Invalid start mode: archive file name

[Victor Heijke]

One of our users get this message on deinstallation
Invalid start mode: archive file name
What does this mean?

solution found: user was creative and tried to use his uninstal program on others computer :D

[Adam]

Victor Heijke,

I have not come across that error to date. Was this an isolated incident?

Adam Kapilik

[Mikkeee]

I currently have two users getting this error when running setup.exe. We have about 6,000 installs that went out and I'm going to estimate that about 2,000 have run the setup.exe sucessfully. Attached is a sreen shot. Both users are running Windows 2000.
http://www.callreporter.com/temp/irsetup.gif

[Adam]

Do you know if any other Win2K users have installed successfully? Do they have admin rights ect? Very weird error.

Are these installs built with 7.0.4.0? If not which version?

I have made a bug report for the developers to look into. REF: 11199

Adam Kapilik

[Mikkeee]

Do you know if any other Win2K users have installed successfully? Do they have admin rights ect? Very weird error.

Are these installs built with 7.0.4.0? If not which version?

I have made a bug report for the developers to look into. REF: 11199

Adam Kapilik

Yes to both... It has been installed sucessfully for other Win2k users and it was built using 7.0.4.0. I don't think it an admin rights issue but I'll check. We generally get other errors during the install (writing to registry, etc) if the user doesn't have the appropriate rights.

[Adam]

You are correct that it is probably not an admin issue. Hopefully the developers will be able to shed some light on this when they look into this issue.

Adam Kapilik

[Mikkeee]

You are correct that it is probably not an admin issue. Hopefully the developers will be able to shed some light on this when they look into this issue.

Adam Kapilik

FYI.. I just had one of our support reps call the user and they do have admin rights.

[Darryl]

I looked into it briefly and I'll first try to explain where that error is generated. When the install is launched, some contents are extracted to the temporary directory where a second executable is launched. This second executable is launched and passed some data via command line parameters. The error is thrown from the results of that those internal command line parameters. Either they are missing or invalid for some reason.

That being said, it is difficult to tell what actually could cause this and Adam is right, it very rarely comes up.

Some things I would check are:

- Try getting them to remove the contents from their temporary directory to ensure that any previously extracted contents from the previous setup runs are no longer there. Then try the setup again.

- If the above doesn't work, you could get them to try specifying a specific temporary directory using the command line option: /T:<<file path>> For example, "C:\Downloads\setup.exe" "/T:C:\My Temp Dir".

- If the file was distributed via download, try getting them to download it again. It may have been corrupted slightly. Another check is the expected file size (in bytes).

Those are some things to try given the unique nature of the problem.

Hope that helps.

Darryl

[Mikkeee]

I looked into it briefly and I'll first try to explain where that error is generated. When the install is launched, some contents are extracted to the temporary directory where a second executable is launched. This second executable is launched and passed some data via command line parameters. The error is thrown from the results of that those internal command line parameters. Either they are missing or invalid for some reason.

That being said, it is difficult to tell what actually could cause this and Adam is right, it very rarely comes up.

Some things I would check are:

- Try getting them to remove the contents from their temporary directory to ensure that any previously extracted contents from the previous setup runs are no longer there. Then try the setup again.

- If the above doesn't work, you could get them to try specifying a specific temporary directory using the command line option: /T:<<file path>> For example, "C:\Downloads\setup.exe" "/T:C:\My Temp Dir".

- If the file was distributed via download, try getting them to download it again. It may have been corrupted slightly. Another check is the expected file size (in bytes).

Those are some things to try given the unique nature of the problem.

Hope that helps.

Darryl

I've attempted all your suggestions and the error still comes up. I even went as far as sending one of the problem users a CD to be sure that something strange isn't happening when they download the setup. Any other suggestions?

[Mikkeee]

FYI... This was a strange one so I thought you might want to see the solution. Two different users at different locations were getting the same error. We found out through the process that they were brothers who work for the same company but at different locations and it appears that they frequently speak to each other on the phone. We spoke to Guy1's IT dept and they figured it out. Here's what they told me. Guy1 attempted to install Adobe Acrobat 7.02. Something happened during the installation and it tried to update itself to 7.03. 7.03 gave him an error so he bailed out of the installation. Guy 1 calls his brother and tells him to give the Acrobat update a try. Guess what... the brother got the same error at the same location during the Acrobat update. Now both brothers give our installation a try and both fail. Guy1's IT guru updated his Win2k to SP4 and then was able to uninstall the failed Acrobat install. Our software now works fine for Guy1. Guy2's IT department is going to do the same thing for him tomorrow. This is definately one of the craziest issues that I've run across.

[Adam]

That is one of the most bizarre solutions that I have ever seen.

Note to self: do not make brother run acrobat install

Adam Kapilik