can't install SP3

Shashank

Thanks for the response but I got lost on Number 2. Do I create a file in notepad named reset.cmd and you say run reset.cmd with administrative rights. I would need a little more directions to do those things that you list there.

Thanks

Friday, March 28, 2008 9:34 PM

ThomasLee

dndbohn wrote:

dndbohn,

1) Install subinacl.exe, and ensure it is install into this directory (C:\Program Files\Windows Resource Kits\Tools\)

2) Open notepad.exe, copy those commands from step 2 into the notepad.exe

e.g.

cd /d "%ProgramFiles%\Windows Resource Kits\Tools"
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CURRENT_USER /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
subinacl /subdirectories %SystemDrive% /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
subinacl /subdirectories %windir%*.* /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
secedit /configure /cfg %windir%\inf\defltbase.inf /db defltbase.sdb /verbose

3) Inside notepad.exe, on the top toolbar, select File --> "Save As...", a "Save As" context field should opens

4) Under "File name" field, type reset.cmd, and under "Save as type" field, select "All Files"

5) Click on the Save button to save this file "reset.cmd"

6) Login to an account with full Administrator rights

7) Double click on the newly saved file "reset.cmd", and let the script run.

Regards,

Thomas

Tuesday, April 01, 2008 4:20 PM

Thanks Thomas.

But I have one more question. I downloaded subinacl.exe and it was downloaded as a .msi file and I ran that and saved it in the proper folder. Now, do I go to that folder and run the subinacl.exe file from the C:\Program Files\Window Resource Kits\Tools which was created there.? Sorry to be so stupid but just want to be sure.
Thanks.
Don

Tuesday, April 01, 2008 6:52 PM

Shashank Bansal [MSFT]

Thats right Don

Tuesday, April 01, 2008 9:26 PM

Thanks for the reply. After following all the instructions it loaded without a problem. Got one more machine to do.

Thanks again.

Don

Tuesday, April 01, 2008 9:40 PM

ThomasLee

dndbohn wrote:

But I have one more question. I downloaded subinacl.exe and it was downloaded as a .msi file and I ran that and saved it in the proper folder. Now, do I go to that folder and run the subinacl.exe file from the C:\Program Files\Window Resource Kits\Tools which was created there.? Sorry to be so stupid but just want to be sure.

dndbohn,

You didn't have to run the "reset.cmd" or "subinacl.exe" file from/within the default installed (C:\Program Files\Window Resource Kits\Tools) folder.

The script "reset.cmd" file is written in such a way that the script itself will change directory (cd /d "folder path") to the default installed folder and does its job.

You can place the "reset.cmd" file into any folders you want but leave the "subinacl.exe" file intact in the default installed folder.

Remember to login to account with Administrator rights before you run the "reset.cmd" file.

Regards,

Thomas

Wednesday, April 02, 2008 2:16 PM

Thank you Thomas. I followed all your instructions and got it loaded with no more problems. I installed in my other computer this morning without changing anything. Thank you for the help.

Don

Thursday, May 08, 2008 1:16 PM

Arcan3

Hello,

I installed the subinacl.exe and executed the reset.cmd but it only give me errors like:

1337 The estructure of the security identificator is not valid
Current Object HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE will not be processed

Syntax error: 1

Error when checking arguments - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

And the same for the rest of the reg.

In my reset.cmd file I just have what I copied:

cd /d "%ProgramFiles%\Windows Resource Kits\Tools"
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CURRENT_USER /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
subinacl /subdirectories %SystemDrive% /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
subinacl /subdirectories %windir%*.* /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
secedit /configure /cfg %windir%\inf\defltbase.inf /db defltbase.sdb /verbose

Where is the error???

Thank you and sorry for my bad english.

Friday, May 09, 2008 1:06 PM

Robin Rivers

Advice is to disable AV - latest (5/9/08) Symantec has no disable function. How do you do it?

Friday, May 09, 2008 1:10 PM

If you really can't disable your anti-virus, then you could try completely uninstalling it. I assume that you have the means of re-installing it again afterwards.

Friday, May 09, 2008 2:38 PM

Arcan3

Ok, this method didn't work, but yes manually

Friday, May 09, 2008 3:22 PM

sachan01

I followed the post by Shashank and solved my "access denied" problem. Microsoft may need to spread the word better or come-up with a new fix to address this problem soon.... I didn't remember have this kind of glich for installing SP1 or SP2 on any of my computers (work and home combined, over 6 of them total).

Friday, May 09, 2008 5:42 PM

KputerBob

Worked flawlessly!

Thank you!!!

Bob Chambers

Friday, May 09, 2008 7:37 PM

GGJ

Can't install SP3: during the pre-installation tasks (the system files back-up), I get an error message saying that shell32.dll can't be copied, as it's not under C:\windows\system32\, so I should either "try again, or enter an alternate path". All i can do is cancel the installation: shell32.dll actually is under C:\windows\system32\, and of course trying again doesn't help. It looks like there's something holding on to shell32.dll, some process that prevents the sp3 installation from backing up the .dll library... i just don't know for sure what it is, or how to stop it. Any suggestions? I have no sp3 CD handy, so I am just performing the installation from Windows Update. Safe Mode is not an option, as I don't get Internet access in Safe Mode...

Saturday, May 10, 2008 6:43 AM

ACLOz

OK, here's what worked for me in XP Home...

The common cause is that the install program cannot write to the "Shared Music\Sample Music" folder in the shared documents. But the cause of this will differ on many machines.

I booted in Safe mode and logged into the Administrator. (Although this might not have been relevent.)

So what I ended up doing was go to this folder: "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users". In there will be a folder called either "Documents" or "Shared Documents". In my case, it was just "Documents". My user id did not have "Full Control" rights on that folder. When I clicked on the folder to see its contents in Windows Explorer, I got a message that I did not have the rights to see the contents.

So I went into the properties for the folder (right click on the folder and select Properties) and in the Security tab, selected "Full Control" option. Click on OK.

Once I'd done that, the "Documents" folder became "Shared Documents" and I was able to write to the folder.

A reboot back into ordinary mode and SP3 installed OK.

Good luck.

Sunday, May 11, 2008 9:25 PM

Jude Edward

You can we try to reset the permission by performing a Secedit.

Download dial a fix from web site or access http://joula4xp.googlepages.com/Dial_a_Fix.zip

Click on tools and then scroll down and select reset permission, is will do automatically and once the step is completed restart the computer and then perform your installation.

You can we check in registry if there is an restricted user account created you can remove it manually

Regards

Jude

Saturday, May 17, 2008 10:55 PM

vaaljapie

BRILLIANT!!!

Many thanks. It worked a treat!

More power to your elbow.

Sunday, May 18, 2008 2:10 AM

xiangtan

Saravana Kumar Rathinam [MSFT] wrote:

Hi All,

It seems some application has reset the permissions on registry keys. Can you please export and send us the registry keys under (HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\). We would like to know which application had modified the keys and has broken SP3 installation.

Here is the command to export the keys:

1) Start->Run->cmd.exe

2) reg export HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\ AppInstalled.txt

Please send the file to saravanr@hates.spam [at] microsoft [dot] com. (Please remove the @hates.spam)

Thanks in advance,

-Saravana

Hi, Saravana,

I had a very similar situation I hope you can help. Three days ago I tried updating to SP3 but my computer started to hang and eventually froze in the middle of installing. I had to power it off but after that I couldn't even start my computer in safe mode and it was virtually dead. After I did a repair install of Windows and reapplied SP2, it was back to life. The problem persists - all updates (total of 85) were downloaded but could not be installed. There is no other error message except that the following updates were not installed. Windows Defender and all Apple software were uninstalled and AVG antivirus was disabled before I tried the updates. Still, it's a no go.

Thanks
xiangtan

Wednesday, May 21, 2008 11:38 AM

superc_53

In the example above the word 'administrators' is a place holder/default. Try redoing the reset.cmd with your actual Administrator account name.

Hopefully it is a one word name such as Bob3QZ or sam versus a multi word name like Apples Fall From Tree 4. I haven't figured out yet how to handle the multi word type of Administrator name (which two of my PCs use).

Wednesday, May 21, 2008 6:18 PM

superc_53 wrote:

In the example above the word 'administrators' is a place holder/default.

No, it isn't. It is meant to be precisely "administrators", referring to the user group named "adminstrators". The SP3 update must be done by a user who is a members of group "administrators".

Sunday, June 08, 2008 9:12 AM

ernie04

This is a problem, e.g. in Germany the group is called "Administratoren". I also had an error when applying the script to my XP, but as I have changed the word "administrators" to "administratoren" everything worked perfectly.

@MS guys: Could you giv a list of the group names in other languages than english?

Kind regards,

Stephan

Wednesday, June 11, 2008 7:00 PM

Jeffery Ecby

Sunday, June 15, 2008 10:20 AM

LaPiFDK

Excellent point ernie04. Same problem occurs with the Danish version of XP. I changed the wording "administrators" to "administrator" in the reset.cmd script and everything worked perfectly.

Thanks for the tip!

Br,
Lars

Sunday, June 15, 2008 10:54 AM

eejaybee

Robin Rivers wrote:

Advice is to disable AV - latest (5/9/08) Symantec has no disable function. How do you do it?

Turn Off/Disable "Auto-Protect" and, certainly for installing XP SP3, disable "Turn protection on for my Symantec product" or "Turn on protection for Norton products" (which one depends upon which version of Symantec/Norton products that you have installed)

Saturday, July 19, 2008 12:10 PM

Moddertje

Thank you for the help. It took a long time but finally it's working

Saturday, July 19, 2008 5:12 PM

Appears that defltbase.inf does not exist on my machine.

D:\Program Files\Windows Resource Kits\Tools>secedit /configure /cfg D:\WINDOWS\inf\defltbase.inf /db defltbase.sdb /verbose

The system cannot find the file specified.

Task is completed with error.
See log %windir%\security\logs\scesrv.log for detail info.
D:\Program Files\Windows Resource Kits\Tools>notepad %windir%\security\logs\scesrv.log

-------------------------------------------
Saturday, July 19, 2008 10:00:31 AM
Warning 2: The system cannot find the file specified.
Error opening D:\WINDOWS\inf\defltbase.inf.
----Configuration engine was initialized with one or more errors.----

----Un-initialize configuration engine...

Sunday, August 17, 2008 1:26 PM

Zena6k

This worked perfectly for me, too, the very first time, here this is eight months since the original post and MS still hasn't built in a fix for SP3. (I am writing in mid-August 2008).

I'm running XP Pro in english on an AMD XP3200.

You have to wonder what so many people are doing in those 100+ buildings in Redmond. It sure isn't worryng about the SP3 failure to install. That's some CS.

Anyway, thanks to whomever it was that came up with this clever solution. I had almost given up.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008 8:47 PM

Robinvp

Hello,

I cannot install SP3. When I am almost done withe install proces my laptop shuts down. Then starts up again with a blue screen. A message shows in dutch that it was not possible to install SP3. The message is in Dutch. I have SP2. I shut of my firewall and virus scanner but that makes no difference. Do you have any suggestions what I need to do?

Thursday, August 21, 2008 8:43 AM

Robinvp, look at the ends of the various log files in C:\Windows to see what went wrong. Sort the folder by time-stamp, so you can see which log files were being written to at the time of the re-boot. One of the logs will be named svcpack.log

Sunday, August 24, 2008 2:59 PM

I also get Acess denied error, not sure what part of registry is denied.

I have McAfee Security Center and there is no turn off. I can go in Security Center and turn off each item (is that ok)

I also tried the subinacl method and it ran for awhile and went to a screen that said it was shutting down computer to prevent damage, dumping physcal memory and locked up. I did not turn off each item in AV first. Have tried several times but not in Safe mode.. Please help..

Sunday, August 24, 2008 7:37 PM

fordman52 wrote:

it ran for awhile and went to a screen that said it was shutting down computer to prevent damage

Please can you quote the exact wording of this message. It sounds as if you have a problem with hardware overheating, or something. Exact wording and/or error numbers please.

Sunday, August 24, 2008 8:19 PM

rdhw wrote:

fordman52 wrote:

it ran for awhile and went to a screen that said it was shutting down computer to prevent damage

Please can you quote the exact wording of this message. It sounds as if you have a problem with hardware overheating, or something. Exact wording and/or error numbers please.

Message Was:

A problemem has been detected and windows has shut down to prevent damage to computer.

Registry error

Technical information

Stop 0x00000051 (0x00000004, 0x00000001, 0xe51c49e0, 0x00002da0)

Begining dump of physical memory

Contact administrator or techinal support

This machine runs fine unles I run the reset.cmd program

Sunday, August 24, 2008 11:30 PM

Stop 0x00000051 is a serious error in the Registry. Since it is the purpose of the reset.cmd sequence to span the whole of the registry, it is bound to trigger this error if there is damage anywhere in the registry. This error can be caused by a hard disk failure in a sector within the registry files, making it impossible to read the registry off disk.

Open "My Computer"

Right click on dirve C:, and select "Properties"

Click tab "Tools"

Click "Check now"

Check boxes "Automatically fix file system errors" and "Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors".

Click "Start"

Follow instructions to allow PC to restart and start chkdsk.

This will take several hours. Note down any significant messages.

If hard disk errors are found in the registry files, you will have to replace the registry files from a backup. But you need to be aware that your hard disk might be close to total failure.

If you don't have a backup, it is sometimes possible to recover the registry files from System Restore checkpoints. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545

Monday, August 25, 2008 1:29 AM

rdhw wrote:

Open "My Computer"

Right click on dirve C:, and select "Properties"

Click tab "Tools"

Click "Check now"

Check boxes "Automatically fix file system errors" and "Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors".

Click "Start"

Follow instructions to allow PC to restart and start chkdsk.

This will take several hours. Note down any significant messages.

If hard disk errors are found in the registry files, you will have to replace the registry files from a backup. But you need to be aware that your hard disk might be close to total failure.

If you don't have a backup, it is sometimes possible to recover the registry files from System Restore checkpoints. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545

Ran check as directed, system did not report any errors after finishing but after system rebooted and finished loading a warning popped up and stated that windows had recoverd from a fatel error. Clicked on information box and had this:

error signature BCCode:51 BCP1:00000004 BCP2:00000001 BCP3:E51C49E0 BCP4:00002DA0 OSVer:5_1_2600

SP:2_0 Product:768_1

When you said that hard disk may be close to total failure, did you mean defective hard disk or just a bad spot on disk and maybe a complete reinstall would fix??

Monday, August 25, 2008 10:20 AM

Alicia21

Hi. Wish I'd never bothered with SP3! Thought I was doing a good thing.

Before SP3 download: one elderly desktop pc and middle-aged Dell laptop working fine. After - Desktop PC totally disabled by what looks like a dead or critically ill HDD and a laptop with a couple of suspect new defects. Ater reading the following, any helpful input will be appreciated.

FIRST: DESKTOP PC- First attempt to install SP3 failed due to insufficient diskspace with option to run CHKDSK and CLEANUP to free-up space. Did that, tried again. Second install did "checking config, backing=up files" etc and installed about 60% but failed. Error message saying that something was preventing some files from being installed and suggested I disable firewalls and/or anti-virus software before attempting another install. So guess what I did? Disabled my anti-virus.... guess what happened ......system seemed to hang - unable to exit, get start menu or do anything. Tried Ctrl-Alt-Del for task manager - still nothing. Minutes later error message saying some application file, possibly a .dll (can't remember now) failed to initialize then Task Manager popped up showing about 50 DrWatson processes running. So I used shut down but the system didn't. Instead, it rebooted itself and kept getting to "AUTOCHK program not found .......skipping AUTOCHECK" and went on a never-ending rebooting loop. It does just the same in safe mode.

Apparently, AUTOCHK is like CHKDSK. Prognosis: I think that disabling my anit-virus software (against my better judgement) let in a Trojan or something which has released something onto my HDD which has multiplied and totally filled it up OR let in something which has corrupted my MBR. If downloading SP3 means putting my system at risk, what's the point? Any suggestions as to how I can recover all the photos, music etc off that HDD, or even just recover my system full stop? No, I dont have an ERD.

SECOND: DELL LAPTOP. Now has malfunctioning system tray. Doesn't display icons tagged 'always show' and although the only icon it does show does give me access to my anti-virus software, on the taskbar customisation list, it has now been attibuted to a Tom Tom program that I uninstalled. Also, I can no longer access "add or delete windows components" from the control panel (add/remover programs) because of error code 0x7e (setup library msgcrom.dll not found....etc). Looked up fix for this on Microsoft Knowlege base but slightly unclear, ie. edit path instruction says "click on path then END then blahblah etc. " Clicked on path, it was highlighted, pressed END key but nothing happened and no instruction on how else to enter what END should have done. So lost nerve.

Clearly, all is not as it should be with my system. Bits are missing or not properly configured. Don't want to do a total reinstalll. Any suggestions?

Monday, August 25, 2008 10:27 AM

fordman52 wrote:

a warning popped up and stated that windows had recoverd from a fatel error. Clicked on information box and had this:error signature BCCode:51

This is just a second advice on the previous STOP 0x00000051, and is not a new issue.

When you said that hard disk may be close to total failure, did you mean defective hard disk or just a bad spot on disk and maybe a complete reinstall would fix??

If (and it is only an "if") the blue screen stop was caused by a hard disk error, then consider it an early warning: hard disks never get better, they only deteriorate. One bad spot is followed by another, and another.

So the next question is: will reset.cmd now run without a blue screen crash?

Monday, August 25, 2008 10:49 AM

rdhw wrote:

fordman52 wrote:

a warning popped up and stated that windows had recoverd from a fatel error. Clicked on information box and had this:error signature BCCode:51

This is just a second advice on the previous STOP 0x00000051, and is not a new issue.

When you said that hard disk may be close to total failure, did you mean defective hard disk or just a bad spot on disk and maybe a complete reinstall would fix??

So the next question is: will reset.cmd now run without a blue screen crash?

Have not tired running reset.cmd yet. I am still concerned about hard drive. This unit is 4 years old and have not ever had any problems until I tired to install sp3. I do have a external hard drive that I back up to so I do have backups of my important data. In your opinion is hard disk needing to be replaced??

Monday, August 25, 2008 12:01 PM

I cannot tell from this distance whether the hard disk is faulty or not. Given that it passed a full chkdsk with no errors, it seems unlikely that the hard disk is faulty. But to get back to the issue in hand, does reset.cmd now run to completion?

Can you also check the "System" log in Event Viewer to see if there are any entries logged at the time of the 0x00000051 stop, to see if they provide more detail on what triggered the problem.

Monday, August 25, 2008 12:19 PM

rdhw wrote:

Can you also check the "System" log in Event Viewer to see if there are any entries logged at the time of the 0x00000051 stop, to see if they provide more detail on what triggered the problem.

First of all thanks for your patients with me. I am at work now so I can not check System log. How is the best way to check that log file?

Thanks again

Monday, August 25, 2008 2:02 PM

fordman52 wrote:

How is the best way to check that log file?

Right-click "My Computer" and select "Manage".

Expand "[+] Event Viewer" and select "System".

In the right-hand panel, scroll to the time of the blue screen.

If you find a likely-looking entry, double-click it for details.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008 12:21 AM