Whats this pop up - Windows Installer?

[Fiddlemesticks]

I keep getting a pop up dsying 'Windows Intaller' with a small icon of a PC. Its not an IE based pop up, but just looks like its trying to install a program and just has a 'cancel' icon bottom right. I havent requested or downloaded anything recently.

Any ideas?

[agent006]

Could be all sorts of stuff. Does it happen when you do anything in particular?

[Fiddlemesticks]

No it just pops up, very, very quickly and disappears again, but does this a good 3 or 4 times when i boot up.

It does it on my wifes profile on XP as well.

Its like its trying to install something, or an xp update but doesnt quite complete it.

[malman]

Check the event log in control panel admin tools and look at application log and look for msiIntaller entries from the time the popup appeared this might give you a clue what its up to

[Fiddlemesticks]

Ok to clarify the icon header is 'Windows Installer' and the text in the pop up is 'Preparing to Install'

In the Event Viewer i have Type: Information and Source: Service Control Manager.

This is listed quite a few times, but from log on i have the following a couple of times:

Type: Error and Source: W32Time

and


Type: Warning and Source: b57w2k


Any ideas?

Thank you for your help so far, it is very much appreciated.

[thepassenger]

Fiddlemesticks said:

Type: Error and Source: W32Time

Taken from Microsoft:
The W32Time service is an integrated service in Microsoft Windows 2000. The W32Time service synchronizes an authoritative time server with an outside time source. The authoritative time server is a domain controller that uses the W32Time service to make sure that the computer date and time settings are correctly synchronized throughout an organization.

Fiddlemesticks said:

Type: Warning and Source: b57w2k

And this is the Broadcom NetXtreme 57xx Gigabit Controller.

Hmm... have you installed any utilities that keep the time synchonised? Or turned on Win2K's ability to synch with an atomic clock?
My first reaction is that Windows is trying to synch the time... or something has installed (or trying to install itself) which is kicking off before the network card is ready.

[agent006]

Neither of those are windows installer events.

Is it causing a problem? If not, then i'd just assume it's office or the like doing a couple of file changes for whatever reason.

[Fiddlemesticks]

Hi, thanks for the help so far. Certainly tying it down.

I've realised it only happens when i open outlook and send/receive.

Is it a mailer worm for emails?

Nothin really seems to be wrong but it just isnt right as its been happening for 3 or 4 days now and never seen it before. And its quite annoying.

[malman]

Fiddlemesticks said:

Hi, thanks for the help so far. Certainly tying it down.

I've realised it only happens when i open outlook and send/receive.

Is it a mailer worm for emails?

Nothin really seems to be wrong but it just isnt right as its been happening for 3 or 4 days now and never seen it before. And its quite annoying.

In that case

1) note the time
2) open outlook and send mail
3) goto event viewer and see if has any matching entries for that time (i would expect the msiinstaller to be the group that reports it)

[Fiddlemesticks]

yep bang on there.

I did that under Event Viwer>Applications and it reads Source: MSiInstaller, Category: None, Event:11708.

Has that 14 times between 15:13:07 and 15:13:15

At 15:13:07 i also have Service Control Manager doing something under Event Viewer>System

Any ideas what that all means?!

[agent006]

That looks like it's the general Windows Installer "help, i'm dying" error ID. There are a few proper ways to fix it but it'll be painful over a web forum. I'd try doing a repair of office (Control panel >add remove > change office)

[malman]

if a repair doesn't work then you could try this

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/29030

DISCLAIMER: at own risk etc

[Fiddlemesticks]

Thank you for that. Seems like i might be getting somewhere.

However, and a big however, i have now downloaded the program but am aware that i am now getting out of my depth and am scared of creating a lot of hassle by doing something i dont know how to fix, or generally understand.

The impression i get is that if i run the program then i will effectively have to re-install the program i have effected. And seeing as i bought this laptop with all software preinstalled that scares me. I do have the reboot/master disks.

So what would you do if you were me, and how would you do it?!

[agent006]

I'd run that cleanup program if a repair of office doesn't cure it.

[malman]

Do you have the original cd for office or outlook? The best thing to do is a repair. if the repair fails and you still get the msiinstaller box then the cleanup util will get rid of the entries from the msi reg keys. you can then re-install from the original cd and all should be well. In theory you don't have to re-install after msi cleanup util if you don't want to change anything about the install as the install is still there its just the installer reg keys for detecting changes etc are missing.

If I was you I'd be repairing with my cd or begging / borrowing someone else cd first.

If I was me (with 18 years of IT experience) I'd probably be knee deep in the registry by now and probably shouting at Bill Gates