Upgrade installation always fails

[MeSue]

Lately, every time I try to upgrade an installed program on my X51v, I get a message saying that the old version cannot be removed and that installation has failed. This happens whether I install from an EXE on my desktop or from a CAB file on the PDA. And it happens whether the program was installed in built-in storage or a flash card. And it still happens if I use remove programs to uninstall the software before trying to install the update--with the regular uninstaller or SKTool uninstall.

The only way I have been able to install upgrades recently is to track down the EXE of the program I am upgrading, manually delete it, and then run the installer again for the program I want to update. Up to now, that has worked, but today I am trying to update MortPlayer, and I can't get it to update for anything. Even deleting the entire program directly doesn't work.

Has anyone ever had this happen or know of a solution? I imagine something is screwed up in the registry but I don't know what look for.

[MeSue]

Well, I FINALLY got MortPlayer installed by deleting the whole folder and then installing a version that was older than the one I already had. Then I still was not able to update the older version until after I did a soft reset. Of course, I lost all my settings.

And I still have the problem where I am not able to update any software without jumping through hoops, so if anyone has any ideas for a solution I would love to hear them. I am hoping to avoid a hard reset if I can help it.

[Gigi]

This is just a shot in the dark, but do you remember installing or changing anything before this problem started? And are you able to install NEW programs?

[mostlylisten]

This is unprofessional advice so I'd take it as such.

1st) Make sure the program isn't running in memory delete running programs
2nd) Go to uninstall and uninstall that program
3rd) Soft reset
4th) Check file explorer to see if there is anything to do with that program and at your discretion delete it.

Now that its completely off your ppc you definitely have files on your pc which you might want deleted.

1st Use search in xp and type in app program alist of files will come up where all the files pertaining to this app can be found at your discretion delete files from pc

I"d use caution though.

[MeSue]

Thanks for the suggestions. Installing new programs works fine. It's only updates that have a problem because the removal of the previous version does not ever seem to work. Even when I remove programs the regular way, it always gives me a message that the program could not be removed and then it asks if I want to remove it from the list of installed programs. When I go to the program folder, nothing is removed.

I have gone into running programs and made sure everything was stopped. Mostlylisten, your steps are basically what I have been doing (manually deleting after uninstall fails). Up until today with Mortplayer, that usually worked.

Unfortunately this has been going on for a few months and I don't remember what I might have done before it started. The first time it happened I thought it was a one-time fluke and didn't think much of it, and then after a while I noticed it was always happening with updates.

Around the first of the year, I did a clean install of Vista on my desktop computer and had to set up a new partnership with the Axim... that might be about the time it started. If all my Axim programs were installed prior to that, could it have something to do with it?

[Gigi]

Were these old programs originally installed via ActiveSync or WMDC. If so, the installation/uninstaller files were probably wiped out when you did the clean install of Vista. This might explain your problems if you're trying to upgrade an EXE from your desktop, but I'm still not sure how that would explain the CAB file problem.

One other thought...I remember a long time ago I had problems with uninstalling a program and ended up having to find the original program files that were created via ActiveSync and delete them. I just now tried to look for such files but was unsuccessful.

Have you tried a cleaner utility such as MemMaid or SKTools? They're very helpful for removing programs. Both have free demos.

[mostlylisten]

would installing the program you have to the pc and then downloading the uprgraded verison work?

[MeSue]

Were these old programs originally installed via ActiveSync or WMDC.

Some were probably installed with ActiveSync prior to my switching to Vista and some were installed with WMDC after I switched to Vista in March 2007. I think it is only the ones installed prior to my recent Vista re-do that do not uninstall properly, but I can't be 100% sure because I don't want to uninstall a bunch of stuff to find out.

I think the next time, I will try reinstalling the SAME version before running an upgrade installer. I'm also going to run some of the things in SKTools to see if that helps.

I remember in Windows Vista, you could see all the installed programs on your PDA via ActiveSync. I can't figure out how to get to that in Vista, so the only way to uninstall something is through the PDA. Is that option gone in WMDC?

I do see all my newly installed PDA programs under C:\Program Files, but of course not the older ones.

[MeSue]

Okay.... I did two tests of installing the same version before installing the upgrade with differing results.

First test was Wisbar Advance 3, installed on device.
Same version installer gave me a message that previous version could not be removed, but I said continue anyway and installation was successful. Upgrade was also successful.

Second test was SKTools installed on CF card.
Same version installer gave me a message that previous version could not be removed, but I said continue anyway and installation was NOT successful. Went to Remove Programs and removed it from there. Uninstall was successful. Then attempted upgrade and it was NOT successful. Soft reset, then tried upgrade again... this time upgrade was successful.

Not much of a pattern to it, but soft resetting after a attempting to remove the previous version (even if unsuccessful) seems to help.

[Gigi]

One other thing you can try is contacting one of the software developers for support. See if they have any ideas. It does sound like it's related to your upgrade to Vista though.