The installation source for this product is unavailable

[Alan]

I have Office 2003 Professional on my laptop. I was recently receiving an
error message when opening Excel, so I tried to run "detect and repair". I
received the following error message: "The installation source for this
product is unavailable. Verify that the source exists and you can access it."
Now I find I can't modify the installation or even remove the installation.
Does anyone know how to work around this problem????

 

[Gordon]

I have Office 2003 Professional on my laptop. I was recently receiving an
error message when opening Excel, so I tried to run "detect and repair". I
received the following error message: "The installation source for this
product is unavailable. Verify that the source exists and you can access
it."
Now I find I can't modify the installation or even remove the
installation.
Does anyone know how to work around this problem????

You need the installation media - otherwise known as the CD!

 

[Alan]

doesn't help

You need the installation media - otherwise known as the CD!

 

[Joe Grover]

If that didn't do the trick then you either have the wrong CD or your copy
of office was installed from a network location or mounted disk image.

Is this a work computer or home PC? Did Office come pre-installed? If it
came pre-installed and is a name-brand box (like a Dell) then you will need
to contact the computer manufacturer.

Joe

 

[Alan]

Joe,

It's the correct CD and it was not a pre-installed program. It's a full
retail version of Office 2003.

 

[Joe Grover]

Have you added hard drives since it was installed? Perhaps your CD-ROM
drive was a different drive letter when it was installed.

Joe

 

[Beth Melton]

Did you happen to delete MSOCache? If you installed Office and elected to
keep the Local Install Source, used for Detect and Repair, (used for
installing new features without the need for the CD), and now it's missing
then here's a KB on MSOCache:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/825933/

If the tools provided don't work and it's completely missing, then you may
need to use the Windows Installer Cleanup utility:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301

Use it to remove the reference to Office 2003 and then reinstall it using
your installation CD so the installation is pointed to the correct location.
Note if you elect to keep the LIS then you don't want to delete it next
time.

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Co-author of Word 2007 Inside Out:
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9801.aspx#AboutTheBook

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[Alan]

No, that's not it either.

Have you added hard drives since it was installed? Perhaps your CD-ROM
drive was a different drive letter when it was installed.

Joe

 

[russellhy]

I have the similar problem. Perhaps I missed it, but I never saw whether the
solution that Beth gave worked or not. I have deleted the installation files
(kb/825933) -- they were already deleted, and I have successfully used the
Windows installer Cleanup utility to no avail.

I cannot change the program (using the Add/Remove feature) as I get the same
error message "The installation source for this product is unavailable.
Verify that the source exists and you can access it."

I have not tried to remove the program as I hope to avoid having to set it
up again, but if I must (and if it works) I will do so.

Any further thoughts on this problem?

Thanks for any advice.

Russ

 

[russellhy]

Alan:

I have read all the posts on this subject (9 of them and now 10 I guess with
the one I submitted a few minutes ago. Question is "Did you ever get it
resolved and if so, how." I used Beth's suggestions but it didn't help.

Any help will be appreciated.

Russ

 

[russellhy]

I noted in another case that someone had this problem with the same error
message while trying to install SP1. I already have SP2 installed so that is
not the problem. However, I notice that the solution mentioned that if you
have a standalone version of Frontpage to remove it and the problem will
disappear. Does this apply to my problem and if so and I remove frontpage,
can I then reinstall it?

Thanks,

Russ

 

[Werner Vetsch]

[...] so I tried to run "detect and repair". I
received the following error message: "The installation source for this
product is unavailable. Verify that the source exists and you can access it."
Now I find I can't modify the installation or even remove the installation.
[...]

I have the same problem on my standalone desktop computer. And I am
sure that the problem has nothing to do with my Office 2003
professional Product CD (it is an OEM-CD from Dell):
After I got my Computer in 2004,
a) soon later I had to reinstall Office after a hard disk crash. I did
the full installation (without the option to delete files from the
hard disk at the end of installation). All went fine.
b) in all the years since then, I several times used Help/Detect and
repair¡K and I never had to put my Product CD in a drive and all went
fine (so much to Gordon and Joe Grover!). Until lately, when I got the
same Error Message as described by Alan and others.
c) I did all the recommended Updates for my Office 2003 and the actual
version on my computer is: MS Office Word 2003 (118125.8122) SP2.
d) I never touched the C:\MSOcache folder and C:\MSOCache\All
Users\90000409-6000-11D3-8CFE-0150048383C9 contains 173 objects (903
MB).
I now also detected, that I even would not be able to uninstall my
Office 2003 with control panel/add or remove programs in order to
start from the beginning. When I try to do this, I get the same error.
And now I have a suspicion, and this is why: I removed all of Office
2003 from my Installation data base with ¡§Windows Install Clean Up¡¨.
Then I reinstalled Office 2003 from my original CD. And now all was
o.k. again. Then I downloaded and installed all the Updates for Office
2003, and it was still o.k.
Then I reinstalled Office 2003 Proofing Tools, downloaded some updates
and SP2 for the Proofing Tools. AND THE PROBLEM WAS BACK AGAIN!
It would be nice, if somebody of Microsoft could provide us normal
users with a solution, that does not require a lot of technical
knowledge.