Fax installation failure on XP SP2 Pro

Like many other people I'm having problems installing the Fax services on my
XP SP2 Pro system. Using Add/Remove Windows Components it seems like
everything goes OK but in fact nothing is installed.
Eventually I found a FaxSetup.log file which is around 38KB in size from
just one attempt at the install. There seems to be 6 key lines in this file
which indicate when the real problem happens but I have no idea how to
interpret these lines. They are as follows

[04/12/07 23:04:53] [0x0aa0] [ ] Installing Fax Service...
[04/12/07 23:04:53] [0x0aa0] [ ] fxocSvc_Install (fax -
Fax.CleanInstall)
[04/12/07 23:04:53] [0x0aa0] [ ] {
[04/12/07 23:04:54] [0x0aa0] [ERR] Failed to install the
services section in section 'Fax.CleanInstall', rc = 0x4b8
[04/12/07 23:04:54] [0x0aa0] [ ] } (1208)
[04/12/07 23:04:54] [0x0aa0] [ERR] Failed to install fax service.
This is a fatal error, abandoning fax install...rc=0x4b8

I can send the full file to anyone who can use it but I think this are the
key lines. Can anyone tell me what these particular error codes mean AND more
importantly what I would need to do to get round them? My system initially
suffered from the problem that the Add/Remove component could not find all
the fax files in the I386 directory but I found that if I continued to invoke
the Add/Remove dialogue for installing Fax it moved on to the next file and
eventually the process completed, but with the results as above.

If anyone can resolve this they will may a lot of people very happy!
--
Bernard

Well, since there were no responses to this I frightened myself to death by
reading many other related articles and eventually took my life in my hands.
What did I do? Well I screwed up the courage to do what is said at
http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/thread-555288-4.php and it worked
brilliantly. I must admit I was really worried I would have a dead system,
but no, it worked a treat and as far as I can tell I have no new problems.
Previously I had all the problems and the error messages mentioned in
http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/thread-555288-1.php when I tried to install
Fax Services and nothing I could do fixed the problem.

By the way I believe there are a lot of misconceptions and misinformation
about in many other forum entries about this problem. There seem to be lots
of cases where people have problems finding files - all these problems can be
solved by the user continuing to invoke the Windows Add/Remove Components
menu to install Fax - each time a new file will come up as not found but
actually the system does find it (which is why a different file comes up each
time) - eventually (after about 20 tries) you have accessed each file and the
process apparantly completes but if you look in the Faxsetup.log file you
will find the entries I showed in my previous post, and this is why you have
no fax installed. If you then follow the instructions in
http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/thread-555288-4.php about running 'esentutl'
(spelling is correct) then you will probably solve your problem. No
guarantees of course and you do it at your own risk, like I did.

One other thing, most systems these days will come with a pre-installed copy
of Windows XP so all your installation files WILL be in the C:\I386 directory
- look for this before you go off trying to obtain CDs - this will almost
certainly be the directory that Add/Remove will be looking in and will say it
cannot find the files - ignore this - just persevere and watch as a new file
is not found each time, as mentioned above.

Good luck, and don't blame me!
--
Bernard


"Bernard" wrote:

Like many other people I'm having problems installing the Fax services on my
XP SP2 Pro system. Using Add/Remove Windows Components it seems like
everything goes OK but in fact nothing is installed.
Eventually I found a FaxSetup.log file which is around 38KB in size from
just one attempt at the install. There seems to be 6 key lines in this file
which indicate when the real problem happens but I have no idea how to
interpret these lines. They are as follows

[04/12/07 23:04:53] [0x0aa0] [ ] Installing Fax Service...
[04/12/07 23:04:53] [0x0aa0] [ ] fxocSvc_Install (fax -
Fax.CleanInstall)
[04/12/07 23:04:53] [0x0aa0] [ ] {
[04/12/07 23:04:54] [0x0aa0] [ERR] Failed to install the
services section in section 'Fax.CleanInstall', rc = 0x4b8
[04/12/07 23:04:54] [0x0aa0] [ ] } (1208)
[04/12/07 23:04:54] [0x0aa0] [ERR] Failed to install fax service.
This is a fatal error, abandoning fax install...rc=0x4b8

I can send the full file to anyone who can use it but I think this are the
key lines. Can anyone tell me what these particular error codes mean AND more
importantly what I would need to do to get round them? My system initially
suffered from the problem that the Add/Remove component could not find all
the fax files in the I386 directory but I found that if I continued to invoke
the Add/Remove dialogue for installing Fax it moved on to the next file and
eventually the process completed, but with the results as above.

If anyone can resolve this they will may a lot of people very happy!
--
Bernard

Did it ever occur to you that the reason that a post goes unanswered is that
we have answered it so many times that we now rely upon you to find the
solutions we have posted? Indeed, they may even exist on websites, as you
discovered.
Not sure your experience is very reproducible. Glad it worked for you.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
"Bernard" wrote in message
...
Well, since there were no responses to this I frightened myself to death
by
reading many other related articles and eventually took my life in my
hands.
What did I do? Well I screwed up the courage to do what is said at
http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/thread-555288-4.php and it worked
brilliantly. I must admit I was really worried I would have a dead system,
but no, it worked a treat and as far as I can tell I have no new problems.
Previously I had all the problems and the error messages mentioned in
http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/thread-555288-1.php when I tried to
install
Fax Services and nothing I could do fixed the problem.

By the way I believe there are a lot of misconceptions and misinformation
about in many other forum entries about this problem. There seem to be
lots
of cases where people have problems finding files - all these problems can
be
solved by the user continuing to invoke the Windows Add/Remove Components
menu to install Fax - each time a new file will come up as not found but
actually the system does find it (which is why a different file comes up
each
time) - eventually (after about 20 tries) you have accessed each file and
the
process apparantly completes but if you look in the Faxsetup.log file you
will find the entries I showed in my previous post, and this is why you
have
no fax installed. If you then follow the instructions in
http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/thread-555288-4.php about running
'esentutl'
(spelling is correct) then you will probably solve your problem. No
guarantees of course and you do it at your own risk, like I did.

One other thing, most systems these days will come with a pre-installed
copy
of Windows XP so all your installation files WILL be in the C:\I386
directory
- look for this before you go off trying to obtain CDs - this will almost
certainly be the directory that Add/Remove will be looking in and will say
it
cannot find the files - ignore this - just persevere and watch as a new
file
is not found each time, as mentioned above.

Good luck, and don't blame me!
--
Bernard


"Bernard" wrote:

Like many other people I'm having problems installing the Fax services on
my
XP SP2 Pro system. Using Add/Remove Windows Components it seems like
everything goes OK but in fact nothing is installed.
Eventually I found a FaxSetup.log file which is around 38KB in size from
just one attempt at the install. There seems to be 6 key lines in this
file
which indicate when the real problem happens but I have no idea how to
interpret these lines. They are as follows

[04/12/07 23:04:53] [0x0aa0] [ ] Installing Fax Service...
[04/12/07 23:04:53] [0x0aa0] [ ] fxocSvc_Install (fax -
Fax.CleanInstall)
[04/12/07 23:04:53] [0x0aa0] [ ] {
[04/12/07 23:04:54] [0x0aa0] [ERR] Failed to install the
services section in section 'Fax.CleanInstall', rc = 0x4b8
[04/12/07 23:04:54] [0x0aa0] [ ] } (1208)
[04/12/07 23:04:54] [0x0aa0] [ERR] Failed to install fax
service.
This is a fatal error, abandoning fax install...rc=0x4b8

I can send the full file to anyone who can use it but I think this are
the
key lines. Can anyone tell me what these particular error codes mean AND
more
importantly what I would need to do to get round them? My system
initially
suffered from the problem that the Add/Remove component could not find
all
the fax files in the I386 directory but I found that if I continued to
invoke
the Add/Remove dialogue for installing Fax it moved on to the next file
and
eventually the process completed, but with the results as above.

If anyone can resolve this they will may a lot of people very happy!
--
Bernard

Strangely enough it did occur to me that there might be some hints out there
on the web, which is why I went in search of them. I spent a whole evening
researching the problem after several days trying to do the installation and
looking for logs and clues as to what had gone wrong. However given the
widespread nature of the problem I was sorely disappointed that Microsoft has
not seen fit to either a) fix the problem with a publicly available fix
(after all, people buy the product with the not unreasonable expectation that
the code will at least install), or b) at least summarise the problem and
potential solutions in one place. KB884018 is a masterpiece of ambiguity
passing you on to several other places and talking about 'slipstreaming the
hotfix to your distribution file share' - most people who buy a computer have
no idea what this is talking about - they just want fax to work.

Incidentally I'm convinced my experience is reproducible based on the number
of entries I've seen on the web describing this problem, and allowing for the
varying levels of expertise that different people have, so I'm afraid I have
to beg to differ with you on that one.
--
Bernard


"Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]" wrote:

Did it ever occur to you that the reason that a post goes unanswered is that
we have answered it so many times that we now rely upon you to find the
solutions we have posted? Indeed, they may even exist on websites, as you
discovered.
Not sure your experience is very reproducible. Glad it worked for you.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
"Bernard" wrote in message
...
Well, since there were no responses to this I frightened myself to death
by
reading many other related articles and eventually took my life in my
hands.
What did I do? Well I screwed up the courage to do what is said at
http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/thread-555288-4.php and it worked
brilliantly. I must admit I was really worried I would have a dead system,
but no, it worked a treat and as far as I can tell I have no new problems.
Previously I had all the problems and the error messages mentioned in
http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/thread-555288-1.php when I tried to
install
Fax Services and nothing I could do fixed the problem.

By the way I believe there are a lot of misconceptions and misinformation
about in many other forum entries about this problem. There seem to be
lots
of cases where people have problems finding files - all these problems can
be
solved by the user continuing to invoke the Windows Add/Remove Components
menu to install Fax - each time a new file will come up as not found but
actually the system does find it (which is why a different file comes up
each
time) - eventually (after about 20 tries) you have accessed each file and
the
process apparantly completes but if you look in the Faxsetup.log file you
will find the entries I showed in my previous post, and this is why you
have
no fax installed. If you then follow the instructions in
http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/thread-555288-4.php about running
'esentutl'
(spelling is correct) then you will probably solve your problem. No
guarantees of course and you do it at your own risk, like I did.

One other thing, most systems these days will come with a pre-installed
copy
of Windows XP so all your installation files WILL be in the C:\I386
directory
- look for this before you go off trying to obtain CDs - this will almost
certainly be the directory that Add/Remove will be looking in and will say
it
cannot find the files - ignore this - just persevere and watch as a new
file
is not found each time, as mentioned above.

Good luck, and don't blame me!
--
Bernard


"Bernard" wrote:

Like many other people I'm having problems installing the Fax services on
my
XP SP2 Pro system. Using Add/Remove Windows Components it seems like
everything goes OK but in fact nothing is installed.
Eventually I found a FaxSetup.log file which is around 38KB in size from
just one attempt at the install. There seems to be 6 key lines in this
file
which indicate when the real problem happens but I have no idea how to
interpret these lines. They are as follows

[04/12/07 23:04:53] [0x0aa0] [ ] Installing Fax Service...
[04/12/07 23:04:53] [0x0aa0] [ ] fxocSvc_Install (fax -
Fax.CleanInstall)
[04/12/07 23:04:53] [0x0aa0] [ ] {
[04/12/07 23:04:54] [0x0aa0] [ERR] Failed to install the
services section in section 'Fax.CleanInstall', rc = 0x4b8
[04/12/07 23:04:54] [0x0aa0] [ ] } (1208)
[04/12/07 23:04:54] [0x0aa0] [ERR] Failed to install fax
service.
This is a fatal error, abandoning fax install...rc=0x4b8

I can send the full file to anyone who can use it but I think this are
the
key lines. Can anyone tell me what these particular error codes mean AND
more
importantly what I would need to do to get round them? My system
initially
suffered from the problem that the Add/Remove component could not find
all
the fax files in the I386 directory but I found that if I continued to
invoke
the Add/Remove dialogue for installing Fax it moved on to the next file
and
eventually the process completed, but with the results as above.

If anyone can resolve this they will may a lot of people very happy!
--
Bernard