I am attempting to reinstall MSDE (default instance) on a HP laptop
with Windows XP Pro with SP2. MSDE had been installed and was removed.
Upon attempting to reinstall the installation starts, then fails, and
then rolls back. From the information I have gleaned it appears one
cause can be a incomplete previous install/uninstall. I have tried
Microsoft aritcle 320873. I have also tried installing a named
instance (along with specifying different product ID) to see if it
would install and it failed as with 1603.

Here is a portion of log file from a default install, setup SAPWD="xxx"
SECURITYMODE=SQL /L*v C:\msde.log

=== Logging stopped: 12/29/2005 11:34:01 ===
MSI (c) (A0:0C) [11:34:01:785]: Note: 1: 1708
MSI (c) (A0:0C) [11:34:01:785]: Product: Microsoft SQL Server Desktop
Engine -- Installation operation failed.

MSI (c) (A0:0C) [11:34:01:800]: Grabbed execution mutex.
MSI (c) (A0:0C) [11:34:01:800]: Cleaning up uninstalled install
packages, if any exist
MSI (c) (A0:0C) [11:34:01:800]: MainEngineThread is returning 1603
=== Verbose logging stopped: 12/29/2005 11:34:01 ===

I have the entire log file but it is fairly long and I do not see how
to attach the file.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Mark

hi Mark,
[quoted text, click to view]

please check for
RETURN VALUE 3
entries... about 10/15 lines before each entry some description of the
problem will be reported..
--
Andrea Montanari (Microsoft MVP - SQL Server)
http://www.asql.biz/DbaMgr.shtm http://italy.mvps.org
DbaMgr2k ver 0.16.0 - DbaMgr ver 0.61.0
(my vb6+sql-dmo little try to provide MS MSDE 1.0 and MSDE 2000 a visual
interface)
--------- remove DMO to reply