"Installation Source Missing"

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rhonda Lea Kirk
  • Start date Start date
R

Rhonda Lea Kirk

I'm really about over seeing that message--"installation source
missing"--on my display.

I've received it twice with Office 2003, and it was a mess to fix the
first time because none of the suggested fixes worked. I haven't done it
yet this time, because although the actual procedure is pretty
straightforward, it just takes so long. In the meantime, although the
programs work okay, I cannot receive Office updates, no matter how
critical they might be.

Two days ago, I thought I'd try repairing Windows Defender (don't ask).
No go. "Installation source missing." After I was done beating my head
against the wall, I read about everything that could possibly go wrong
(a lot), downloaded Defender, uninstalled and reinstalled it. No
problem. It uninstalled without a hitch, even though the "installation
source [was] missing."

Today, I tried to download the Adobe Reader update."Installation source
missing." Worse yet, the old version refused to uninstall from Add and
Remove Programs because...wait for it...the "installation source [was]
missing". Go figure. After considering all the options, I used the
Windows Installer Clean-Up Utility and then took CCleaner out for a
walk. Lo and behold, the new version of Adobe Reader installed without a
hitch.

"When is she going to get to the question, already?"

What I want to know is this: what in the name of all that is unholy am I
doing to make these various "installation sources" evaporate into thin
air? It's not Disk Cleanup, because I always uncheck the little box that
says Office Setup Files--but take note, they're gone anyway. I don't run
around my HDD deleting files willy-nilly. I do use CCleaner, but I
actually *read* all the entries to be deleted before I tell it to clean
up. And Office broke the first time *before* I started using it anyway.

So what is it? Where do all these "installation sources" go?

(And just in case someone decides to mention the LISTool, don't bother.
It gives back an error message every time I try to use it.)

Any insight into this would be gratefully accepted. I just can't stand
it anymore.

rl
--
Rhonda Lea Kirk

Insisting on perfect safety is for people
without the balls to live in the real world.
Mary Shafer Iliff
 
That is the full error message: "installation Source missing". Is it in a
window, did you check Event Viewer to see if they are MSInstaller errors?
 
Larry said:
That is the full error message: "installation Source missing". Is
it in a window, did you check Event Viewer to see if they are
MSInstaller errors?
Click to expand...

The full error message is one or another minor variation of "The
installation source for this product is not available. Verify that the
source exists and that you can access it."

In the case of Office, even sticking the CD in the player doesn't work.

I hadn't thought of looking at the Event Viewer. (Oh my. Don't let
anyone tell you that Live OneCare is out of beta. It works fine, but it
produces more error messages than every other program put together...)

Anyway, all it says for Adobe is:

Event Type: Information
Event Source: MsiInstaller
Event Category: None
Event ID: 11708
Date: 6/18/2006
Time: 3:55:47 PM
User: RHONDALEAKIRK\Rhonda Lea Kirk
Computer: RHONDALEAKIRK
Description:
Product: Adobe Reader 7.0.5 -- Installation failed.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 7b 41 43 37 36 42 41 38 {AC76BA8
0008: 36 2d 37 41 44 37 2d 31 6-7AD7-1
0010: 30 33 33 2d 37 42 34 34 033-7B44
0018: 2d 41 37 30 35 30 30 30 -A705000
0020: 30 30 30 30 32 7d 00002}

and for Office:

Event Type: Information
Event Source: MsiInstaller
Event Category: None
Event ID: 11708
Date: 6/18/2006
Time: 8:31:04 PM
User: RHONDALEAKIRK\Rhonda Lea Kirk
Computer: RHONDALEAKIRK
Description:
Product: Microsoft Office Basic Edition 2003 -- Installation failed.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 7b 39 31 31 33 30 34 30 {9113040
0008: 39 2d 36 30 30 30 2d 31 9-6000-1
0010: 31 44 33 2d 38 43 46 45 1D3-8CFE
0018: 2d 30 31 35 30 30 34 38 -0150048
0020: 33 38 33 43 39 7d 383C9}

Oddly enough, they are not "Errors" but "Information."

The link leads to the following details:

"We're sorry.

There is no additional information about this issue in the Error and
Event Log Messages or Knowledge Base databases at this time. You can use
the links in the Support area to determine whether any additional
information might be available elsewhere."

And I cannot find an error for Windows Defender corresponding to the
error message I received.

It's just bizarre to me. It's really no big deal from one standpoint--it
is fixable, after all. But it's just so friggin' weird that I wondered
what I was doing to make it behave this way.

Thanks Larry.

rl
--
Rhonda Lea Kirk

Insisting on perfect safety is for people
without the balls to live in the real world.
Mary Shafer Iliff
 
First:

I have Windows Live OneCare and have no errors except for the "Broadcast problem" error message. Everything else is file.
What errors are you getting.

Back to MSIInstaller errors:

In order to get more information about the failure of the installer bring up a cmd and type in:

msiexec.exe /i product.msi /l* c:\logfilename.txt

It will go through the installer as normal but will create a log file that you can look at.

You should be able to open the log file and see in detail what is causing the error.
 
Larry said:
First:

I have Windows Live OneCare and have no errors except for the
"Broadcast problem" error message. Everything else is file.
What errors are you getting.
Click to expand...

Well, in addition to the error you mentioned, I have a lot of those "AV
engine failed to scan..." messages. It doesn't seem to like Google
Desktop, nor is it fond of Spywareblaster and a couple of others. It
also periodically flips out with that "unknown problems are preventing
OneCare from updating" error. I don't have any of the stated causative
issues of that particular error, and it clears itself up within a few
hours, but it leaves a lot of red icons behind in the event viewer while
it's going on.

I also discovered yesterday that \Windows\Downloaded Program
Files\Controller Class\ is damaged, specifically "setup.inf." I'll take
care of that with support--I sent one request, but IE flipped out about
halfway through the upload (I connect with an air card, and T-Mobile is
occasionally wonky), and I haven't gotten back to it yet.
Back to MSIInstaller errors:

In order to get more information about the failure of the installer
bring up a cmd and type in:

msiexec.exe /i product.msi /l* c:\logfilename.txt

It will go through the installer as normal but will create a log file
that you can look at.
Click to expand...

<laughing> OMG! This is getting downright comical.

When I ran that command, I got the following error message:

"Windows Installer

This installation package could not be opened. Verify that the package
exists and that you can access it, or contact the application vendor to
verify that this is a valid Windows Installer package."
You should be able to open the log file and see in detail what is
causing the error.
Click to expand...

<still laughing> The best laid plans of mice and men.

That was just positively ironic. :)

I guess it's also a clue, eh?

I feel bad about wasting your time on this when there are people here
who are really in need of help. Mostly I was curious, because it really
doesn't prevent me from doing anything I need to do, it just means that
occasionally I have to spend time working around small glitches.

I'm leaning more and more toward spending an afternoon (or a weekend,
more like) starting over from scratch. At least then I won't have all
the extraneous crap from Dell to contend with. It just makes me tired to
think about doing it.

OTOH, I have a small wild birdlet that requires feeding every 20
minutes, so I can't really do much but sit and postwhore or do the
crossword puzzle. :) And I'm going to have to thoroughly clean the
computer anyway, because it tried to take a "dust bath" on the keyboard,
and then it shat on one of the keys. :)

rl
--
Rhonda Lea Kirk

Insisting on perfect safety is for people
without the balls to live in the real world.
Mary Shafer Iliff
 
Your OneCare error messages are OK.

Keep in mind what OneCare AV is doing. It is looking for specific sequences
of characters to determine if a file is infected.
Look what files it found ... Google Desktop (which has a VirusScanner built
in) and Spywareblaster (same thing).
Of course, these files will come up questionable.

msiexec.exe /i product.msi /l* c:\logfilename.txt

You did substitute the full path name for product.msi? Correct?
These should be in the C:\Windows\Installer folder for the product.
 
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