Service Pack 2 update fails with iis.inf error 0xe0000102

Updating Windows XP Home Edition SP1 to SP2 is driving me nuts!
I can't count the hours I spent on this, because every try involves rolling back, sometimes automatically, sometimes manually.
The first problems were 'access denied' errors, which I fixed one by one by correcting the registry permissions. I am past this Chinese water torture stage.

Now SP2 update aborts with an error saying 'update.exe' detected an error and has to quit. No hint as to which error.

I used Windows Update as well as executing a selfextracting executable (downloaded from microsoft), both fail the same way.

The errors I came across in %systemroot%\setupapi.log are like this:

#E197 Writing "C:\WINDOWS\INF\wmp.inf" to "C:\WINDOWS\INF" is not an approved method of installing INF files. Use a 'CopyINF' entry instead.
-Not just wmp.inf, but for what seem to be all *.inf files in that directory (hundreds).

Then, later
#E077 Could not locate a non-empty section [iis_common_install] when calculating disk space in "C:\WINDOWS\INF\iis.inf ". Error 0xe0000102: Die erforderliche Zeile wurde in der INF-Datei nicht gefunden.
#E077 Could not locate a non-empty section [iis_inetmgr_install] when calculating disk space in "C:\WINDOWS\INF\iis.inf ". Error 0xe0000102: Die erforderliche Zeile wurde in der INF-Datei nicht gefunden.
#E077 Could not locate a non-empty section [iis_pwmgr_install] when calculating disk space in "C:\WINDOWS\INF\iis.inf ". Error 0xe0000102: Die erforderliche Zeile wurde in der INF-Datei nicht gefunden.
#E077 Could not locate a non-empty section [iis_www_install] when calculating disk space in "C:\WINDOWS\INF\iis.inf ". Error 0xe0000102: Die erforderliche Zeile wurde in der INF-Datei nicht gefunden.
#E077 Could not locate a non-empty section [iis_doc_install] when calculating disk space in "C:\WINDOWS\INF\iis.inf ". Error 0xe0000102: Die erforderliche Zeile wurde in der INF-Datei nicht gefunden.
#E077 Could not locate a non-empty section [iis_ftp_install] when calculating disk space in "C:\WINDOWS\INF\iis.inf ". Error 0xe0000102: Die erforderliche Zeile wurde in der INF-Datei nicht gefunden.
[2006/11/08 03:30:01 3992.95]

The last part is german and translates to "The required line was not found in the INF file ".

This set of errors occurs several times, e.g. before this line:
#-198 Command line processed: c:\windows\$hf_mig$\KB885835\update\update.exe -Z -Q -O -B:SP2GDR
for dozens of patches to be migrated.

Does anybody know what to do next?
Do I have a corrupt iis.INF file? - and where do I get the correct one with the required lines in it?

Any help appreciated.
Thanks

 

Check your HOSTS file:

\Windows\System32\Drivers\Etc\HOSTS

It should contain only the line:

127.0.0.1 localhost

 

It does. I like that, because it's like Unix.
What I also liked, is that Service Pack 2 finally installed, when I used "Microsoft Update" in an Internet Explorer, as opposed to the other tries when Mozilla was used. (And funnily enough, the same error messages as above are in the log file).

BUT

I had to uninstall it again, because all operations that required Windows Explorer (not IE), failed.
Not even opening the Trash can / deleting files / adding directories / opening applications on the desktop / etc. worked.

A window popped up saying "Explorer.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close " everytime.

Admittedly, it does happen from time to time also on XP SP1, but not nearly as often as it did with SP2.

So until I can figure out what causes it I have uninstalled SP2. *sigh*

Any hints would be appreciated.

 

Hello gretzky and welcome to the Board,

A third party shell extension may be giving you a problem: http://www.helpwithwindows.com/techfiles/explorer-crashes.html

Regards - Charles