MSPUB 2003 Error Windows XP on HP

MSPUB 2003 Error Windows XP and HP

I've been working on a MS Publisher 2003 problem for a friend. After installing MS Publisher, when you attempt to start it, you get a pop up,
MSPUB error - not much other information. This is on a HP 753-N XP Home
Edition system. I used the same Installation CD package on 3 of my other machines (each an IBM with XP Home and 1 with XP Professional) and the install worked and MSPUB started fine. I went back to the original machine, uninstalled Office Professional, then Installed it, went to Office Products, Office Tools 2003 tab to set the Language (Made sure it was English), Then
re-installed MS Office Publisher 2003. MSPUB again fails at start up, This time when I went to Office Products, Office Tools 2003 tab to set the language, I get a popup indicating that the program will not run because of an incorrect operating system. I went back and did all the steps again (uninstalled, reboot, cleaned the registry, installed, etc) same error.
I then went to another machine, HP 512n and tried the install. Same identical error! I am beginning to think there is some conflict with MS Publisher and HP Pavilion desktops. Contacting Microsoft, they cant find the problem in MS Publisher, contacting HP, they said that it couldn't be a HP problem.
I am trying to narrow this problem down, since I have installed and run
MS Publisher 2003 on 3 different XP systems (IBM hardware) without problems and the same Install package, installs but will not run on 2 different
HP desktops

 

Have you checked the event logs on the affected machines for additional detail? Start->run->eventvwr.msc