Cannot uninstall or reinstall Office 2000

I tried the solutions in some of the posting. Such as updating or reinstalling the windows installer.

To no avail. One solution from MS requires reinstalling the installer, but the path is supposed to point to the office setup.exe file but that file is missing.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

 

Hi Lydelle

I looked at the thread that you have been reading, and I remember now. If you have sucessfully completed all these steps then all that is left in installing the Windows installer Ver 2.

Here is even another link to it.

http://www.softwarepatch.com/windows/wininstall.html

Let us know the results.

Mike

 

Unfortunately I have reinstalled the installer twice, directly from MS and the links provided. Still not working.

I ran all of the virus scan links you listed. Two of them seemed to hang after awhile. Others scanned fine and found no virus or trojan horse, etc.

I ran Panda AV and it scanned over 30K+ files and found nothing.

I also ran the ad-aware software and it didnt find anything either.



I am at a loss. After my computer crashed, all of the icons representing Office docs and my HP Pavilion help program changed to generic icons.

The crashed caused an error in my active desktop and then it went on to the blue screen of death.

After blue screen and a hard reboot, got a message that said an error was found on the drive and repaired or replaced (i dont really recall the exact words).

Following that, my customized desktop setting were all gone, all of the documents on my desktop and other things were gone.

Did a search for them and they are now where to be found.

Used a file recovery software and found thousands and thousands of lost files, some of which were jpg files I couldn't find before.

These were however corrupted. Only 1/3 of the pics are viewable. Many other found files (thru recovery software) appear as misc. characters. Never found my desktop files.

I know better now than to store them on the desktop. (Too late though!)

Any suggestions? ... A sledge hammer maybe.


PS why dont my smilies show up in color? (Smilies are ON)

 

Oops about smilies

ps smilies are back so "never mind" about that.

 

OK Lydelle

With all the cleanups you have done we can assume you have no Viri and that the temps and Spyware are clear.

Now you need to tell me!

1.when did this crash happen?

2. Is everything else seemingly back to normal, any other?problems.

3. Describe exactly what it says when you try to reinstall Office.

4. Do a search for word.exe, is it found, what happens if you try to run it?

Get this info back to me. I will be up for anothe 30 min.

Mike

 

more info

More info:

1.when did this crash happen?

Three days ago.

2. Is everything else seemingly back to normal, any other?problems.

Things are far from normal. I am getting alot of errors, hanging, explorer errors.

3. Describe exactly what it says when you try to reinstall Office.

It says "This patch could not be opened. Verify that the patch package exists and that you can access it, or contact application vendor to verify that this a valid Winodws installer patch package. "

4. Do a search for word.exe, is it found, what happens if you try to run it?

Not found.

Thank you for all your help. No rush. My evil computer problems will still be here in the a.m. Thanks again.

Lydelle

 

Lydelle

Reboot hit F8 to get the boot menu just like going to safe mode.

But this time choose command prompt only.

Did you do the below from the other thread you were reading? If not do them now. There is only one space after the Del and the Deltree the rest of the line has no spaces.

del c:\*.swp (may get file not found, is ok)
del c:\windows\*.swp
deltree c:\windows\shelli*.*
deltree c:\windows\temp\*.* (answer yes to all) "ALL "
deltree c:\windows\tempor~1\*.*
deltree c:\windows\history\*.*
deltree c:\windows\spool\printers\*.*

Then type

scanreg /restore

choose a file with a date before this happened go back an extra day if you are not sure.

after it says it restores type

scanreg /fix

wait for completion

then

scanreg /opt

when complete

hit ctrl alt del to reboot

again hit F8 to get the windows boot menu and choose safe mode

Once the Desktop comes up use My Computer browse to

c:\Program Files\Common Files\Installshield.

Inside of this there is a folder called Engine. Rename this folder to "Old engine ".

When this is complete reboot from safe mode to normal mode.

Now try to reinstall Office and get back to me.

If Office does install now, then you need to let me know about the remaining problems. From your description of what happened we may need to fix other things. So give it a test and get back with details.

Mike

PS if Office now installs then browse back and delete the folder you renamed to "Old Engine ".

 

Mike,

I completed the purge as instructed in the other thread. (did that two days ago), but from MS-Dos mode as explained below.

When I go to command prompt only, it pauses at the c: prompt and then moves a line under, not letting me type anything and then continues to boot to windows.

I can get to MS-DOS mode and the c:\prompt from there.

From the MS-DOS prompt I typed scanreg and restore as instructed and selected the earliest date, the crash date. (there were none earlier than the crash date).

Recieving message "restore operation failed ".

That's where Im at.

Lydelle

 

Lydelle

That won't work. Has to be pure DOS for the cleanup and Scanreg to work.

So do this

Boot to windows, put a new or eraseable floppy in drive a:

then go to

start-run
type
format a: /u/s
(space before and afer a

Just hit enter when it asks for a volume label

Once it is complete tell windows to reboot but leave floppy in. It should now boot to the a: prompt. It will seem to take a little longer.

Once at the a:

do the entire proceedure in my last message.

mike

 

Lydelle

I will be here only about 20 mins then out for errands for several hours.

Will check back before I leave and as soon as I get back.

Mike

 

Mike,

I created a new system disk. Used it to boot to command prompt.

No luck.

Tried typing all of the del lines from other thread.

Getting "bad command or file name" each time.

Same with scanreg /restore, /fix, /opt.

From the c: prompt, did seach for scanreg.exe

It is not on the c: drive.

There is a scanregw.exe in the windows file, but nothing else.

Sounds bad.

What do you think? Sledge hammer time?

Thanks again.

Lydelle

 

OK Lydelle

My fault! When we booted from floppy we lost the system path.

So boot from the floppy again and do this first

type

path c:\windows;c:\windows\command

then do the proceedure as directed.


Mike

 

Mike,

Did as instructed. Everything fine until I tried scanreg /restore.

I entered this is seemed to process the command and then I get
"restore operation failed ".

Then when I reboot to windows, a program previously unchecked in my startup file (msconfig) now loads again.

Should I proceed to do a scanreg /fix? and the rest of the procedures you previously sent?

Lydelle

 

Ok we may have to do that but first.

How many restore files do you see and their dates?

Do this

Boot from floppy type the path command again

then type

attrib c:\windows\system.dat -h -s -r
then
attrib c:\windows\user.dat -h -s -r

Then try the restore again. If it still fails then

scanreg /fix
then
scanreg /opt

Your move!

Mike

 

Mike,

Thanks!! It worked. I really appreciate all of your help.

One final note, my scanreg log shows only 4 logs at a time, the oldest being replaced by the latest, is that normal?

Lydelle

 

OK so that did allow you to install Office. Did you still need to rename the following as I advised

c:\Program Files\Common Files\Installshield.

Inside of this there is a folder called Engine. Rename this folder to "Old engine ".


If you did rename the folder to "Old engine" and then it installed then go and delete the "Old engine. folder ".

Does all else seem to be OK.

Mike