[ms office - 2007] SP2 Fails to Install

[Stuart_C]

Hi there,

I'm having a problem geting Office 2007 SP2 to install on a number of machines and I can't figure out why.

They fail through WSUS install and through a manual install from the downloaded file.

 

The install will start then part way through it will stop and I will get an error that the SP cannont be installed. The following message is left in the error log:

Product: Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007 - Update 'Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 2 (SP2)' could not be installed. Error code 1603.

 

 

The machines were bought at the same time and are part of the same batch. I really don't want to wipe and re-install one.

 

SP 2 has gone on fine on all the rest of the machines in my organisation, it just seems to be this block of 8where there is a problem.

 

Any suggestions?

 

Edit: Just had a quick look. Some of the machines that were purchased at the same time DO have SP2 installed. Cant remember which ones I have wiped over time as they are a few years old

Edited August 13, 2009 by Stuart_C

[Potato-Peeler]

Net framework update perhaps?

[Stuart_C]

possibly though I don't think so.

The reason being that they are all running under WSUS and have the same updates applied to them. I can't really see a failed .Net update...

Really the only failed updates are SP2 and a couple of Office Updates that come after SP2.

[SYNACK]

You could try running a repair install of office on those machines before retrying the upgrade.

[Stuart_C]

No joy

The repair actually fails, with the error:

 

error 1324.the folder path 'start menu' contains an invalid character

 

A swift bit of googleing leads me to You receive an invalid character error message when you install Office XP and Office 2003

 

However that is not much help. When I looked through for an invalid character in "Start Menu" I couldn't see anything that looked invalid (not quite sure exactly what I'm looking at with some entries). I'm wondering if this is causing the problem for the service pack?

I tried logging in as three different users and no joy.

Edited August 13, 2009 by Stuart_C

[Stuart_C]

Just found this

You receive an error message when you try to install 2007 Microsoft Office suite service packs...

Which also fails to install!

 

I'm going to go home now, I suspect tomorrow is going to be fun if I have to keep on at this!

[Stuart_C]

So just an update.

I've tried to uninstall Office, which won't due to the invalid character in start menu issue. When I suearched the registry there was noting I could see that was invalid. Having said that it went through a numebr of keys, some very random, and I'm not sure exactly where to be looking.

 

I tried cleaing out as much as possible and then updating it from Windows update but that didn't help.

 

Can anyone help. I'm worried that I might need to flatten and re-install to get round this bu I'd really rather not.

[SYNACK]

You could try killing it off semi manually using these:

How do I uninstall the 2007 Office suites if I cannot uninstall it by using the "Add or Remove Programs" feature? (automated with MS FixIT)

or

How to manually uninstall the 2007 Office system if you cannot uninstall it by using the "Add or Remove Programs" feature

in order of automation.

 

Then install it again with SP2.

[Stuart_C]

Cheers for that. I've tried the scriped fix which failed and I'm now not sure what state the machine is in so I'm going to going to wipe it.

 

Of marginal frustration is that a couple of this "batch" or computers have installed SP2. And I've just been looking at one that has failed lots of times then suddenly installed SP2!

 

Grrrr.....

[Stuart_C]

@SYNACK

OK thanks for that. After giving me the same error (invaled character in start menu) during the scripted uninstall when I restarted the computer it had uninstalled!

 

Reinstalled Office and it let me put SP2 on!

 

Gooooooooooo Microsoft!

Thanks for you help on a problem that really shouldn't have been.