updates using ohotfix very slow

[Rob]

We have some 400 workstations on a network.
To install updates for Office2003 we use the following method:

- download the update
- run the program office2003-kbxxxx-....exe with options /t:c:\temp /c

this extracts a .msp file, ohotfix.exe and a .ini to c:\temp.
bring this msp file to the network and put all of those files in a single
directory together with that ohotfix.exe and the .ini file, which
is slightly modified to install the updates silently.
one starts the ohotfix.exe program and it will apply all the .msp patches
that were not yet applied.
this is a documented method to apply office2003 updates.

Now, what I don't understand: why is this process so very slow?
We have this folder with 18 .msp files, and on a system that is not
the latest performance level (say a Pentium 4 2800 MHz) it takes an
hour to run the update. On a modern system (Core/2 Duo) it takes
maybe 20 minutes.
All the time the ohotfix.exe process is using lots of CPU.

What can be going on here? Is there a way to speed it up?

I already tried to copy the entire folder from the network to the local
harddisk and start the ohotfix there. While this cuts down the network
traffic during the update, it does not make it a lot faster.

 

[ComputerGuy]

I feel your pain, I am having this exact issue as well. I saw your
post on about 5 other boards, have you had any luck finding an answer?

 

[Rob]

I feel your pain, I am having this exact issue as well. I saw your
post on about 5 other boards, have you had any luck finding an answer?

I have not posted on other boards, but some boards automatically
mirror this newsgroup.

However, you are the first one to reply and I have no solution yet.