XP installer/uninstaller problems

[Slava]

Hello, guys.

It has been a while since I posted on THG boards. Used to be on video editing forum about a year ago. So, hi everyone if anyone remembers me )

I apologize for the size of this message but if anyone can read the whole thing and help, my appreciation will be endless.

SUMMARY:

Recently, some programs install/uninstall fine on my PC but others fail either to install/run or to uninstall. The same programs install/run/uninstall fine on other PCs running various OSs (Win2K/XP/Win98).


BACKGROUND:

My old 21” Trinitron died so I had to replace it and I also decided to play around with my old PC, so I changed some hardware. Here are the recent changes to it. I doubt they have anything to do with the problem I am having, but still, here they are just in case.

- Installed Viewsonic G200fb Graphics series monitor;
- Installed a new 256 Mb GeForce FX VGA card;
- Added a 120Gb hard drive for data storage. (Swap file resides on this hard drive);
- Installed a different CPU to play with overclocking


CURRENT SYSTEM:

- Windows XP Professional, SP-1 with ALL updates installed (except Microsoft .NET Framework)
- Viewsonic G200fb Graphics Series monitor (IMPORTANT)
- Pentium 4/ 2.4GHz Northwood (I plan to push it to 3.2+ GHz but for now it runs at specification)
- ASUS P4T-E motherboard with latest BIOS ver. 1007E
- 512 PC-800 RDRAM (to push to PC1066 speed, but also runs at spec for now)
- ASUS V9570 GeForce 5700 FX AGP-2x/4x/8x card with 265Mb (running in AGP 4-x slot - IMPORTANT)


PROBLEM:

1. When I got that Viewsonic it was recognized by XP only as Plug and Play monitor, so I used Viewsonic drivers which failed to install initially, but after a few attempts I managed. Still, there seems to be quite a bit of geometric distortion closer to the edges of the screen (image gets noticeably wider) so I needed some monitor geometry testing tools;

2. ASUS drivers that came with the video card did not work right corrupting the screen now and then making it unusable, so I uninstalled/reinstalled them several times. Did not help, so I installed the latest drivers from nVidia;

3. Trying to correct the monitor geometry I downloaded several programs from BenchmarkHQ
http://www.benchmarkhq.ru/english.html?/be_monitor.html , namely: Monitors Matter CheckScreen, Philips Test Pattern Generator. Everything is virus-free checked with the latest 03.11.2004 Norton Antivirus Enterprise Edition.

4. Since I plan to push this system to the extreme, I figured I need to be able to monitor fans and temperatures, so I downloaded the latest version of ASUS PC Probe (in fact I downloaded several different versions) since the original PC Probe that comes with the board does not show CPU fan speed and has other problems.

NOW. All that said here’s what I have a problem with:

- Philips Test Pattern Generator fails to install. Error dialogue generated blinks for a fraction of a second and disappears but after many installation attempts I managed to read some of it. Looks like it says that “Could not find file SETUP.EXE < file path here>” even though I am clicking on the damn thing (runs fine on my office Win89SE machine though).

- Monitors Matter CheckScreen installs but fails to run (I tried to install and run it in compatibility modes but to no avail). Error generated behaves exactly the same way as above only it says that it could not find CheckScreen’s executable (runs fine on my office Win89SE machine though).

- CheckScreen also fails to Uninstall through Add/Remove Programs or through its own uninstaller. Error generated is “Could not find INSTALL.LOG file” I thought it may have to do with the fact that the program is a bit old (runs fine on my office Win89SE machine though) and that paths with C:\PROGRA~1\ . . . may cause this, so I edited *.LOG files and Registry keys, but this did not help. By the way, CheckScreen does not create any DLLs or *.INI files.

- Every version of ASUS PC probe (except the original one that came of the mobo CD) fails to install exhibiting exactly the same behavior as the programs above. Even the latest January 14, 2004 version fails to install though it gotta support XP – no question about that. Error generated is “Could not find file SETUP.EXE” while I am clicking on it!

Strangely, other programs including the old version of PC Probe on the mobo CD and old Win98 games and/or utility programs install/uninstall just fine on this XP PC.

I am confused and baffled. Spent the last several days reading anything and everything about installer/uninstaller problems but I am no closer to resolving this.

Can anyone help, please?

 

[Slava]

Guys, just discovered another strange fenomenon: If I try to install ASUS Probe from the opriginal CD it installs fine, but if I copy its files to the hard drive (same as extracting a downloaded copy of ASUS Probe for installation) -- it does not install, generating that weird error as described in the above post.

I have feeling that if I burned the downloaded copy to a CD it would install. Are there some obscure WinXP Pro SP1 settings somewhere which cause this?

Please, help!

 

[_WW_]

Pretty weird! Looking at the obvious thing first to eliminate it as a possibility: You are logged on as administrator when you are trying all this install/uninstalling right?

....WW (4.0)

 

[Slava]

Yes, I only have one account (and I double-checked) on my home Win XP Pro PC. It is, naturally, an Admin account.

Also, I just downloaded and installed AquaMark3, 3DMark03 as well as UT2003 from the original game CD. All installed and work fine. So, the problems with monitor tests and ASUS Probe installation are not likely to be caused by Windows Installer.

Could someone get and try to install Monitors Matter CheckScreen and/or Philips Test Pattern Generator and see if you have the same problem with them on XP as I do? Please?