Lets try this one more time. Here's what I did to my MBP.
I removed all traces of MS Office for Mac 2008 from my computer (including any file with the Microsoft name to it). This includes :-
1. Drag the "Microsoft Office 2008" folder in my /Users/username/Applications folder to Trash.
2. Drag the "Microsoft Messenger" application in /Users/username/Applications folder to Trash.
3. Go to /Users/username/Documents and drag the "Microsoft User Data" to Trash.
4. Go to /Users/username/Library/Preferences; delete all the "com.microsoft.xxx.plist" files and delete the "Microsoft" folder.
5. Go to /Users/username/Library/Application Support; delete the "Microsoft" folder.
6. Go to /Users/username/Library/Caches; delete the "Microsoft Office" folder, delete any file in there which starts with "com.microsoft.xxx.yyy"
7. Go to Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support; delete the "Microsoft" folder.
8. Since I installed "Solver" for Excel, I also deleted that application from my /Users/username/Applications folder.
At this point, I am almost 99% sure I have removed any reference to Microsoft applications from my MBP. I restarted the machine.
Then, I installed the Microsoft Office 2008 Standard software again. When it was done, I launched Word, Excel, PPT and ENT to verify the version 12.0.0 is installed.
Next, I installed SP1 (12.1.0). The dmg file is "Office2008-1210UpdateEN.dmg" which showed 188,815,075 bytes. When it was done, I launched Word, Excel, PPT and ENT to verify the version 12.1.0 is installed.
Finally, I installed 12.1.5. The dmg file is "Office2008-1215UpdateEN.dmg" which showed 108,597,061 bytes. When it was done, I launched Word, Excel, PPT and ENT to verify the version 12.1.5 is installed.
I didn't use autoupdate for the whole procedure and it worked for my MBP. Good luck!
