9 replies to this topic

[MacNala]

I have a problem related to the installation of the MSXML 4.0 SP3 in the components section.
I have installed using autopatcher the KB items succesfully but the main item downloads and starts the installation and then when it gets to 98% complete it seems to go into a loop the cpu utilisation goes to 100% all autopatcher, there are no further reads or writes from autopatcher.
This has happened 3 times, on one occasion I left the machine running and even after 15 minutes there was no completion
I then restarted the virtual machine with a fresh version of the hard drive up to the point of running autopatcher and tried installing the msxml.msi downloaded directly from MS. This worked fine and completed in about 1 minute 30 seconds.

Further information. after installing the KB fixes I ran windows update which did not indicate the need for any updates of MSXML, critical or optional.
This sytem I am using my be untypical of other users in that it has IE7 installed not IE8.

[Cristiano]

well, very often, i have that same issue with flash. with flash, i already know how solve it (you just have to remove the previews versions from your system and no, flash uninstaller doesn't work in 98% of the cases of this issue).

for msxml, i never saw an issue like that. an good start could be the install log, but i don't know where this one writes it. i only know that there's an issue related to msxml4 beta, that has to be uninstalled first

[]s

[MacNala]

There are no preview versions on any of the sytems affected. I will try to check where the MS update logs the install and report back.

[_def_x_]

@MacNala

I would check Add/Remove Programs to see if there is any MSXML 4 versions you may want to uninstall.

Also, I would check \WINDOWS\system32 for msxml4.dll files. There are a number of software apps that install
msxml - See Here.

Your logs for msxml should be in \WINDOWS - named either by a KB936181 or msxml4-KB936181-enu.LOG as an
example.

I would try and uninstall any/all msxml 4 if you find it and try 4 SP3 clean again.

[MacNala]

Thanks I will check that out.
Interestingly MS Update does not indicate the update is needed and does not offer it in any of the sections critical or optional.
I wonder what triggers the update if the base product of MSXML is installed I would have thought the update would be offered.

Edited by MacNala, 30 June 2009 - 10:49 AM.

[_def_x_]

MSXML 4 SP3 is more taylored to legacy products and considered outdated (not obsolete). If you have no need to support old software
etc MSXML 6 is the way to go.

If you have need of MSXML 4 I'm sure you will be prompted by the software app requiring it.

Followup:
Here's a bit more information on MSXML - MSXML on Wikipedia.

MSXML versions 3, 4, and 6 are independent versions and can co exist on the same machine. Also, I don't believe v6 is backward
compatible so if you need v3 or v4 they will need to be installed. The fact is v6 should suffice for most users.

[Cristiano]

> The fact is v6 should suffice for most users.
yep. the only issue is that 3 and 6 are critical updates for sp3...

[]s

[_def_x_]

Quote

the only issue is that 3 and 6 are critical updates for sp3...

True.

SP3 for Windows XP x86 comes with (installs) MSXML 3.0 SP9 and MSXML 6.0 SP2 so any needed security updates for either of these
versions of MSXML should always be installed.

[MacNala]

Perhaps the note appended to the Autopatcher entry for MSXML "MSXML component updates. Its recommended that you istall all of these updates".
to something like "MSXML component updates. Only install these if found necessary by an aplication".
A better solution might be to mimic the MS update and not recommend them if MS doesn't. This whole problem arose because I followed the instructions.

[Cristiano]

> A better solution might be to mimic the MS update and not recommend them if MS doesn't
yes, but there's other issues too. wga, by instance. this one is set also critical. should we tag this one also critical too? another issue: msxml4 is installed and required by several products

right now, i'm working on mimic wu too. i'm not inclined to tag spyware also critical

[]s