Office Patch Error

[Meltivore]

Hi,
I'm running Vista Ultimate with Office 2007. Recently I got this message,
"The detection failed, this can be due to a corrupted installation database"
when installing an Office Update, as well as a second Outlook specific update.
Both give the same error and I can't find anything online on how to fix the
corruption.
Thanks!
Tom

 

[Patrick Schmid [MVP]]

I'd start with Office Diagnostics: Start, All Programs, Microsoft
Office, Office Tools.
If that doesn't help: Go into Control Panel, Uninstall a Program and hit
change for Office 2007, then repair.

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
***
Outlook 2007 Performance Update: http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/04/13/105
Office 2007 RTM Issues: http://pschmid.net/blog/2006/11/13/80
***
Customize Office 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/customize
RibbonCustomizer Add-In: http://pschmid.net/office2007/ribboncustomizer
OneNote 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/onenote
***
Subscribe to my Office 2007 blog: http://pschmid.net/blog/feed

 

[Meltivore]

Thanks for the advice, the Office repair worked.

I'd start with Office Diagnostics: Start, All Programs, Microsoft
Office, Office Tools.
If that doesn't help: Go into Control Panel, Uninstall a Program and hit
change for Office 2007, then repair.

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]
--------------
http://pschmid.net
***
Outlook 2007 Performance Update: http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/04/13/105
Office 2007 RTM Issues: http://pschmid.net/blog/2006/11/13/80
***
Customize Office 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/customize
RibbonCustomizer Add-In: http://pschmid.net/office2007/ribboncustomizer
OneNote 2007: http://pschmid.net/office2007/onenote
***
Subscribe to my Office 2007 blog: http://pschmid.net/blog/feed

Hi,
I'm running Vista Ultimate with Office 2007. Recently I got this message,
"The detection failed, this can be due to a corrupted installation database"
when installing an Office Update, as well as a second Outlook specific update.
Both give the same error and I can't find anything online on how to fix the
corruption.
Thanks!
Tom

 

[terminal51]

To resolve the "the detection failed this can be due to a corrupte
installation database" error that I was getting when trying t
reinstall office 2007 sp1, or install kb950113, kb950114 (or even k
946691) on an XP sp3 pc with office 2007 installed, I simply rename
this regkey
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Products\00002109030000000000000000F01FEC\Patche

To: 'patches_old' - the installers then ran with no errors, and a ne
‘Patches’ regkey was auto created.
For the record, windows update had said no updates were needed - it wa
secunia’s psi which told me word and publisher 2007 neede
patching....additionally another symptom I faced was when trying to d
a repair install (change) from control panel/add remove programs, th
office 2007 configuration window popped up, then closed - this is als
now working correctly

 

[TJude]

;2771051']I'd start with Office Diagnostics: Start, All Programs,
Microsoft
Office, Office Tools.
If that doesn't help: Go into Control Panel, Uninstall a Program and
hit
change for Office 2007, then repair.

Patrick Schmid [OneNote MVP]

Patrick - When I do that, it does nothing and I am back to choosing
what to uninstall. My problems all started when I applied an upgrade
to ACT! 2008.

 

[terminal51]

TJude - I chose the "patches" key because i was having problems wit
applying patches - for the record, we had the same issue with sql 200
server trying to install sql sp2 on a server that already had sp
installed - same thing fixed this also.
You need to find the patches key in the sam
"HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Products\"
location as the product you are having issues with
00002109030000000000000000F01FEC just happaens to be the string tha
relates to Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007, the version i use - you
version may have a slightly different string - look in each produc
string for the product name value till you find the office one you hav
installed, then delete or rename the patches key

 

[Mojomatt]

I didn't have any success with any of the previous suggestions but did
have success with exctracting the contents of the file (in my case the
contents contained an .MSP file) and then applied the patch and it was
successful.

 

[dlauber]

I ran into the same problem on one of our computers trying to install
the Office 2007 Service Pack 2 issued April 28, 2009.

The catch is that you've got to go into the registry at
*HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Products\* and rename the patch key to
patch_old on every entry for an Office 2007 application - Excel,
OneNote, PowerPoint, Expression Web, etc. The number of entries you'll
have to change depends on which Office 2007 programs are installed. The
entries to change include those for Microsoft Office Shared Setup
Metadata MUI (English) 2007; Microsoft Software Update for Web Folders
(English) 2007; Microsoft Office Excel MUI (English) 2007; etc. --
everything involved in Office 2007.

I would *strongly suggest that before* making these edits, that you
export the registry to your desktop as a safety valve and run a system
restore from the Control Panel.

After the install works, be sure to reboot. I suspect that you can then
delete the patch_old keys, but I am not certain (and after losing so
much time to finding this solution, I'm not ready to be a guinea pig
right now).

Good luck. I think this should work for you too.

 

[p-harris]

is the patch key supposed to be named patch key? I'm not finding
anything named patch key

 

[dlauber]

What you're going to find are a bunch of very lengthy keys in the left
hand window of RegEdit with names like
"00002109610090400000000000F01FEC". The 14 or so keys for various
components of Microsoft Office 2007 will be at the beginning of the long
list of keys for all software products that have been installed on your
computer. If you simply highlight a key on the left hand side, you'll
see a list of different types of values including Product Name which
will tell you what application the key is for. You want all of them that
have Microsoft Office 2007 in the name.

In the left hand window, click on the + sign in the box to expand the
listing. That's when you'll see a key that is called "Patches" (not to
be confused with the dog Patches in the very old tear-jerking folk
song). Highlight "Patches" and hit Function Key 2 (or right click and
select "Rename") to rename the key to "Patches_old" (do not put in the
quotation marks). Do this for the 14 or so keys for Office 2007
components. They'll be listed consecutively.

After you have installed Service Pack 2 (and be sure to disconnect from
the Internet and turn off your Internet security and other running
programs), you should reboot. Then go back to the keys you visited.
Expand them one by one. Generally speaking, a new "Patches" key was
created when you installed Service Pack 2. But a few of these do not
generate a new "Patches" key. For those, I think it is prudent to rename
the "Patches_old" key back to "Patches".

That should do it for you. If you're still confused (and messing in the
registry can confuse anybody), let me know and I'll try to walk you
through it. If necessary you can call me. I'm in the Central time zone,
USA.

 

[p-harris]

I found the keys, and when I click on one of them, it does expand and in
the right hand side of the window, all I get is a list of other things,
which I will be very careful not to irritate. For instance the first
one says
Default
AdvertiseFlags
Assigment
etc...

On done it says

- Language
- PackageCode
- ProductName


By the way, I remember that song! "Patches" so renaming the file to
patches_old would probably be appropriate, Patches the dog would be
really old in dog years by now. Thanks for the chuckle!

By the way, this patch thing might not be my problem. I started
having trouble with my Office 2007 Pro Teacher/Student edition about 7
months after buying it. I keep trying to get help via Microsoft and
that seems to go nowhere. I can update more later when I've had a
decent break. I'm in the DFW area in Central time too.

Thanks for such a speedy initial reply!

 

[p-harris]

Haha! Then you know more than me and anyone else in my family. DO you
think Revo will uninstall it for me? I couldn't uninstall last week
when I gave up and decided to try that option. I wanted to use
Publisher because I had some files that I needed in Publisher that i
created last year so I reinstalled 2002 and this helped Word just a
little. After getting the pop up windows tell me it's initializing
installation and preparing files for set up I can click cancel and the
Word pops up.

Also, do you think I have a chance of it actually installing? I
haven't been able to even use the disc to try and reinstall it before.
I thought the disc was bad, maybe it's just some sort of corruption on
my pc that's bad.

Thanks so much!

 

[dlauber]

Haha! Then you know more than me and anyone else in my family. DO you
think Revo will uninstall it for me? I couldn't uninstall last week
when I gave up and decided to try that option. I wanted to use
Publisher because I had some files that I needed in Publisher that i
created last year so I reinstalled 2002 and this helped Word just a
little. After getting the pop up windows tell me it's initializing
installation and preparing files for set up I can click cancel and the
Word pops up.

Also, do you think I have a chance of it actually installing? I
haven't been able to even use the disc to try and reinstall it before.
I thought the disc was bad, maybe it's just some sort of corruption on
my pc that's bad.

Thanks so much!

Sounds like you've got a real mess on your computer thanks to
Microsoft. Microsoft Office 2007 and its predecessors tend to be very
"sensitive" (for lack of a better word) to corruption and to other
versions of Office being installed.

Now if you are unable to uninstall Office 2007 using the Control
Panel's add/remove programs, Revo Uninstaller is unlikely to save you
since it runs the Office 2007 unintaller first. Installing Publisher
2002 could cause even more problems (I'm not certain, but I do know that
Office 2007 does not peacefully co-exist with earlier versions of
Office).

I'm going to suggest one way to proceed, but be aware that it might not
work depending on how messed up your computer is.

First, though, make sure you clean up your hard drive by deleting
temporary files and cleaning your registry. I've found that
RegistryBooster 2009 is the most reliable utility for cleaning
registries. It's not free, but it works better than any of the freeware
I've seen. It's available from http://www.liutilities.com/ for $29.95
(regularly $39.95). It's more than paid for itself.

I cannot guarantee that the following will work for you. You would be
very prudent to back up all of your data to flash drives or CDs or DVDs
before trying this or anything else major.

You -might- want to try the following which usually works:

(1) Try to reinstall Office 2007 over itself.
(2) If that works, you should be able to uninstall Office 2007 -- use
Revo Uninstaller to do the uninstall since it will get rid of the
registry entries and files that the Office 2007 uninstaller leaves
behind.
(3) After rebooting, reinstall Office 2007, reboot.
(4) Make sure Office 2007 is working. Activate it.
(5) Install the Office 2007 Service Packs.

With any luck this will work for you. It has worked for me and others.
But nobody can guarantee it will work on everybody's Windows computer
since Windows configurations differ so much from computer to computer.

 

[p-harris]

Thank you so much, I will proceed with extreme caution, or if all else
fails take to my computer guy. It's just difficult for me to work on my
son's laptop. I really hate using another computer other than the one
I'm used to using. I already started some of the clean up process and I
ran error check last night when I went to bed. I have no idea if it
found or fixed anything. If I can figure out where the log is that
might make me feel better. I'll let you know if this works for me. It
might be a day or 2 before I get up my nerve to do all this. You have
been so much more helpful than Microsoft. I'm still trying to submit a
question to them and it's not going through. The form processor keeps
telling me to try again later.

 

[jezzer]

I'm too young to remember the dog Patches in the old folk song (!), but
I felt I had to take the time to thank -dlauber- for his/her
contributions in this thread.

I had been struggling for days to install any Office 2007 updates (both
regular ones and SP2) since doing an upgrade from Office 2003 to Office
2007 Enterprise. I'm not sure whether the problems arose from the
upgrade or from the fact that a version of OneNote 2007 had already been
installed on my laptop. In any event, I was getting the "the detection
failed this can be due to a corrupted installation database" error and
had no success with any of the remedies suggested elsewhere such as
inserting a writable CD/DVD, running Office diagnostics, using the
Office Repair feature, etc.

However, the procedure of renaming the patch keys described by
-dlauber- worked a treat. So, many thanks for taking the time to post
that advice!

Jezzer

 

[lagunasrfr]

I too am having this problem. I activated a preinstalled version of
Office 2007 online. I am getting the "corrupted database" message when I
try to install SP2.

I tried renaming the "patches" key in the registry to no avail.
Question: should I have rebooted after the rename?

When I try to run "Setup" from the Office disk (which I received after
activation) I get "running setup" and then a silent failure. I know the
disk is good because I can read all of the files on it.

I can trace the .msi entries in the registry to files in C:\msocache,
so it appears all of the installation files are on my hard drive.

I have used "run as administrator" and that doesn't help.

I want to avoid having to do the manual uninstall and reinstall of
Office at all costs, because I don't know if I can get it reinstalled.

I've researched this problem on the internet and haven't come up with
any other solutions. I might add that I also have Office 2003 installed
and don't want to uninstall/reinstall that either.

 

[lagunasrfr]

I did the manual uninstall of Office 2007:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928218/en-us
It was easy, but tedious. Suggest you print out the instructions and
make notes on them as you follow and execute.

No problem when I reinstalled. I even left Office 2003 on my system and
everything works fine.

 

[soydeedo]

With any luck this will work for you. It has worked for me and others
But nobody can guarantee it will work on everybody's Windows compute
since Windows configurations differ so much from computer to computer.

Thanks, man. This worked like a charm for me. =

 

[vms511]

I ran into the same problem on one of our computers trying to instal
the Office 2007 Service Pack 2 issued April 28, 2009.

With any luck this will work for you. It has worked for me and others
But nobody can guarantee it will work on everybody's Windows compute
since Windows configurations differ so much from computer to computer.

Mate, you are a legend. This worked like a charm for me. Many thanks

 

[Seekers7]

dlauber is the BEAST! I've been trying since 15 Aug 08 to install th
dumb Security update for Ppt 2007...It finally worked. I got all
Office installs to be successful but not the Vista one...I'm going to g
back and try the fix again...also, what does it mean if a patch install
successfully and then either comes up on a later update as unsuccessfu
or keeps installing over a 2 week span