First, the problem started this way. The computer was brought to me because it would dial up but would not open websites. I investigated and found that it would not resolve a host name. The DNS servers were correct and are functioning fine so the problem was on the computer. reinstalled TCP/IP and winsock, all of that stuff. didn't fix it. I noticed that McAfee was malfunctioning on it, and when I ran Trend Micro's sysclean package on it, the scan log showed that it malfunctioned as well. I removed the HD, and put it on another machine as a removable storage device and used that machine to scan it for viruses and spyware. It had a ton and cleaned them. I put it back in the original machine and tried again. Same problem. This time I installed a NIC so I could work more effectively on it. It would only get an IP address of 0.0.0.0 and when I tried an ipconfig /renew it came back saying it couldn't find the file. I did everything Microsoft's support site told me to do in this situation. I even removed the Mcafee Firewall. It then came back on one reboot showing no connections whatsoever in the network connections window. I again followed everything microsoft's support website told me to do. It said, after doing everything, that if that did not fix it, which it didn't, that I would need to run a repair install from the windows xp CD. I did this, and now in my degrading spiral of PC stability I am in the situation below.

It ran, then it rebooted and went through the part where it is trying to finish the installation. When it gets to "Initializing Windows" it crashes. It gives me a log of the fatal error, and then reboots, to do the exact same thing again. the error is posted below:


error:
Setup could not register the OLE control C:\windows\system32\dssenh.dll because of the following error:
LoadLibrary returned error 1114(45a)

****

Error:
The digital signatures catalog E:\i386\nt5.cat could not be installed. The error code is fffffc06

The system cannot find message text for message number 0xfffffc06 in the message file for syssetup.dll

****

Error:
The signature for windows xp home edition is invalid. The error code is fffffc06.

The system cannot find message text for message number 0xfffffc06

****

Fatal Error:
Setup failed to install the product catalogs. This is a fatal error the setup log should contain more information.


It reboots after you click ok and does the same thing again. I tried running the repair again and the same thing happened. I am using the owner's XP disk, which was used in the original installation. It appears to be genuine and without blemish and history says it worked before on this machine. I am loathe to try using my xp pro disk and running a repair because it would probably explode the world or somesuch. Any help would be appreciated. I've already spent hours searching the internet for help on this before I posted and came back horribly lacking, with such answers as simple as "Use a real windows disk." and "yep, WINS corruption, probably by a new virus" usually followed by intellectually derogatory comments with no real answer on how to solve the problem. A thousand thanks for any help.

Hi I am new on here so dont shout if you allready now this.
When I got this "Setup failed to install the product catalogs. This is a fatal error the setup log should contain more information."

I find when I try to do a repair with a real widows disk like the one you are using I get the report that it cant repair as the version on the computer is newer than the disk I am trying to use(winxp Home
I presume this is because of all the updates and patches that Bill has sent to me :-)
And yes I have tried using a Pro disk and got the same result.
So I made a slipstreemed disk from the Microsoft site with all the add ons in there as well and that was excepted when inserted and told to repair. And it worked.
Hope this helps.

Right now the only thing that will boot up on it is the recovery console. If I go into safe mode or anything else, it tries to restart setup and reboots, even safe mode with command prompt. are there a bunch of files I could delete while in the recovery console so that when I run a repair installation it will get past these hurdles and just do it?

Right now the only thing that will boot up on it is the recovery console. If I go into safe mode or anything else, it tries to restart setup and reboots, even safe mode with command prompt. are there a bunch of files I could delete while in the recovery console so that when I run a repair installation it will get past these hurdles and just do it?

You try FIXBOOT in the recovery console or FIXMBR-:-| try them

Alas I won't know if this works or not. It had gotten so bad that somehow the setup didn't even recognize that a valid version of windows xp was installed on the machine. It would no longer give me the option to repair the installation and instead only offered to fresh install. I tired of coming back to my desk and having 1 to 2 voicemails from the owner, inquiring about the status of his machine, in an increasingly agitated manner. So I told him his best option was to go out and buy another HD, make it the master and install his windows on it, and make his current one the slave so he can still have access to all his documents and whatnot. :( I guess I shouldn't feel too bad, I was trying to fix his problem for free, so he's not really any worse off . . . well, actually he is, when it was first brought to me it couldn't resolve DNS and when he got it back it wouldn't boot up.

Thanks for the help everyone, and if anybody else has an idea for an answer, feel free to post. Usually if I run into a problem that I can't 100% fix, I'll run into it again and again. Its just the way things work.

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