Hello, We are having an issues with my son's dell laptop D620. It is running XP pro 2002 SP3. The problem seems to occur both randomly and anytime the windows auto updater trys to install a program. Sometimes 1-2 minutees after boot up, an install starts out of nowhere. It proceeds as a normal install would 1) the install status window with progress bar appears and the bar progresses for 1/3 of the way, then 2) a second status window appears stating that the feature we are trying to use is on a CD ROM that is not available. this box inlcudes the browse folder area which happens to have the numeral "1" in the text entry area. 3) you can either cancel which just loops back to the install status then back to the second bowse status window, or select OK which brings up a third status box stating that path "1" cannot be found. 4) if you select the OK box that appears in the status message in the second half of item 3 above, you get a 4th status box that reads "The installation package for the product Status cannot be found. Try the installation again using a valid copy of the installation package 'status.msi'. The only way to cancel this whole thing is to use the task manager applications tab and end the 'status' application. I don't know what triggers this to start. This same behavior seems to occur after some (not all) windows auto updates are downloaded and in the process of being installed. this problem seems to have began after a failed install of IE 7 - which has now been installed correctly. I have just run and rerun multiple malware packages and antivirus packages to make sure the system is clean, and I have run the XP system repair proceedure from the XP disk. System restore to an earlier date does not cure the problem. Any ideas on how to correct this? Thanks, Todd

Todd, There are a couple of things that come to mind...but first have you done a complete system scan using your ant-virus and malware spyware programs...You need to make sure that the computer is clean from any of this garbage. There is a fix for this type of issue: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/... *************************************************************** You might have a windows installer corrupted and thus it triggers a lot of different issues if so. Add/remove programs in control panel and show all updates and look for the windows installer package and just remove it. reboot and then go to windows update and it will reinstall the latest one. Change Is Good http://www.citizenlink.org/Stopligh...

Thanks for the response. I have done a complete malware scan using several products (Malwarebytes, spybot, etc) and a complete Virus scan using two products (Kaspersky 09 and Norton). The system is perfectly clean at least as far as all of these programs indicates. Beware - that first link listed gets fowarded to some unrealted game site in Denmark? and is infected with the Virut.ce virus. That promply totally destroyed my main desktop system. Fortunately I keep a double backup of the Os and data so I was able to recover in about 12 hours - hence the delay in the response. I will remove the windows updater per the control panel and reinstall that from the microsoft site. Hopefully that will cure the issue. Any other ideas? Thanks, Todd