If I had a baseball bat to hand I'd use it on this laptop.....

[tech_guy]

A staff member has handed a laptop in for reconfiguration during the summer holiday.

 

It's Windows 7 64bit.

 

All the updates are on.

 

The first inkling of a problem was when Symantec Endpoint Live Update failed when looking for updates. I un-installed it only to find that a reinstall fails - it rolls back - with a vague message in the event log that may point to a problem with VSS. I use VSSADMIN LIST WRITERS at the command prompt and everything is stable.

 

No problem, I thought, I'll come back to it later.

 

Off came MS Office 2007. Same problem with trying to install MS Office 2010. Install rolls back. Not much in the event log by way of the nature of the problem.

 

Virus? An installation of MSE goes on no problem and updates too. A scan reveals nothing. CCleaner goes on and does its job. MalwareBytes goes on okay too and updates but finds nothing.

 

Running sfc/scannow comes up clear.

 

I use the MS Office removal tool to make sure MS Office 2007 is completely removed. No joy. Can't re-install MS Office 2010.

 

Can't install either program after a clean boot either.

 

I can however re-install MS Office 2007...?!?!?

 

Any ideas other than me hitting it with a baseball bat with a nail through the end? I don't want to wipe it and re-install a fresh copy of Windows 7.

Edited August 9, 2012 by tech_guy

[speckytecky]

You don't mention brand name of Laptop?

[tech_guy]

It's a HP 620...

[andyturpie]

Symantec and Office, I would guess that some service that was scanning outlook for viruses has borked and wont come off, seen this happen with McAfee and Office before, couldn't get MCPR.exe to run and couldn't cleanly remove Office. Had to rebuild, right pain in the harse.

[pete]

What happens when you call the install with the verbose switch and get it to log to a file? Any more info?

msiexec /i \\path\to\whatever.msi TRANSFORMS=\\path\to\whatever.mst /lv \\path\to\logfile.log

Edited August 9, 2012 by pete