nick-tdi

My friend is having a wierd star-up problem with his Windows ME. He tried to install Office XP and it quit half way during the install. He doesn't recall the extact error, but Windows proceeded to uninstall Office XP. Well since then his computer hasn't been working. When staring up it gets to the "updating system config" screen and stays there for about 15 minutes. Then he gets an error saying "unable to upgrade (or update) 1% to 2%". He gets this error over and over agian for about 4 hours.

He tried a system recovery program and that didn't help. I tried unistalling Word 2000, but it locked up during the progress. I'm not really sure what the problem is? Any suggestions?

I believe his is running a
AMD 566
256k memory
8 gig HD

Are we at the point that a C format is needed. I told him to try the Norton system check to see if that can fix the problem. Or are we beyond that and need to wipe out the C drive?

Thanks for your help

Eeyore

i'm confused. how are you able to do things like uninstall word 2000 if the system won't start up? or is this a pop-up error after windows has started? can you describe what it means when "windows proceeded to uninstall office xp" ?

it likely sounds to me as if the install program of office xp puts a program in the startup so it can continue the install process after a reboot. i would try several things: check the startup folder on the start bar, see if you can uninstall office XP under control panel -> add/remove programs, or use msconfig to look for startup programs related to office xp.

while it doesn't mean much to me, this link looks like it may be useful: HOW TO: Troubleshoot an Update Installation by Using Log Files in Office XP

nick-tdi

Windows will eventually start up after about 4 hours. He says it gives hime the "unable to upgrade 1% to 2%" several times and after about 4 hours, Windows will startup. I haven'e personally seen windows starup so I don't know exactly what happens at this time.

When he recieved the error during the office XP install, the "install progress bar" (do you follow me) started going backwards. Again I'm not sure what error he got or if he got a message statin the Office would try to reinstall after a reboot.

I will have him look at the start-up files and delete anything related to office XP.

I did look in the control panel to uninstall Office XP, but it wasn't listed. So a clean uninstall of Office XP is impossible.

the aftermath

Windows ME is the biggest pile of junk ever.

That is all.

Bigbot

Does he have the System Restore disabled. I mean did he go in and use a patch or hack to turn it off. When I was running ME, I did that, and every time I upgraded the drivers for my Geforce 3 I would get that error (1%, 2% thing). You have to make sure that is enabled and then try and reinstall Office XP.

Also, if you do a search on MS's website. The knowledge database has an article talking about this subject.

Do a search for : unable to upgrade 1% to 2%

Good Luck