Knowledge Base

How to troubleshoot an Office XP installation on Windows 2000 that appears to stop

Article ID: 309190

Article Last Modified on 12/4/2007

APPLIES TO

Microsoft Windows 2000 Standard Edition
Microsoft Office XP Professional Edition
Microsoft Office XP Small Business Edition
Microsoft Office XP Standard Edition
Microsoft Office XP Standard Edition for Students and Teachers
Microsoft Office XP Developer Edition
Microsoft Access 2002 Standard Edition
Microsoft Excel 2002 Standard Edition
Microsoft FrontPage 2002 Standard Edition
Microsoft Outlook 2002 Standard Edition
Microsoft PowerPoint 2002 Standard Edition
Microsoft Word 2002 Standard Edition

This article was previously published under Q309190

IMPORTANT: This article contains information about modifying the registry. Before you modify the registry, make sure to back it up and make sure that you understand how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. For information about how to back up, restore, and edit the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

256986 Description of the Microsoft Windows Registry

SUMMARY

This article describes how to troubleshoot when you are installing Microsoft Office programs on a computer that is running Microsoft Windows 2000, and Setup appears to stop responding (hang) without apparent errors.

MORE INFORMATION

Make Sure That Setup Has Actually Stopped Responding

Setup may appear to stop, but in fact it is continuing slowly. Wait longer (about 20 minutes) before you end Setup. Before you conclude that Setup is stopped, examine the CD-ROM drive light and hard disk light for activity. Also, press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to display the Windows Task Manager. On the Applications tab of the Windows Task Manager dialog box, verify whether the Office Setup program appears as "Not Responding" in the Status column.

Also, to determine whether the Windows Installer service is not responding, press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to display the Windows Task Manager. Click the Processes tab, and verify that at least one of the multiple Msiexec.exe entries has a relatively small non-zero value for CPU. If a process shows 90 percent to 100 percent, Setup is still active.

Verify That the CD-ROM Is Clean and Unscratched

If the problem occurs while you are installing from a CD-ROM, verify that the CD-ROM you are using is clean. You can wipe the CD-ROM with a soft, lint-free cloth. Also ensure that there are no large scratches on the CD-ROM. If the CD-ROM is damaged and unreadable, error messages may appear during installation.

For additional information, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

266700 OFFXP: Troubleshoot Installation from Compact Disc Media

Uninstall a Beta Version of Office XP

If a beta version of Office XP was installed earlier, the beta version must be uninstalled before you install the final version of Office XP. Although Office XP Setup prompts you to uninstall such a prerelease version, the removal process may not be completed successfully. To uninstall a beta version of Office XP, follow these steps:

In Control Panel, double-click Add/Remove Programs.
In the Add/Remove Programs dialog box, select the Office XP entry (for example, select Microsoft Office XP Professional).
Click Change/Remove.
Follow the directions provided in the Setup dialog boxes.

After the beta version is uninstalled, run the Setup program for Office XP.

Verify the Permissions

Make sure that the correct permissions are set for your account. To determine whether you have the correct permissions to install, run, and use the Office program that you are having problems with, log on to the computer as an administrator. When you log on to Windows as an administrator, you have full read/write permission to all folders and files on the computer, as well as to the registry. If the problem does not occur after you log on as an administrator, verify the permissions of your user account.

NOTE: The Local Administrator account is not the same as a user account that has administrator rights. The Local Administrator account is the system account that is used to set up the operating system.

Test User Profiles

Sometimes, a user's specific information may be damaged, but other users on the same computer may have no problem. To determine whether this is the case, sign on as a new user and test, or create a new user and test.

For additional information, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

296834 User Profile May Become Corrupted After You Perform a Clean Windows 2000 Installation

Use the Setup Log Files

When you install Office XP, Setup automatically creates log files in your Temp folder. The log files have names similar to the following.

   Log file for           Log file name
   ---------------------------------------------------------------------

   Setup.exe              Office XP <edition> Setup(####).txt

   Windows Installer      Office XP <edition> Setup(####)_Task(0001).txt

In the preceding table, <edition> is the edition of Office XP that you are installing. For example, these files may be

Office XP Professional Setup(0001).txt
Office XP Professional Setup(0001)_Task(0001).txt

The #### characters in the log file names are numbers beginning with 0001. They increment by 1 each time that you run Setup. Therefore, the log file with the highest number is the most recent log file.

Verbose logging is enabled by default in Office XP; therefore, the Windows Installer log files contain much information about events that occur during installation. This file may be requested if you contact Microsoft Technical Support for further troubleshooting.

For additional information about creating and reading Office Setup log files, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

296603 How To Use an Office XP Setup Log File to Troubleshoot Setup Problems in Office XP

For additional information about customizing Office Setup log files, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

296604 HOW TO: Customize Office Setup Logging Options

Close Unnecessary Memory-Resident Programs

Programs that run in the background in memory are called terminate-and-stay-resident (TSR) programs. For example, these programs may be virus protection software, utility programs, print manager programs, or screen savers. To determine whether a terminate-and-stay-resident program is running, follow these steps:

Press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to display the Windows Task Manager.
Close any unknown or unnecessary programs on the Applications tab of the Windows Task Manager by clicking the program to select it, and then clicking End Task.
If you close a program and then want to close another one, press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to display the Windows Task Manager again. Repeat steps 1 through 3 until you close all unknown or unnecessary programs.

Some TSRs may be loaded into memory but may not appear on the Task List. These TSRs are loaded via the Windows registry.

WARNING: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

To see which programs are loaded via the registry, follow these steps:

Click Start and then click Run. In the Open box, type regedit and then click OK. Select the following key in the registry:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

This key lists all programs that are started when Windows is started. Programs that are started automatically can cause problems with Office Setup and should be disabled. In the Windows Task Manager, click End Task for each of the programs listed in this registry key.
Select the following key in the registry:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce

Entries in this key run once when the computer is restarted, and then the system deletes these entries. This key should be empty, because these programs can cause problems in Office Setup and should be disabled. In the Windows Task Manager, click End Task for each of the programs listed in this registry key.
Select the following key in the registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

This key lists all programs that are started when Windows is loaded. The only program that is required in this key is System Tray (Systray.exe). Other programs that are loading can cause problems with Office Setup and should be disabled. In the Windows Task Manager, click End Task for each of the programs listed in this registry key.
Select the following key in the registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce

Entries in this key run once when the computer is restarted, and then the system deletes them. This key should be empty, because these programs can cause problems in Office Setup and should be disabled. In the Windows Task Manager, click End Task for each of the programs listed in this registry key.

Check the TEMP Folder

An invalid TEMP environment variable can cause errors with the Office Setup program. Make sure your temporary folders are correctly set up. To do this, follow these steps:

Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
In Control Panel, double-click System. When the System Properties dialog box appears, click the Environment tab.

This tab lists the current System and User Variables. Look under User Variables for the TEMP environment variable settings. Ensure that the folders referenced by these variables exist and have valid folder names. Also ensure that the hard disk on which the folders are located has at least 50 megabytes (MB) of free hard disk space and that you have read/write permissions to those folders.

Periodically, you should remove any leftover temporary files on your system. You must first determine the location of your Windows Temp folder and verify the validity of your TEMP environment variables. To do this, follow these steps:

Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
In Control Panel, double-click System.
When the System Properties dialog box appears, click the Advanced tab, and then click Environment Variables.

Note the box called User Variables for user name with the columns Variable and Value. These are the TMP and TEMP environmental settings.

An example of a valid setting is as follows:

TEMP = C:\WINNT\TEMP

-or-

TMP = C:\WINNT\TEMP

If a TEMP (or TMP) variable entry is not listed, follow these steps:
1. Click New and then type TEMP in the Variable Name box.
2. Press the TAB key to move to the Variable Value box, and then type C:\WINNT\Temp (or any other valid path and folder name).
3. Click Set or OK to add these values to the User Variables for user name box.
Click OK to close the Environment Variables dialog box, click OK to close the System Properties dialog box, and then close Control Panel.
Start Windows Explorer, and then look for a folder with the same name and location that were listed in the User Variables for user name box. If the folder does not exist, create it. An invalid TEMP setting can have serious effects on Microsoft Windows and the Office Setup program. If you find that the folder indicated by the environment variable does not actually exist, either open Windows Explorer and create a new TEMP folder in that location, or repeat steps 1 through 3 to update the TEMP environment variable to a valid location.
Verify that the drive containing the TEMP folder has sufficient free disk space. Generally, the amount of available free space on the drive where the TEMP folder is located should be at least 50 megabytes (MB).
Verify that the TEMP folder is empty. If files exist, you can delete any *.tmp files that are not currently in use. These files usually have a modified date that is earlier than the date of the current session of Windows. It is recommended that you use the Disk Cleanup Utility to remove these unused temporary files (see the "Disk Cleanup Utility" section later in this article).

NOTE: Quit all Windows programs before you delete any *.tmp files, because programs that are running create and use temporary files.

Disk Cleanup Utility

In Windows, you can delete many unused or temporary files with the Disk Cleanup utility. Disk Cleanup searches your hard disk and then shows you temporary files, Internet cache files, and unnecessary program files that you can safely delete. You can direct Disk Cleanup to delete some or all of those files. To open the utility, click Start, point to Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Disk Cleanup.

Check the Hard Disk for Disk Errors and Fragmentation

Use the Disk Defragmenter program to check the hard disk volume for lost clusters and other master file tables (MFT) errors. You can also test the integrity of the hard disk's ability to read and write data and then repair most errors. To run the Disk Defragmenter program, follow these steps:

Click Start, point to Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Disk Defragmenter.
Click the drive that you want to check for errors, and then click Analyze.
When this is completed, click Defragment.

Scan the Computer for Viruses

If a virus is present on your computer and it has damaged your files, problems may appear when you run Setup. Scan the hard disk and floppy disks with virus detection software that has been updated with a very recent virus signature file. If the antivirus software detects a virus on your computer, clean or remove the virus before you attempt to run Office Setup again.

NOTE: Do not run antivirus terminate-and-stay-resident (TSR) programs while you run Office Setup. Instead, run these utilities before you run Office Setup, and then disable or turn off these utilities until Setup is completed.

Run Setup from a Flat File

If enough space is available on the hard disk, make a copy of the contents of Office XP CD-ROM 1 by following these steps:

Create a new folder at the root of a hard disk volume, and name it "Flatfile", for example, C:\Flatfile.
Copy the entire contents of Office XP CD-ROM 1 into the Flatfile folder. In Windows Explorer, click the CD-ROM icon, and then click Select All on the Edit menu. Drag the items that you selected on the right side of the Explorer window to the Flatfile folder on the left to paste all the files into the new folder.

If there are errors during the copy process, this can indicate a dirty compact disc (CD-ROM), a dirty CD-ROM drive, or a problem with your hard disk drive.

For additional information about hard disk requirements, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

285342 OFFXP: System Requirements for Microsoft Office XP

You can use this flat file to install Office while in Windows Safe mode (see the "Start Windows in Safe Mode" section later in this article). If installation from a flat file fails, it is still possible that there is a problem with the CD-ROM, because a damaged file can be copied without generating an error message. Installing from this flat file while in Safe mode is necessary in order to determine whether startup items or services are conflicting with the Setup program.

Start Windows in Safe Mode

WARNING: Starting your computer in Safe mode disables the Windows File Protection (WFP) feature for the session in which you use Safe mode. After installing Office in Safe mode, you should restart Windows to ensure that you are in "normal mode" as you continue operating your computer.

Windows has a built-in troubleshooting mode called Safe mode. Safe mode bypasses startup files and uses only basic system drivers, including basic networking and system services. When you start Windows in Safe mode, Windows uses only the mouse, keyboard, and standard video graphics adapter (VGA) device drivers and those system services necessary to start. This makes Safe mode useful for isolating and resolving error conditions that are caused by startup programs, services, and Windows-based drivers. Windows also has troubleshooting features that may help you identify the problem.

To start Windows in Safe mode and make the additional troubleshooting features available, follow these steps, depending on your system configuration:

While restarting your computer, press F8.

Multiple Boot:

If your Windows 2000-based computer is set up for multiple boot, the boot-up process stops at a menu titled Please Select the Operating System to start. At this point, press F8.

Non-multiple Boot:

If your Windows 2000-based computer is not set up for multiple boot, press F8 when the Starting Windows progress bar appears on the bottom of the screen.

NOTE: Be prompt; you may only have a few seconds to press F8.

Choose Safe mode.

Safe mode is selected by default. Press ENTER. You then see the words "Safe Mode" appear in the four corners of your screen.

Run Office Setup.

After Windows 2000 is finished loading in Safe mode, run the Office Setup program.

For additional information about running Windows 2000 in Safe mode, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

202485 Description of Safe Boot Mode in Windows 2000

Check for Software Updates

Outdated and incompatible software may also cause Setup problems. Check with the manufacturer of your computer for various software updates, such as BIOS updates, OEM Windows updates, and hardware driver updates (CD-ROM, video, and printer drivers). You should also obtain the latest service pack for Windows 2000.

For additional information, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

260910 How to Obtain the Latest Windows 2000 Service Pack

Reinstall Windows in a New Folder

Use this step only after you try all other troubleshooting methods listed earlier in this article. For testing purposes, you can install Windows into a different folder than your original Windows installation and then install Office to that environment. This is called a "parallel" copy, because it does not entirely remove your original installation of Windows. Instead, this copy is installed alongside your original installation.

If Office installs successfully and you decide to keep the new installation of Windows, you must reinstall all Windows-based programs under the new Windows installation.

For more information about installing a parallel copy of Windows, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

266465 How to perform a parallel installation of Windows 2000 or Windows Server 2003

Check Hardware

If you try all other troubleshooting steps and you are still receiving error messages, one or more devices in your computer hardware may be incompatible with Windows or may be damaged. To identify a problem with your computer hardware, contact your computer vendor.

Additional query words: OFFXP hangs freeze freezes inf VxD GFVVXD(01) OfficeXPSetupDWTS

Keywords: kbstoprespond kbsetup kbregistry kbtshoot KB309190

Microsoft KB Archive/309190

Contents