Office Update is unable to check for updates

S

SW Techie

Erorr message: "Office Update is unable to check for updates" when trying to
update Office 2003 Pro.

Any solutions would be appreciated. I have already followed several
recommendations (as described below) that were suggested to others posting
with the same problem. Thanks in advance!

DETAILS:
Computer is a brand new Toshiba Tecra M3 with Windows XP Pro SP2 preloaded.
It had a Microsoft Works 8 and Microsoft Office SB Edition 2003 Trial bundle
preinstalled, which I removed via Add/Remove Programs before installing
Office Pro 2003.

I followed each of the steps recommended in MS KB Article 304498. No change.
(At Method 7, the "Detect and Repair" on the preinstalled OneNote software
did indicate a problem, so I uninstalled it via Add/Remove Programs, but that
did not correct the problem with Office Update.)

I used the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility as recommended here in the
discussion groups, rebooting and reinstalling Office afterwards, but that did
not correct the problem either.

Finally, I tried the Windows Script 5.6 as suggested here as well. Still no
change.

Any other suggestions?
 
G

Goose [MS]

Mr. techie, looks like you've gone through all our basic troubleshooting
steps. Something more serious may be wrong. I recommend you contact Microsoft
PSS to help you out. Here is another post I saw on the forums that seems to
have work for other users, but it requires advanced knowledge of the OS,
basically registry editing, so please be careful if you try it.

"Based on my experience, this issue is mostly caused
by .MSP files are corrupted or missing.

Windows Installer patch files (.MSP files) are stored on
your computer after update installation completes because
they need to be referenced for future update operations.
If the files are missing you will not be able to apply
Office updates. You may also be unable to uninstall
Office products as a result of the same problem.

To resolve the issue, we need to manually delete all the
registry keys for Office. I understand the whole process
can be time consuming but they are crucial for us to
effectively resolve this situation. I have handled a
number of similar cases in the past, and we have solved
the problem in the manner I have suggested. Please work
with me by trying the troubleshooting steps and we will
resolve this problem together. Your time and efforts are
greatly appreciated. To do this, follow the steps below:

NOTE:

If you have Project 2003 installed, please do not perform
the following steps!

Please ensure you have the Office installation CD on your
hand before performing following steps.

Warning: The following steps contain information about
modifying the registry. If you use Registry Editor
incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may
require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft
cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result
from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry
Editor at your own risk.

NOTE: The following steps will not hurt or delete your
email data and Office documents.

(a) Quit all running programs, especially the Antivirus
and firewall application.

(b) Click Start menu-> Run, type "regedit" (without the
quotation marks) in the Open box and press Enter.

(c) Delete the following registry keys if they exist:

How to locate a Key

For example, HKEY_CURRENT_USER is the key, and everything
that follows the first backslash (\) is the subkey.

The keys and subkeys are listed in a folder tree in the
left pane of Registry Editor. As in Windows Explorer, in
the left pane of Registry Editor, if a key or subkey
contains subkeys, a plus sign (+) appears next to the
folder icon for that key. If you click the plus sign, the
folder expands, and subfolders, representing the subkeys,
appear under it.

To locate the registry key "
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office ", follow
these steps:

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then
click OK.

2. Expand HKEY_CURRENT_USER,

3. Expand SOFTWARE to expand it.

4. Expand Microsoft.

5. Click Office.


(NOTE: Please locate the following keys in the left pane
of Registry Editor and then delete them if they exist.)

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Products\904.

(Note: 904... means all registry keys beginning with 904,
for example:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Products\9040820900063D11C8EF0
0054038389C

Some of these registry keys may not be present. This
does not matter; carry on with the next one.)

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Installer\Components

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Installer\Features\90
4...

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Installer\Products\90
4...

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Installer\Patches

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersio
n\Installer\Products\904.



HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Components

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Features\904
.....

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Products\904
.....

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Patches

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersi
on\Installer\Products\904.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersi
on\Uninstall\{9XXX0409-6000-11D3-8CFE-0050048383C9}

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersi
on\Uninstall\{00XXX409-78E1-11D2-B60F-006097C998E7}

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersi
on\Uninstall\{9XXX0409-6000-11D3-8CFE-0150048383C9}

Note: Please delete all the registry keys under the
above "Uninstall" key similar to :{00XXX409-78E1-11D2-
B60F-006097C998E7},{9XXX0409-6000-11D3-8CFE-0050048383C9}
or {9XXX0409-6000-11D3-8CFE-0150048383C9}

(NOTE: XXX means 3 digitals)



(d) Quit Registry Editor.

(e) Rename the "Microsoft Office" to "Microsoft Office
OLD", "OfficeUpdate" "OfficeUpdate OLD" to
and "OfficeUpdate11" to "OfficeUpdate11 OLD" folders
located in the "C:\Program Files" folder if they exist.

(f) Click Start menu-> Run, type "%Temp%" (without the
quotation marks) in the Open box and press Enter.

(g) Empty the %Temp% folder.

(h) Empty the Recycle Bin.

(i) Restart your computer and install a full version of
Office. Then, go to Office Product Updates Web site to
check for all available updates:

http://www.officeupdate.com/ProductUpdates/default.aspx"




if this helps, please post back.

Gustavo
Software Test Engineer
Microsoft

Legal Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and
confers no rights.
 
R

Rich

Thank you Gustavo!!! Your solution/post worked for me ... new Toshiba
Tecra M3 notebook came pre-loaded with MS Works and a 60 day trial of
MS Office. I uninstalled, rebooted, and did a clean install of Office
Pro, and the Office Update utility failed. No matter what I tried, I
couldn't get it to work until I followed your post. Thanks so much!

Regards,
Rich
 
S

SW Techie

Hi Gustavo,

Thank you for your post. I had already contacted Microsoft Product Support,
and they were quite helpful and walked me through solving the problem. The
problem was indeed that the trial version of MS Office had not completely
uninstalled, and the solution did involve manually removing many registry
entries and files. Once that was completed, I was able to successfully
install and update my full copy of the Office software.

I hope your post will be helpful to others who experience the same problem,
as I suspect that anyone who orders a similar Toshiba computer with only the
trial Office software will encounter the same difficulty.

Stephanie
(Ms. Techie)
 
L

LK

Goose - worked like a charm...many thanks - LK

Goose said:
Mr. techie, looks like you've gone through all our basic troubleshooting
steps. Something more serious may be wrong. I recommend you contact Microsoft
PSS to help you out. Here is another post I saw on the forums that seems to
have work for other users, but it requires advanced knowledge of the OS,
basically registry editing, so please be careful if you try it.

"Based on my experience, this issue is mostly caused
by .MSP files are corrupted or missing.

Windows Installer patch files (.MSP files) are stored on
your computer after update installation completes because
they need to be referenced for future update operations.
If the files are missing you will not be able to apply
Office updates. You may also be unable to uninstall
Office products as a result of the same problem.

To resolve the issue, we need to manually delete all the
registry keys for Office. I understand the whole process
can be time consuming but they are crucial for us to
effectively resolve this situation. I have handled a
number of similar cases in the past, and we have solved
the problem in the manner I have suggested. Please work
with me by trying the troubleshooting steps and we will
resolve this problem together. Your time and efforts are
greatly appreciated. To do this, follow the steps below:

NOTE:

If you have Project 2003 installed, please do not perform
the following steps!

Please ensure you have the Office installation CD on your
hand before performing following steps.

Warning: The following steps contain information about
modifying the registry. If you use Registry Editor
incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may
require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft
cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result
from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry
Editor at your own risk.

NOTE: The following steps will not hurt or delete your
email data and Office documents.

(a) Quit all running programs, especially the Antivirus
and firewall application.

(b) Click Start menu-> Run, type "regedit" (without the
quotation marks) in the Open box and press Enter.

(c) Delete the following registry keys if they exist:

How to locate a Key

For example, HKEY_CURRENT_USER is the key, and everything
that follows the first backslash (\) is the subkey.

The keys and subkeys are listed in a folder tree in the
left pane of Registry Editor. As in Windows Explorer, in
the left pane of Registry Editor, if a key or subkey
contains subkeys, a plus sign (+) appears next to the
folder icon for that key. If you click the plus sign, the
folder expands, and subfolders, representing the subkeys,
appear under it.

To locate the registry key "
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office ", follow
these steps:

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then
click OK.

2. Expand HKEY_CURRENT_USER,

3. Expand SOFTWARE to expand it.

4. Expand Microsoft.

5. Click Office.


(NOTE: Please locate the following keys in the left pane
of Registry Editor and then delete them if they exist.)

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Products\904.

(Note: 904... means all registry keys beginning with 904,
for example:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Products\9040820900063D11C8EF0
0054038389C

Some of these registry keys may not be present. This
does not matter; carry on with the next one.)

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Installer\Components

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Installer\Features\90
4...

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Installer\Products\90
4...

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Installer\Patches

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersio
n\Installer\Products\904.



HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Components

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Features\904
....

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Products\904
....

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Patches

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersi
on\Installer\Products\904.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersi
on\Uninstall\{9XXX0409-6000-11D3-8CFE-0050048383C9}

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersi
on\Uninstall\{00XXX409-78E1-11D2-B60F-006097C998E7}

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersi
on\Uninstall\{9XXX0409-6000-11D3-8CFE-0150048383C9}

Note: Please delete all the registry keys under the
above "Uninstall" key similar to :{00XXX409-78E1-11D2-
B60F-006097C998E7},{9XXX0409-6000-11D3-8CFE-0050048383C9}
or {9XXX0409-6000-11D3-8CFE-0150048383C9}

(NOTE: XXX means 3 digitals)



(d) Quit Registry Editor.

(e) Rename the "Microsoft Office" to "Microsoft Office
OLD", "OfficeUpdate" "OfficeUpdate OLD" to
and "OfficeUpdate11" to "OfficeUpdate11 OLD" folders
located in the "C:\Program Files" folder if they exist.

(f) Click Start menu-> Run, type "%Temp%" (without the
quotation marks) in the Open box and press Enter.

(g) Empty the %Temp% folder.

(h) Empty the Recycle Bin.

(i) Restart your computer and install a full version of
Office. Then, go to Office Product Updates Web site to
check for all available updates:

http://www.officeupdate.com/ProductUpdates/default.aspx"




if this helps, please post back.

Gustavo
Software Test Engineer
Microsoft

Legal Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and
confers no rights.
Click to expand...
 
R

Roland

I have had Office 2000 for quite awhile, and it has been working ok so far
except that I noticed recently that the icons that are linked to it like MS
Word look funny not the way they should. So I decided to do a repair, only I
can't. It seems that when I place the Office 2000 CD into the drive, the
repair procedure cannot find the necessary "patch" in order to do the repair.
Also, I tried removing Office 2000 SP2 but ran into the same problem. The
last update I have for it is Nov 2006, so I went to the Office Update site
and could not update it either? What happened?
 

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