HP c6180 driver refuses to install - "must reboot to continue delete files and continue install" loops

Question

User called me last night, can't get HP drivers to install for printer. 500 meg download for latest c6180 driver. PC says "computer must be restarted to delete some files, then setup will continue." and it won't pass that point. (that's not exact phrasing of the error, and I'm not on the system now)

Target machine is XP SP2. I upgraded to SP3. Fully patched. Ran malwarebytes, spybot, hijack this and turned off all startup entries. I noted that windows update also failed on optional printer driver updates for other printers installed on the machine. Went to printer server properties, removed all print drivers from system, deleted all printer ports. Made sure no services were marked disabled.

After 5 hours of fighting this I started to get desperate, and uninstalled anything that referenced HP in the machine at all. Still no cure.

I'm 6 hours into this and completely stumped. Google returns nothing applicable except unanswered requests for help on same topic.

Answer 1

If you know if the HP driver package uses InstallShield as it's install platform, then this could very well be something I've run across with InstallShield based installs in the past. It essentially ended up being an incompatibility between versions of Installsheild which caused an install that used an older version to not work/install correctly on a system that had been updated to a newer version of InstallShield by a different install. The fix was long and messy on my machine and involved going through all of the InstallShield "tracking" folders and manually updating and deleting some files. I found the solution in the InstallShield forums on their website. So, if you can find out if it uses Installshield, you might try their site to find a solution for the drivers not finishing their install correctly.

One other thought. Did you try deleting everything in all the temp folders on the workstation? It might also be an issue with a messed up permission where it can't delete one of the temporary files it creates.