How to investigate and resolve update installation failures for Office 2010, the 2007 Office system, or Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

Error types

Update installation failures can result from many issues. Frequently, the computer is not in a state that the update expects to find it in. This occurs when the installation is corrupted or the files are accidentally deleted. Other failures could result from the loss of Internet connectivity while you are trying to install an update from the Internet. Some failures could result from not having enough hard disk space to successfully install the update, or occasionally from an issue with the update itself.

If you try to install an update for any 2010 or 2007 Office application or for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, and you receive an error message about the failure of the update installation, this article should help you determine what went wrong and how to fix the problem.

How to troubleshoot

If you experience an error when you are installing an update, follow these steps to determine what went wrong:

Step 1. Make sure that log files were created during the update installation

By default, the 2007 Office suite Service Pack 2 and all updates that were released after February 2009 should have logging turned on. If you are installing an update that was released after this date, go to step 2.

If you have an update that was released before February 2009, you have to rerun the update installation with the /log switch to turn on the logging. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Save the .exe file that has installation issues to the desktop, or to a location where it will be easy to access.
2. Rerun the installation.
   • In Windows Vista, click Start , type full path of the .exe /log in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.
   • In Windows XP, click Start, click Run, type full path of the .EXE /log, and then click OK.

Step 2: Locate the log files

Follow these steps to find the log files:

1. Open the Temp directory.
   • In Windows Vista, click Start , type %temp% in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.
   • In Windows XP, click Start, click Run, type %temp%, and then click OK.
2. In the Temp directory, search for two sets of logs:
   • Some log files are named Opatchinstall(#).log.
     
     Note The # here represents a number starting at 1 and increasing for each additional update. Therefore, if you run the same update again or you run a new update, the next log file will be Opatchinstall(2).log.
   • Another set of logs is called ######_MSPLOG.log.
     
     Note The ###### here represents the name of the Microsoft Update (MSP) that you are trying to install.
3. When you have found these logs, copy them to a location where they will be easy to access.

How to find the failures in logs and determine what they mean

When you have located the log files, you have to look though several of them before you can identify what went wrong. We recommend that you start by looking through the Opatchinstall(#).log files. If you cannot find sufficient information about the failures by using those logs, look through the ######_MSPLOG.log files.

Finding and understanding error codes in the Opatchinstall(#).log files

You have to open each Opatchinstall(#).log file, and then move to the bottom of the file. You could start at the bottom and move upward. Search for the text SYS.PROC.RESULT. You should find an error code that is associated with that text. Then, you can look up its meaning at the following Microsoft Web site: If the information indicates a resolution, you can stop here. If the information about the failure is still vague, look through the ######_MSPLOG.log files.

Finding and understanding error codes in the ######_MSPLOG.log files

Open the files, and then search for the string MainEngineThread is returning. An error code should follow this string. To find the meaning of the error code, visit the following Microsoft Web site: For example, the string MainEngineThread is returning is followed by the error code 1632 in a ######_MSPLOG.log file as follows: In this case, the returned error code 1632 indicates that the temp folder is either full or inaccessible.

Note You may find that this information is still insufficient. For example, if the returned error code is 1603, a fatal error occurred during installation. In this case, you can move to the beginning of the log file and search for the text Return value 3. You should notice that the language of this text will match the language of the 2007 Office system that you are using. When you find that text, look immediately before it, and you should find additional information about the failure with a Windows Installer Error Message. To learn more about the Windows Installer Error Message, visit the following Microsoft Web site: