Dear gentle users of SW2004 - problem with SP03 to SP5 - any help... ?

I remember a time when one ran an 8080 at 33Mhz... with an amber
screen... soon replaced with an "engineering paper white". BOTH size
floppies, and a brand new 10Meg hardrive (that only cost $500!)... Ran
my enginnering software in MS-DOS... provided you had the correct
video driver, that is... and a mouse? What in god's name is that? A
friend to keep next to one late into the night and feed little bits of
cereal... then things GOT BETTER...

OK, not bitching, having been "here from the beginning", I think these
tools are great. Until I can't get my work done, and then I get
angry...

I'm sorry, but I do need some advice. I just installed SP5 from SP3.
Proir to this, things were doing fairly well, rebuild times a bit slow
on assemblies, but nothing that I couldn't handle. And then the
software started acting a little woggy. It was suggested that I need
SP5. ok, installed that, and now when I open SW, I get a "Windows
Installer Box... "Please wait while we configure SW 2004 SP03 (huh?)
and then a little window that says "Distribution characteristic 101".
I close that one, and a new "Windows Installer" pops up again with the
"Dist... characteristics..." Does this about 6 or so times, and then I
can run SW (I don't dare open any "work" in this configuration)! I
shutdown and restart, and I get the same thing. I've read through the
other posts... is this;

-a WinXP Pro SP2 issue?
-a "Windows installer" problem - (I did run MS "cleaner" routine -
nothing)

I have on hand the original SW2004 SP01 Cd's, as well as the SP03 CD's
and a download of SP05.
Support has run out (I'm basically "frozen in time" with SW2004 - my
vendors use it in China. If I were to go to SW2005, it would cause a
bit of a problem for them. This is the biggest problem, timing - I
leave for China next week, and need to show them this new product.
It'd be nice if it ran on my system.


System general gnarly bits that everyone wants to know:
P4 w/HT 3.2G
1 Gig RAM (no EWE, just RAM)
Nvidia QuadroFX 1100
Win Xp PRO (oooohhhh) with SP2 (arrrgh)... more productive, RIGHT?
right....
Couple fast HD's (all housekeeping done... hired in a nice little
family, live just under the second drive, don't make much noise, and
the food they cook, yummy...)
Bunch other stuff thought I needed... not one of them is useful other
than the extra fans... am looking into those cool lights you can put
in there. The flourescent ones... noise? what noise? OK, really
enough.

Thank you - thank you for your kind help and words of encouragement.

B'rgds,

Mike Tripoli

 

Hi Muggs,

Funny you mention that: I did exactly that (spent the morning
copying the CD's [both SW2004sp0 and sp3] ). When I went to install
from the hard-drive, it says that it can't find the "PW0.cab"file
(actual path is "SWWI\data\PW0.cab). Funny thing is, this file doesn't
exist on the CD! When you copied the files over, did you just put them
into one directory, or did you make individual folders (I made
seperate folders named "disk 1 sp0, etc.).

Not to knowck anyone, but could Data Storm make this anymore
difficult. I mean, for $7000.00 you'd think the install wouldn't be a
freakin' problem.

Thanks!

MT

 

I think he is right. I was going to suggest uninstalling solidworks
completely, then re-intalling. Then updating to the latest sp. be
sure to save your *.cus file from the user dir...obviously. also
remember to defrag then restart after uninstalling. Do the same after
you install...

SxWx

 

Hi,

Thanks for the info; however, I'm confused. I checked for both
a "user" directory, and did a search for a *.cus file; found nothing.
What am I missing? IS this a "custom settings" directory? If so, I
never made any changes to the interface, so to speak. Thanks again.

MT

 

No! Sorry!!!

Put all contents of each disk into ONE file (C:\SW_2005_Install) There's a
setup on each disk so when Windows ask's, just overwrite.

Muggs
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Mike in SW 2004 look in the C:\program files\solidworks\data\user\, and save
the "*.cus" file.
Also from Start>Programs>Solidworks>Blah Blah, run the Copy Options wizard.
I forget but either Scott or Matt that has a "what to save" hit list on
thier website.

Scott Baugh - http://www.scottjbaugh.com/

Matt Lombard - http://mysite.verizon.net/mjlombard/

HTH,
Muggs
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Ok, I just did a brand new install to my laptop (instead of
uninstalling/reinstalling on my main system). I get THE EXACT SAME
result; the "Windows Installer" comes up and the same thing as below
happens.

I then decided to "Roll back" SP5 to SP3; I get a message that says
that multiple installs of SW have been detected; which one do I want
to roll back to? This is a fresh install on a system that has never
had SW of any form on it. That didn't work.

Then I tried to uninstall SP5 from "Add/Remove" programs. It comes up
and says "This action is only valid for products that are currently
installed". This is a joke.

I saw that people were complaining about WinXp Pro SP2 problems.
Unbelievable.

Is it possible that SP5 ZIP is corrupt? I don't see how, as a.) it
wouldn;t unzip right, and b.) SP5 is an EXE, so it shouldn't run at
all if corrupt.

The only other thing I think to mention is that in both cases, I
cancelled installing"eDrawings" (I don't use this at all). I can't
imagine that this would have anything to do with running SW2004;
eDrawings is a stand-alone program.

The worst part of this right now is that I have PTC-Pro\E as well as
the people from SolidEdge hitting me up to buy their stuff, and my
local VAR want's me to pop for SW2005. I'm so pissed at DS-SW right
now, I'd buy anything else just to spite them (I'm a toy
designer/manufacturer).

At this point, I'll do a fresh install of SW2004 up to SP3; what will
I NOT be getting?


Thanks for everyones help!

Mike Tripoli
www.jfww.com

 

OK, from "Add/Remove Programs" I clicked on the "Click here for
support information" line. It says, "If the program isn't working,
you can try "repair". I click repair, put in CD 1 and 3, and low and
behold, when I start the program, I don't get the "Windows Installer"
windows anymore. I tried this on both machines with the same results.
Looks like it's working. I don't know how robust this install will be
at this point until I run it for awhile, but hopefully this has
prevented the uninstall/reinstall stuff.

I swear... the grays are now 10 fold what they were....

MT

 

Glad to here it Mike!

I was in the toy design industry for quite some time until being laid off
because we did a hugh job for a now defunct toy company that stiffed us.
So now I'm on my own and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Are you going to SWW in Orlando?

Good Luck Mike,
Muggs
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Hi Muggs,

What company? I've been inventing/designing for about 15 years. I left
a job designing scanning electron microscopes to do toy design. I'm an
electronics/mechnical guy. I'm always looking for independent
contractors - send me your info at mtripoli -a-t- jfww.c-o-m (remove
dashes,etc.) Check us out at w-w-w.jfww.c-o-m; no product info yet,
we've been a manufacturer for just about a year. We'll have product
out soon...

I'm planning on going to Central Florida SolidWorks User's Group.

Meeting date: March 24, 2004 at 6:00 PM

Is this what you're talking about? If not, please let me know what SWW
is. We're in Boca Raton.

MT

 

Thanks to everyone for your help. If interested, you can check out the
project I'm working on right now at http://jfww.com/rc_car/. The front
end gear box isn't in place yet (that's what I was working on when I
decided to install SP5).

MT