Vista SP1 Internal Error During Installation - Need Help Tried Everything

Hi I'll try to make this brief as possible but detailed. I reformatted my Dell XPS m1330 several days ago (following http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=157838 which I also followed the day I purchased my computer half a year ago) and everything went fine until Windows Update tried to install SP1 for my 32 bit home premium. I'm not exactly sure what happened as I wasn't paying attention when it was installing, but something like 10 minutes into the installation process I noticed my screen had been blank for a bit and my computer off. I tried booting it but to no avail; it put my in this error loop with a specific file that I can't recall (though it's a well documented error when trying to install SP1 via Windows Update that I googled, tried to fix by copying some files from the vista disk to the c drive via command prompt, but still didn't work). In any case, I ended up having to reformatt to boot it.

So here I am now, and the first thing I resolved to do after reformatting was obviously try and install SP1 before anything else. I installed all the updates Windows Update prompted me to and then downloaded the stand alone SP1 and tried installing only to get this error:

internal error occured while installing service pack
error code: 0x800700D
see:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=101139

I went to the link and tried the first one, but I got the same error. As my computer was just reformatted, there are no antivirus/other programs to interfere with the installation process. I looked at http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=627242 which seems to be the only large thread concerning this issue but couldn't find a resolution other than to reformat and install (which I'm trying to do!).

I will note that after my initial failure to install SP1, I tried Windows Update again to install any other updates that might be required. I got "some updates were no installed correctly" Error(s) found: Code 800736CC and after looking at my previous updates saw that Update for Windows Vista (kb943899) failed. However, I subsequently went to to download this from microsoft and it worked; I tired to reinstall SP1 again but got the same error.

If anyone could try and help I'd greatly appreciate it as I'm starting to get really frustrated.

 

Hmm tried to install the SP1 standalone version instead of the WindowsUpdate version? Not sure why but I've seen several cases when the WindowsUpdate version fails and the standalone version installs correctly..and in reverse.

 

I did try the standalone version and got the error I mentioned.

edit: ran a chkdsk and no problems were detected. Still can't install SP1. Is SP1 even neccessary? I'm getting really tired of this; I think I just try reformatting once more - AGAIN - and if it doesn't work then whatever.

 

Don't do any of the other updates before installing SP1 - SP1 rolls up all of the updates that came before SP1 was released, so there's no point to doing that.

Also, have you reformatted and reinstalled _Vista SP0 since the computer turned itself off trying to install SP1 the first time? If not, I would suggest doing so, as that power down might have messed something up that's now getting in the way of installing SP1.

 

What do you mean reinstall SP0? Isn't that the default Vista installs from the disk?

I just reformatted again and tried installing standalone and now i get this "Windows Modules Installer" has stopped working

 

Ok I turned off Windows Error Reporting to try and bypass the modules installer error and now I'm back to square one because it just gave me the internal error. This is ridiculous.

 

Yes, that was my short-hand for the original RTM version of _Vista.

On the error you got, were there any error codes or anything else that would provide more detail on the error in question?

Also, check in your event logs to see what comes up. Finally, look for the installation log file, which will be squirrelled away somewhere in the main systems folder, it will basically be a step-by-step reflection of the results of the attempted installation, and should make it possible to identify exactly what the system was doing when the installation failed.

 

Can't figure out how to link an image directly here so here's what i have screenshotted of the problem details for the modules installer error:

Problem event name: APPCRASH
Application name: TrustedInstaller.exe
Application version: 6.0.6000.16609
Application Timestamp: 4757584b
Fault Module Name: ntdll.dll
Fault Module Version: 6.0.6000.16386
Fault Module Timestamp: 4549bdc9
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 00062086

Alas, I'm not even running into that problem anymore (with windows error reporting off) and am just getting internal error code 0x80070002 now

 

Have you read through Microsoft's knowledgebase article KB947366, entitled "Error message when you try to install the stand-alone package for Windows Vista Service Pack 1 or Service Pack 2 or for Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2: 'Installation was not successful' or 'An internal error occurred while installing the service pack'"?

Other possibly useful KBs might include KB910336 or KB956698.

There's also a thread on another forum that seems to suggest a possible solution here - basically, in that solution, the updater/installer is not able to gain access to the backup files, which causes the installer to fail.

 

OK! I finally did it. I followed the instructions as per:

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/12/21/fix-error-80070002-when-using-windows-update-in-vista/

then, I had windows update check for updates and it had two important ones to do; after installing and restarting windows update then prompted me to install SP1 (note via windows update and not standalone). I gave it a shot with windows update this time and it worked out.

Hopefully everything goes smoothly from here; thanks for your attempts at helping, Shyster1, I greatly appreciate it.

 

I'll keep my fingers crossed - post if anything else comes up (and also, if nothing comes up after about a week or so - sometimes the best news is no news whatsoever ).