Install Shield Advice
 

Ok, looks like it's time for me to throw in the towel, and admit I have no clue what I'm doing.

My work computer is a Dell laptop, and they just switched it out with another (not new) one. In my job, I'm the marketing/advertising director, and part of that includes managing our event Hummer. We just put a brand new stereo system in it this summer, part of which included an iPod interface cable. Naturally, we felt it important to get a new 5G, 60GB iPod to connect to it!

The problem comes in trying to install the iTunes/iPod software on the computer. On my "old" and "new" laptops, I've got full admin rights (Win2000), and had previously installed iTunes on the "old" one with zero issues. The reason they swapped laptops with me was that no one (to include our computer geeks) could get iTunes to install on my driver's laptop. Their answer was to swap the computers. That's great, but I need iTunes on mine as well.

When I try to install it (and also Palm Desktop, which was installed on my old laptop with zero problems), it errors out. I get to the point where I select my install language, and then it begins configuring windows installer. Then I get a "1628" error. (When I try to install Palm desktop, it gets to the point where the Palm install window comes up, but then it says the install was interrupted, and all I can do is click "Finish.")

This is all after much "tweaking" by me already. Originally, I was getting 1607 and 1608 errors. I've searched the web extensively to fix these errors, but all the "fixes" end up being the same. The main problem seems to be that I have a bad install of Winders, but that doesn't help me. Not surprisingly, our guys just load up the "approved" image-load of software on every new computer, they don't load each piece of software individually, so reloading winders will only lead to the same problems (how my old one was good, I'll never know...). The other computers that we tried to load iTunes on to also failed out.

Can anyone help?

If your Error 1628 is "Failed to complete script based install". Then try one of the fixes below (reinstalling Windows Installer may also resolve the other errors as well).

POSSIBLE CAUSE 1
There is a conflict between one or more files in the Windows Temp folder and the files used by the installer.
RESOLUTION 1 Follow the steps below to delete the contents of the Windows Temp folder.

1. Close all open programs.
2. Start Windows Explorer and navigate to your Windows Temp folder. (There may be more than one Windows Temp folder being used on your computer. For example at C:\WINDOWS\Temp or at C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Local Settings\Temp)
3. Delete all of the files and folders in your Windows Temp folder.
4. When finished, restart your computer and run the CuteFTP setup file again.

POSSIBLE CAUSE 2 Windows Installer is not properly configured on your computer or a more recent version of Windows Installer is required.
RESOLUTION 2 Depending on your Windows operating system version, click one of the links below and then follow the onscreen instructions to install Windows Installer 2.0 on your computer.
Windows 95, 98 or ME:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=CEBBACD8-C094-4255-B702-DE3BB768148F
Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=4b6140f9-2d36-4977-8fa1-6f8a0f5dca8f&DisplayLang=en
Windows XP:
Windows XP has Windows Installer 2.0 built-in.

When finished, restart your computer and run the setup file again.

odds are reinstalling windows installer wont do it. i would check your environment variables and make sure you have the right temp folder set up, if that still doesnt work try to log into the laptop with another account if you can and install from there. usually this happens when there are certain folder permission issues

I've already tried all of DaPenetrator's tips.

My SysAd guys even tried to install it with their level of access (which is actually the same as I've got) with no luck. I'll keep banging around and see if I can figure it out without destroying my computer...

do you have any antivirus software? that could also prevent installs, something like symantec norton or mcafee

Some Dell computers have hidden partitions that contain for example a copy of the Dell PC restore.

This can affect installation or booting up of software due to there being a problem detecting or loading the partition.

Have you tried going to the Dell website and searching their toubleshooting tips?

Not yet. I'l give that a go.