Office 2003 updates hosed!!

[nigeljedi]

Hello. I recently had to "restore" my WinXP Home PC due
to uninstalling a required driver. I have Office 2003
Standard edition on this PC, and now after the restore
(to just a couple of days before the incident), Office
won't update via the website due to the following error:

Error! Unable to check for updates on this computer Help

The Office Update site is unable to check for updates on
this computer. This may be happening because of one of
the following reasons:

You do not have administrative privileges for this
computer.
There is a network problem and the detection catalog used
by the Office Update site failed to download. Go back to
the Downloads home page and try running detection again.
Windows Installer patch files (.MSP files) from
previously applied Office updates are missing from the
\Windows\Installer hidden directory on your computer. 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. Please contact Microsoft Product
Support Services for assistance.
You installed Office updates in the past and then
upgraded from Windows Installer version 1.0 to Windows
Installer version 1.1. For more information see the KB
article Windows Installer May Prompt for Install Source
if Unavailable.


I can't uninstall OR repair Office now because of this.
Has anyone run into this? And, if so, how do I fix it??
Thank you very much ahead of time.

Nigel

 

[Mary Sauer]

PRB: Windows System Restore Does Not Monitor Windows Installer Patch (.msp) Files
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;814833
Windows Installer Updates and Patches
http://www.installsite.org/pages/en/msi/updates.htm


It maybe helpful to clean up the installer
Description of the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;290301&Product=off2003

--
Mary Sauer MS MVP
http://office.microsoft.com/clipart/default.aspx
http://office.microsoft.com/
http://www.mvps.org/msauer/
news://msnews.microsoft.com

 

[themush1 \(123\)]

I had to reinstall XP. I had different problems, but the
end result was that my system was unusable, and none of
the options to repair/restore functionality would solve
the problem......