and I suppose I got muddled up with the updating of IE to V8 and the downloading and installing of general updates.)

I looked at my updating history and discovered that numerous updates had been installed early this morning (as expected - I left the computer doing this when I went to bed) but five had failed to install. I have painstakingly copied these out and will see if the table will reproduce here:

Updates that failed to install



Windows XP

Update for Microsoft XML Core Services 6.0 Service Pack 2 (KB973686)



Error Code 0x652



Windows XP

(As above – listed twice exactly the same for some reason)



Office 2003

Update for Office 2003 (KB907417)

Error Code 0x80070652

Office 2003

Update for Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 Junk Email Filter (KB2596520)

Error Code 0x80070652

Office 2003

Office 2003 Service Pack 3 (SP 3)

Error Code 0x80070652

Office 2003

Update for Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 Junk Email Filter (KB2598246)

Error Code 0x80070652




I am now going to abandon my efforts with the laptop as I have some urgent work to do (on the desktop).

I'm guessing that you are having a well-earned weekend off now, but I hope very much you will be kind enough to help me again on Monday.

[wannabe1]

Actually, I'm in a band and we play weekends at a local watering hole. I'll still be here off and on all weekend and beyond.

Some Windows updates will not install and will show in the logs as "failed" until the machine is completely shut down and then started again...a restart won't do it.

I'm assuming you used the recovery disk for your machine to reinstall windows. Is there a second disk labeled "Drivers and Applications" or something similar? The Photo Gallery program will probably be on that disk and reinstalling it may eliminate the error and make it so it can be removed cleanly should you so desire.

[sue.words]

I shut the laptop down completely earlier today so when I read your posting just now I was able to do a new start from scratch - but unfortunatelyI am still finding that the five update files are unable to be installed.

I reinstalled Windows using the disk that came with the computer. (It's not called anything exept "Windows XP Home Edition".) I did create a great stack of Recovery disks (12, I think) when the computer was new, following instructions that came with it, but I haven't got any disk with a name like "Drivers and Applications".

This morning I found a website called "Fix Photogallery.msi" (at http://www.photogallerymsi.com/ ). There it is suggested that you can solve the problem by downloading and running "the Photogallery.msi repair tool PC Cleaner ".

Do you think this would be an effective solution and, if so, would it be safe? Or would I land myself in more trouble than I am in already?

Please let me know when you have time, but meanwhile have fun with your band!