Win 11 - v16 EA MSI installer not working

[Thelonius]

I let my license for Sparx EA lapse several months ago. I even went so far as to uninstall my previous Sparx EA license on my Win 11 laptop. Then - feeling guilty - I bought the full EA Ultimate license again a few days ago. Now trying to install on a machine that does not have a previous version installed. However, the MSI installer is failing, throwing the image below.

Has anyone else had this happen? I tried to install with Bitdefender anti-virus turned off but it still fails. Running Windows 11 22H2. Not running OS in Safe Mode (obvs). So is it possible the "Windows Installer is not correctly installed"? Haven't had this message when installing other apps. So I am "contacting my support personnel for assistance" - which is all of you. Thanks in advance for any knowledge you may be able to share. :-)

[Sunshine]

I managed to install V16 64 bit on Windows 11 okay. I did get a message about having to download something from Microsoft but it was a while ago and I've forgotten what it was. May have been a visual studio dll.

[Thelonius]

I've sent two emails to Sparx Support - but these have been ignored for two days now.

My guess is that the MSI installer checks for an existing install and is not coded to handle the event if no existing install is found, so it just throws a generic error and leaves the customer AUD$361.45 out of pocket. Sweet.

Is there a better way to rattle the Sparx cage and get someone in Sparx to think about this?

[Geert Bellekens]

Just a long shot. I do have issues when I try to install from an .msi stored on my google drive folder.
I have to copy the msi to a folder on my C: drive to get it to work.

In your case it looks like there is something wrong with With the windows installer service itself.

Here are a few things you might want to try: https://thegeekpage.com/the-windows-installer-service-could-not-be-accessed/

Geert

[Eve]

My guess is that the MSI installer checks for an existing install and is not coded to handle the event if no existing install is found

It has been tested on clean Windows installs. That is not the problem.

It would appear to be a problem with the installer service component of Windows.

[Thelonius]

Thanks for your help Geert and Eve.

I can install other apps without this problem occurring. I've never seen this error before. I don't think there is a problem with my Win 11 install or with Win 11. I think it's likely this problem is caused by the Sparx EA MSI installer. When I first attempted to install the MSI, the screen below was displayed. Nothing happened after 30 minutes waiting. Then the error message previously noted was finally displayed. Thereafter, the same error was immediately displayed. I followed the procedure noted by Geert (thanks again Geert) and that does not seem to eliminate the problem.

If Sparx cannot help me with this, then I'm happy to receive a refund for the money I've just spent on an Ultimate license. Eve - how would I go about this? Thanks again.

[Eve]

A previous failed install completely changes things.

It's likely that means there is a partial install still active somewhere in the depth of Windows.

If you haven't already, restarting windows may clear that. Otherwise, follow the Microsoft guide on How to troubleshoot Windows Installer errors (That page explicitly describes the error "The Windows Installer Service could not be accessed." as a reason to follow the guide.)

Once you've run that, I would recommend running the installer with logging just in case the first error happens again.

msiexec /i easetupfull_x64.msi /L*vx! installealog.txt

In short, that will give enough information that it's hard to find anything. Hopefully it will be enough to find out what your issue is.

If none of that is helpful and you want a refund... I have absolutely nothing to do with that, I imagine our sales team ([email protected]) will be able to help you.

[Thelonius]

Update on this problem.

While following the various methods to reinstall the Windows Installer software on my Win 11 laptop, my system became totally corrupted and had to be reset. A complete re-install of Win 11 was required.

Good news is the Sparx install MSI now works. I'll never know why it failed initially.

Bad news is I have to re-install all the apps I had on my laptop. No personal data or documents lost as far as I can tell.

Thanks Geert and Eve for your help.