Macrovision Knowledge Base

HOWTO: Eliminating General Setup Initialization Errors

Document ID: Q100198
Last Revised On: Monday, May 03,
2004

This article applies to the following:
Product(s):

Professional 5.x

Having trouble installing software on your home computer? Get
the answers to your installation questions at InstallShield's
Consumer Central.

Summary

A installation program that has been tested and works correctly on most
development systems is terminating during initialization with one of the
following errors on some systems:

Setup Initialization Error 102,104, 105, 112, or 301

Installation stops responding without displaying a message.

A General Protection Fault (GPF) error.

Windows Program has performed an illegal operation dialog
box.

How can I troubleshoot and correct these errors?

Discussion

Such problems are usually system related, so the best way to solve them
is to try to eliminate each of the possible causes one at a time until the
installation initializes correctly. Below is a summary of the common
causes of Setup initialization errors and suggestions to troubleshoot
each:

A conflict with a concurrently running program, such as a screen
saver or virus scanning program.

Shut down any concurrently running programs and attempt to run the
installation again. This includes any virus checking software that may
be running in the background.

Support directory (SUPPORTDIR) related problems.

Make sure that there is at least 500 KB of free space in the
support directory. If not, free up some space and attempt to run the
installation again.

If the support directory is set to a RAM drive, make sure that at
least 2 MB of space is available, or set the support directory to the
drive listed below.

Make sure that the support directory is set to the Temp directory
at the root level of the WINDISK (drive that holds the Windows
directory--usually the C drive). If the support directory was set to
another location, try setting it to the this directory and running the
installation again.

Make sure that the user has write privileges to this directory.

Delete any InstallShield files left in this directory. If a file
cannot be deleted because it is in use, the system should be
restarted. Then delete the files deleted and retry the installation.

The support directory should be checked and cleared after every
further installation attempt until the problem is solved.

User does not have write privileges to the Windows or Windows\System
directory.

Make sure that the installer has write privileges to
the Windows directory and Windows\System directory. The installation
program must have write access to these directories. If necessary, a
system administrator who has the appropriate privileges may need to
perform the installation.

Uninstaller executable file is read-only.

Make sure that
uninstaller (IsUnist.exe, IsUn16.exe, Uninst.exe, or Uninst16.exe) is
not marked as read-only if it already exists on the user's system. If
the uninstaller exists on the user's system, it can be found in the
Windows directory.

Note: Some virus checking programs automatically mark all .exe
files as read-only. If the uninstaller is found to be read-only, all
virus-checking programs should be terminated before running the
installation again.

Problem with _Isdel.exe.

Temporarily remove _Isdel.exe from your installation. _Isdel.exe is
located with Setup.exe on your first distribution disk. Then, run the
installation again and see if this solves the problem.

Problem with 32-bit disk/file accessing (16-bit Windows only).

Try turning 32-bit disk or file accessing on and off. (Not all
systems have a 32-bit file accessing option.) To do this, go to the
Control Panel under 386Enh/Virtual Memory/Change and click 32-bit disk
and/or file accessing on or off. (Note that InstallShield 5.x
Professional no longer supports Win32s as a 32-bit platform. Only 16-bit
InstallShield 5.x Professional setups can be run on a Windows 3.x system
with Win32s installed)

Problem with installing Ctl3d.dll.

Create a dummy file with the name Noctl3d.txt in the directory with
Setup.exe and then run the installation again.

A corrupt Setup.ins, Setup.exe or other installation file caused by
a media-related problem such as a corrupt diskette or hard
disk.

Try using a different set of disks for the installation. If
the problem is occurring at a remote site, send the customer a set of
replacement disks and ask the customer to return the disks. If possible
test the customer's disks at the development site.

A corrupt Setup.ins, Setup.exe, or other installation file caused by
a non-media-related problem, such as a compiler failure.

Run
ScanDisk, if available, on the system's hard drive to see if there are
any bad sectors. If necessary, fix any problems.

Copy an uncorrupted Setup.exe, _Instxx.ex_, _Setup.dll, or _Setup.lib
to the installation directory and attempt to run the installation again.
Also, check to see where setup.exe is being run from. If it is under a
very long, nested path, try moving it, and re-running the setup.

Recompile the script and try the installation with a New Setup.ins.

Problems with a network drive or CD-ROM drive.

If the
installation is being run from a network drive or CD-ROM drive, try the
installation from a local drive.

A problem with a custom resource used by the installation.

Use the _Setup.lib provided with Template One (InstallShield3
installations only).

At this point, if the problem is occurring at a remote site, check
with the customer experiencing the problem directly and determine if the
customer is interested in a conference call with the developer and
InstallShield Technical Support.

A conflict with an installed driver.

Modify the Autoexec.bat and Config.sys files to load as few drivers
as possible and attempt to run the installation again.

A conflict with the system's hardware.

Attempt the
installation on as many systems as possible. See if it runs on any other
systems. If it does, try to determine what drivers are installed on the
problem system(s).

Remove as many peripherals as possible and attempt to re-run
the installation.

After eliminating the possible causes of the problem described above,
restart Windows and attempt to run the installation again.

Information about the installation:

The complete version number of InstallShield used for the
installation.

Where the installation is running from (Network/CD-ROM/Hard
Drive/Floppy Drive).

The number of systems the problem is occurring on:
(All/Many/Some/Few/One) system(s).

How frequently the problem occurs: (All/Many/Some/Few) installation
attempts.

What custom resources, if any, are in the, _Isres.dll, _Setup.dll or
Setup.exe files? What files have been added to _User1.cab (or _Setup.lib
for InstallShield3 users?

Information about the system(s):

Platform(s) the problem is/is not occurring on.

Determine where the support directory (SUPPORTDIR) is on the
system. This directory is normally set by the TEMP environment variable.
This variable can be checked by typing "set" in a DOS window. If there
is no TEMP environment variable set, look for any of the following
files:

_Ins0XXX._mp
_Inz0XXX._mp
_Wult95.dll

(where XXX denotes a three digit number.)

in any of the following locations:

WINDISK\Temp
WINDISK\Windows
WINDISK\Windows\Temp
WINDISK\Dos
WINDISK\Dos\Temp

where WINDISK is the drive where Windows is installed.

The support directory also contains at least one directory with the
name _Istmpxx.dir that contains any files that were compressed into
the installation's _Sys1.cab and _User1.cab files (or _Setup.lib for
InstallShield3 users).

Determine the type of file system in use on the drive where the
setup is running.

References

If you are an end user, attempting to install software on your home
computer, visit InstallShield
Consumer Central.

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