KB936929 - SP3 Failed - Access Denied

File - Local - WindowsXP-KB936929-SP3-x86-ENU.exe Size - 324030 KB.
Source - Windows XP Service Pack 3 Network Installation Package for IT Professionals and Developers

6 minutes into process, small window appeared "Access Denied" The only option was "OK ", which I clicked.
System / update program immediately went into a auto-uninstall process. After completion the following message ..

No options appeared on message, closed window.
I clicked on my short cut for Event Viewer and system immediately went into restart, which it did successful. The system appears to be working normally.

Time Line before starting SP3 update.
Ran CCleaner, RegSweeper. Rebooted.
Created fresh Image backup, stored on local partition and created a copy on external HDD.
Shut down Avast AV
Running Windows XP Firewall, did NOT disable.
Opened Task Manager and disabled non-system processes.
Started SP3 update.

EVENT VIEWER
Found two entries during update process time log ...

Following info for Event ID 4373

System Info
See my sig for basic hardware.
New system, installed OS and on-line validated during install. OS install 4-08-09, followed by onlined updated 4-09-08 and 4-10-08, which put it current.

Found this at MS Support ...
XP Service Pack 3: "Access is denied" or "Service Pack installation did not completeâ€

My first suspicion would be Avast AV. I used programs exit/disable. Task list showed 2 processes still active, but would not allow me to close them, "Access Denied ". I can't believe I'm the first Avast user to install SP3. I'm going over to Avast forum and see if any problems show up.

 

Additional information found in link provide above in my first post ... XP Service Pack 3: "Access is denied" or "Service Pack installation did not completeâ€

See attached ZIPPED text file (do to size constraints)
I found this log, see attachment ... go to line 323.375, close to end of page.

 

Hi Dennis, I posted about 4 hours ago that I had followed Mike Flynns instruction on clean install of SP3 and the only hiccup was when SP3 CD stopped about 3 minutes in when extracting files. I ran SFC /scannow and when that had finished I restarted SP3 CD and it installed without a hitch. Yes I have Avast on that computer - no problem.Neil.

 

Hi Dennis

Can't you stay out of trouble for a while!

OK so this is your new computer 4G Ram. The extra G of ram is out there but XP does do some funny things with excess RAM.

Not likely the cause tho!

My suggestion. You have the backups so are safe.

Unplug all external devices! Reboot without them.

Do same cleanups again. Then run DAF all on 1st page and only Repair permissions on the second page (Hammerhead).

DAF is doing exactly operation #3 (the notepad operation from the above link).

Then SP3 again.

Mike

 

Dennis, if still getting access denied after doing the above, enable verbose logging, then run the installer again. When it fails again, there should be something more to go on in that log or the Setupapi.log.

 

Hi guys
First the GOOD news ... Acronis Image Restore works!!
Total process to validate, delete partition, restore image was 7 minutes and 17 seconds. Back to where I was minutes before I started to apply SP3. This is the first time I ran restore on this machine... That 7 minutes felt like 7 hours.

Bad News
After 3 attempts to apply SP3, they always failed at registry lock / permission. The system always auto-rolled back to pre-install status and was stable. The 3rd failure occurred in Safe Mode .. same error continued. Before attempting SP3 install / pass 4, I went to MS "Method 3" which included installing Subinacl.exe and running "RESET.cmd ". A process which rewrite numerous system/registry permissions. Process ran well. When I rebooted, was disastrous. Was able to get to logon, but signed in very slow. Had created a new restore point prior to above, but system returned a message it was not available.

I thank everyone for their suggestions and support. I'm going to back away from this for today and do some more research.
PLEASE continue with any suggestions.
Just one suggestion to anyone not running image backups / current .... PLEASE take the time and learn (simple process) and include in your backup tasks. You will thank yourself a thousands time when you really need it.

 

Dennis one thing to try!

Create a new clean admin profile. Say Supervisor.

Try the SP while looged on to Supervisor.

In services stop and disable all of the below.

DNS Client
Fast User switching
Indexing service
media player Network Sharing
Messenger
Net logon
Net.TCP Port Sharing
NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing
IPsec services
QoS RSVP
Remote Registry
Universal Plug and play
Uninteruptable Power supply
Web Client
Windows
Wireless Zero Configuration (unless you are usinga wirless adapter in this computer)

These items can be restarted later if you want but likely you need none of them. And not having them will give a performance boost!


Mike

 

Hi Arie

That is the one I've been using (Article ID:949377) and linked to in my first post. It has a lot of useful info per verifying in logs per registry/locked issues (which I have). Unfortunately Method 3 suggestion, for me, took out my system... but that is why we backup.

 

The log is not helpful though because all it tells us is that it failed.

If verbose logging is enabled, the next failed attempt will show us exactly what registry key it failed on, in either this log or the setupapi.log

 

I thank you for both post noahdfear.
Will definitely use you suggestion.
I'm hoping within the next 12/36 hours someone / MS has a workaround. I'm not the only one at Avast having this problem, along with MS addressing it in suggestions. Not seeing global blowups, so don't know if their is any "1" solution. After 3 failed installs and a scrambled registry preparing for a 4th, I'll wait to Sunday/Monday and use your suggestion. With solid image backup and now I know it works good on new system ... I'm game for anything.

QUESTION
Can we expect/hope to get a list of suspects or does install terminate after the first lock?

 

One way to rule out Avast would be to uninstall it, reboot, then try installing SP3 again.

If you do the verbose logging, here's how to quickly find the pertinent information in a log.

Open the log (lets say the Svcpack.log file), press Ctrl+End to cursor to the bottom of the log.
Click Edit>Find
Type Access Denied in the Find what field, select Up in the Direction field, then hit Enter.

If the svcpack.log file doesn't reveal anything more than the last one, check the C:\Windows\setupapi.log

 

More or less same problem. Using automatic update, or update from browser. My failure is midway the operation. Only, I have AVG7.5 free.
I am in contact with Microsoft support, and, I am in the process of downloading the entire 300MB file, to attempt a manual install. I will let you know failure or not. I have been given a series of steps to follow in case of a failure. I was not told to disable anything.
Failure #7! I downloaded the entire file, and found that it worked,: performing inventory, checking necessary space, backing up files, registry, and creating restore points, then installing new files It stopped, and quit at FXSAPI.dll, about midway the installation, and, probably at same place as before. The last four failure gave me:Error Code: 0x80070005
As requested by Microsoft support, I sent Print Screen of the error messages, and the .log file.
It seems to me that the computer is not doing as well, as threatened by the SP3 failure. Just disgusted!

 

SP3 installed on my laptop with no problem, but failed on my desktop. After 2 failed attempts (Access Denied), I think I found something.

http://blog.malwareteks.com/correct...nstalling-windows-xp-sp3-release-candidate-2/

I followed the directions exactly and SP3 installed with no problems. The install completed about 30 minutes ago and everything seems to be working normal (I do have a complete back up of my Harddrive)

 

After two attempts to install SP3 failed, resulting in Error Code 0x80070005, yesterday I checked the threads others with similar problems had opened and found one that contained a link recommended by Arie, as I recall. The linked site mentioned the subinacl.exe file and a script to enter into Notepad. With my Norton A-V and COMODO Firewall disabled, I went through the recommended procedure. (It takes awhile.) The next attempt to install SP3 was completely successful. This was on a machine running XP (Home), by the way.

Some interesting sidelights. For maybe two years I'd had trouble with Registry permissions. I once opened a thread here concerning a particular folder window not remembering one setting. Problem: Registry access denied. Never got that fixed. Subsequently opened a thread regarding IE 7 installation failing. Same problem (Registry access denied), same result - no fix. So after yesterday's efforts I checked that folder's appearance and, by golly, my preferred setting didn't disappear when I closed the folder and reopened it. Then I checked to see if maybe SP3 was causing problems anywhere. Everything seemed OK. Curious, I ran a line-speed test. Son of a gun, download speed was 25% faster than ever before!

Take heart, my friends, things sometimes turn out well. And this is a good place to get the help that brings those good results about.

 

Maybe Linux

I was lucky and got a clean install.

Something turned off my NS2007 Virus auto protect.
Norton imediatly responded with a fix for that.

Given all the problems with SP3 I am considering Linux.

 

Hi Bobbo
All 4 of my failures were following advice from MS Article ID 949377 (reference in my original post #1) . The last attempt using subinacl.exe file and script (MS refers to this as "Method 3 "), resulting in a scrambled registry ... forcing a Acronis image restore. Arie refers to this same MS Article ID in this thread (post #9 and #14). If you can find a different MS Article, I would be most interest.

What I'll Try Next
I'm going to try Method 3 again, but I'm going to change the "last line in the script ". Posters, including MVP members have stated the last line in the script currently stated MS Article ID 949377 is for Vista ... (quoted in next line) ...
secedit /configure /cfg %windir%\inf\defltbase.inf /db defltbase.sdb /verbose
I will be changing my last line in script to reflect information from MS Article below ..... WISH ME LUCK.

MS Article 313222

 

The site I found came from a different thread that I found when I did a Search here for Error Code 0x80070005. That site contains a quite long discussion of a fix, and I was concerned that others' solutions and the MS KB articles all dealt with XP Pro rather than my XP HE. It seems that the fix works on either version.

Here's the link:

http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/arch...-to-repair-file-and-registry-permissions.aspx

As it says, read the entire thing before doing anything. Word of caution: the procedure does take awhile. And the final install of SP3 does, too, but it could be the one that works.