Microsoft KB Archive/150946

= PRB: Setup Hangs While "Updating System Files" =

Article ID: 150946

Article Last Modified on 6/29/2004

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Visual Basic 4.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Basic 4.0 Professional Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Basic 4.0 Enterprise Edition

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This article was previously published under Q150946



SYMPTOMS
During the installation of Visual Basic 4.0, the computer hangs at the end of the setup while the "Updating System Files" dialog is displayed. Performing a CTRL+ALT+DELETE usually frees the system and shows a General Protection Fault in REGOCX16.EXE.

The Visual Basic 4.0 setup installs all of the program files and then attempts to register the components that need registering. OLE automation servers and OCX Custom Controls are self-registering. This means that the function within them that causes the control to write its registration information to the registry must be called by some other application. The Visual Basic 4.0 setup program uses the registration utility REGOCX16.EXE to call the function in the control that performs the registration.

In some cases, other OCX Custom Controls have exhibited the same behavior as described above.



CAUSE
The problem is not with the REGOCX16.EXE file, as the General Protection Fault might indicate. Rather, the cause is with the OCX Custom Controls. The problem appears to a timing issue caused by a combination of the OCX registration code, the operating system and BIOS/hardware caching algorithms.



RESOLUTION
Four of the most troublesome controls have been fixed in the maintenance release of Visual Basic 4.0. Any customer with this problem is eligible for the upgrade free-of-charge. Contact Visual Basic Technical Support for the update.

The following controls have been updated:

COMDLG16.OCX

PICCLP16.OCX

MSOUTL16.OCX

DBLIST16.OCX

Procedure for Replacing Regocx16 During Setup
 Obtain the updated registration utility by using the following methods:  This file ships with Microsoft Visual C/C++ version 1.52. It is named REGSVR.EXE. Rename it to REGOCX16.EXE. Contact Visual Basic Support for the file. 

NOTE: This file is not really an update. It is simply a different version. that displays message boxes that seem to suppress the problem.

 Uninstall Visual Basic:  Run the Visual Basic Setup and Remove All. This is not always possible given the nature of the problem.</li> Delete the directory that Visual Basic was installed into.</li> Delete OC25.DLL from the \WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory.</li></ol> </li> Where applicable, go into the CMOS/BIOS settings and disable all caches.</li> Start the Visual Basic 4.0 16-bit installation.</li> Replace the REGOCX16.EXE file.  The first dialog has a caption that reads "Microsoft Visual Basic 4.0-16-bit Setup". At this time, go to the File Manager. From the View menu, go to the submenu By File Type... and select Show Hidden/System Files.</li> Search your hard drives for a subdirectory (it has the hidden attribute set) named ~mssetup.t. Change to that subdirectory. Look for another subdirectory named ~msstfqf.t.(you should now be in c:\~mssetup.t\~msstfqf.t, where c: is one of your hard drives.)</li> From File Manager, select the file REGOCX16.EXE. Go to the Properties submenu under the File menu. Deselect the read-only attribute. This allows you to replace the REGOCX16.EXE file.</li> Copy updated REGOCX16.EXE to this location (c:\~mssetup.t\~msstfqf.t, where c: is one of your hard drives).</li> After replacing REGOCX16.EXE, set the attribute for the new one back to read-only.</li> Quit File Manager.</li></ol> </li> Go back to the installation screen and continue with installation. Ignore all registration message boxes until the installation is complete.</li></ol>

NOTE: The above procedure has proven to be ineffective on some machines. If the procedure fails, follow the steps to make Visual Basic 4.0 function on the machine. Some of the controls may not register and may not be usable but the Visual Basic environment and most of the controls will be completely functional. There are VBX versions of many of the 16-bit OCX Custom Controls shipped with Visual Basic 3.0. These files can be used in place of the OCX version of the controls and can be obtained from the Visual Basic 3.0 CD-ROM or diskettes, or by calling Microsoft Visual Basic Technical Support.

Registering Visual Basic Manually
 <li>Run the Visual Basic setup until it stops responding.</li> <li>Reboot the machine, and start Windows.</li> <li>Start the File Manager, and select \SETUP directory on the Visual Basic CD-ROM.</li> <li>Use the EXTRACT.EXE utility to find and decompress the Visual Basic registration file:

On the File menu, in the Run dialog box, type:

EXTRACT.EXE /A /L C:\WINDOWS\ VB4-1.CAB *.REG,

where C:\WINDOWS\ is the windows directory of the machine, and press the ENTER key.</li> <li>Use REGEDIT.EXE to register the registration files:

On the File menu, in the Run dialog box, type:

REGEDIT.EXE OLE2.REG and press the ENTER key.

Then type REGEDIT.EXE VBxxx.REG, and press the ENTER key, where xxx is PRO or ENT depending on the version.</li> <li>Remove the OCX Custom Control references in the AUTO16LD.VBP. <ol style="list-style-type: lower-alpha;"> <li>Open the file AUTO16LD.VBP in Notepad in the Visual Basic directory.</li> <li>Delete all lines that begin with "Object=". These are references to OCX controls that will not be registered.</li> <li>Save the file, and exit Notepad.</li></ol> </li> <li>Launch Visual Basic. It should now run properly.</li> <li>From the Tools menu, in Custom Controls, add any OCX that you choose. Do this by using the Browse button and selecting the file. Visual Basic registers the control and adds it to the project. All of the controls will be in the \WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory with the extension *.OCX. One or more of the controls may hang the machine when Visual Basic attempts to register them. These controls will not be usable, but Visual Basic should still provide enough functionality and have enough functioning controls to satisfy most programmers. Some of the supporting DLL, TLB, and OLB files may not be properly registered. They can be registered and used in the References dialog in the same manner as the Custom Controls.</li></ol>

NOTE: The OCX Custom Controls may cause similar problems with installation disks created using the Setup Wizard or a third-party setup utility. Register the incorrect controls manually using the REGSVR.EXE utility with CMOS/BIOS caches disabled (wherever possible).

<div class="status_section">

STATUS
This behavior is by design.

Keywords: kbappsetup kbprb KB150946

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