Upgrade to 8.0.2 BSOD, Can't uninstall or install (The MSI '' Failed)

[davenacy]

This morning I decided to do the suggested upgrade. During the upgrade from 8.0.1.27038 to 8.0.2 I got the Blue Screen of Death. Upon rebooting, I could neither continue the upgrade to 8.0.2 or uninstall/repair the previous 8.0.1 version.

I don't have the install for 8.0.1.27038 because I did an auto upgrade from 8.0.

I'm completely dead in the water with a hot customer project that depends on a working VM. (I know, I shouldn't have done the upgrade!).

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Dave

[mfelker]

You haven't said what the Windows OS is.  May not matter  unfortunatey.  Possiblity the Windows installer is bombing because of the mulltiple attempts to uplrade and remove (happened to me serveral times with programs other than VMware - the MS installer itself is no great piece of coding).  Reinstallihg the MS installer  won't work alas since the inforfamtion it works on is  in some  funky system  DB.

You could try running the  WS 8.0 installer which  you clearly have.  It\sT unlikely to work because of what you describe - perhaps try it in safe mode with networking?  I would also google the symtoms in a generic way - not specifically on the VMware forum.  There are programs that claim to fix a corrupt MSI installation but whether they work or make the problem worse I don''t know.

If you  have a restore point from before installing WS  of course that's   the way to go and  stands a good chance of success I think.

The bottom line is that if you can't recover from the BSOD there's nothing more I can think of.  Boot off the OS setup   disk - get to the command prompt - stick in some CD;s or USB sticks - and copy all the data you can including the VM's (they "should" still be OK) and reinstall the OS.

Sorry .  That's all I can think of.  In general automatic install processes should be avoided at all costs.  In VMware that's why you should avoid "easy" installs.

[continuum]

download version 8.0.1 again - and try to fix the current messed up 8.0.1 first

also make sure that your %temp% has no index.html and is not too full.
Delete all old vmware-directories and logs.
It also helps to disable UAC.
Always run the installer by "\right click - run as admin"

[davenacy]

Thanks for the suggestions. Nothing worked.

I ended up restoring my Windows 7 system drive by using a backup from a couple of weeks ago. This enabled me to successfully uninstall 8.0.1.27038, reboot, and install 8.0.2 using the downloaded installer.

Fortunately, I do regular backups and keep my VMs and data on drives separate from the host operating system. I will never "auto update" again.

Lesson learned.

Dave

[ccoudsi]

I'm having similar issue, this morning I tired to upgrade my workstation to 8.0.2 from 8.0.1 , during the upgrade just froze my laptop XP 32bits, then rebooted and tried the second time, I noticed everytime it tries to unistall the older version I get (The MSI " Failed) so I googled online, and did the following:

1) clean c;\Temp

2) Reinstall the latest version of Windows Installer

3) MSIExec /unregister
4) MSIExec /regserver

5) sfc /SCANNOW

Nothing worked, please advise !!!

[continuum]

who recommends such steps ?

read http://faq.sanbarrow.com/index.php?action=artikel&cat=3&id=114&artlang=en
and follow my notes

[ccoudsi]

The steps I found from this URL:

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=103130...

The problem I'm having is, I can not uninstall the older version of the workstation even using the control panel [Add or Remove Programs].

But I'm able to uninstall different application without any problem. !!!

[mfelker]

Again - try this. If you still have the 8.0.1 package see if that responds to trying to install the program. Yo don't want this but use the last of 3 options if the screen appears. - remove. If this won't work try the same with an 8.0.2 full program from VMware . It will be available - either as a registered copy or even an evaluation. Indeed you can't obtain 8.0.1!instead of this then try the same using the 8.0.2 package. Di you try to upgrade from within the program? If so don't do that again If fact during any install of WS jus answer NO to the questions about being informed about upgrade and helping VMware out. YOu probably would not do that with MS -either - I hope so. The Tools may upgrade - but rather you should uninsatll the program program from add/remove and then reinstall them from the VM tab. once you get it going - that that's inside the VM box - not a program on the host. Its also quite easy to remove - at least in a Windows VM As I also suggested you might give a free uninstaller program - google or just use revouninstaller

Good luck

Marty

[mfelker]

The KB may be a bit self-serving in that it states uninstall problems are not the "fault" of VMware but of Windows Be that as it may be I should have said (becaue this has also worked for me ) that you can try the repair option as well as the remove option. Looks like that will fix some registry errors. So do try repair like the KB article states. Another reason I think this may work is because the program explicitly states to reboot. You almost always do this if there are background tasks are running. The have to be killed. Check out task manager and see how many of these are running around in memory! Advising (or even requiring) a reboot used be the situation with previous installers of WS but that no longer appears in the install of WS 8. It assumes you can start using the program right away - people complained about having to reboot I seem top remember The rest of article hints may work and you might try them. But a user without MS certification would have a hard time with these instructions and probably would have to be walked through them.

Marty

[ccoudsi]

I downloaded the full WS-8.0.2 and as soon you run it, you have only one option which is uninstall, i clicked uninstall and I got the famous (The MSI " Failed) also I downloaded "Revouninstaller" the same thing you click on vmware to uninstall, it starts the uninstaller of VMWARE and you get (The MSI " Failed) ??? Then it scan the registery and asked me if I want to delete it, I said no.

This issue started when I run the workstation 8.01 this morning, it asked me if I want to upgrade to the new version and I said yes, then it asked me it needs to unistall the old version first, I said yes and then I got (The MSI " Failed) !!!

PS. I did not have a problem when I upgraded Vmware Workstation 8.0 to 8.0.1

[mfelker]

If the only option when the WS8.0.2 installer is run is to uninstall 8.0.1 than you haven't yet installed 8.0.2 - obviously. If you still have the 8.0.1 version try running it you may get the option to repair or remove WS 8.0.1i without the MSI error its a hopeful sign. I should have figured that revouninsatller would fail because it first runs the VMware uninstall program which is actually pretty much the same as the installer their maybe and option in the revo that bypasses this. Same for Linux where you uninstall WS by running as su vmware-installer -u {vmware product WS or Player). If you look in the /usr/bin directory and ls vmwarfe you will find there is actually is a script called uninstall.sh I think but - it doesn't work!! and says so. This script did work ini earlier versions <= 6.5 or so I believe . It essentially a fossil program which they didn't remove (think about it!) If the "MSI" error appears on everything you tried than I really would not spend an more time on it. Back up your data including VM's and do a fresh install of the host OS. After installing you r antivirus program do all OS updates and disable AV temporarily. Then install WS as one of your first programs (after you make a restore point!) - your registry will be fairly clean There are programs that claim to "fix" the registry (you could try for example Glary Utilities) but I wouldn't hold my breath they will work. Reinstalling the MS installer- even the latest- wont' do anything (I've tried it once or twice). The install/uninstall information DB is what it looks at and its been corrupted.

Can't give yo any more. Sorry

[ccoudsi]

I downloaded the full WS-8.0.1 and as soon you run it, you have only one  option which is uninstall, i clicked uninstall and I got the famous  (The MSI " Failed)

I guess somebody didn't think that people might need to do repair here, even from the add remove program the repair doesn't work !!!

My only solution left is to start a new fresh host installation.

Thanks for your support

[mikelbridge]

I found the original 8.0.1 installation exe on my system and ran it as admin with the "/clean" flag.  I then re-ran the 8.0.1 installation and got back up and running.

Looks like the 8.0.2 installation is buggy.

-Mike

[ccoudsi]

Mike,

I have installed on my winXP-32 (Vmware Workstation 8.0.1-528992)

I run (VMware-workstation-full-8.0.1-528992.exe /clean) command run sucsessful, but when I tried to reinstall (VMware-workstation-full-8.0.1-528992.exe)

or install (VMware-workstation-full-8.0.2-591240.exe) it will try to uninstall first and then I get the message (The MSI " Failed)

After looking at the logs in %Temp% it looks like VMware uninstallation script trying to access ...\Temp\vmware_1331409430\index.htm" which does not exist in and it the VMWARE script (CHtmlDialog) getting Errors.

[mfelker]

The is at least one thread about the MSI error on the forum. You should be able to locate it using the VMware Search or probably better google it.

[mfelker]

You're lucky. I've deleted my 8.0.1 for both Linux and Windows. Bad call! It ticks me off that VMware won't make this build available for re-download. You have this version somewhere for certain Other commercial products make earlier builds available - why not you .

[Bernd_Nowak]

Hmm, using the download center here at vmware and secting VMware Workstation it gives me 8.0.2 but with a "View History". If you use this you can see 8.0.1 and 8.0.0. And you can download the older ones.

See attached screenshot.

[davenacy]

You may see 8.0.1 there, but not the specific version you need if you did an upgrade to 8.0.1 to a specific build (aka - auto upgrade). VMWare is not making the version you need to remove the old build available for download.

[Bernd_Nowak]

I only know Windows host VMware Workstation but the updates are full versions and might only differ from filename and save location. Otherwise they should be the same. But like you said, it might be not possible to use these when trying to "repair" a damaged installation.

VMware should make a 'remove' tool to get rid of the files and registry changes like some Anti-Virus producers have.