As part of a system we have developed we use the MSDE component as the database. On several machines, under different operating systems we have the following errors when trying to install.

From Sqlstp.log:

Setup failed to configure the server. Refer to the server error logs and cnfgsvr.out for more information.

From cnfgsvr.out:

An error occurred while attempting to start the service (31)

I have trawled the internet and Microsoft support site. I have completely uninstalled MSDE by removing registry entries (MSSQLServer etc) and deleting the MSSQL7 directory. All the machine had a working versions of MSDE on, but installed some software that stopped the server from running. After uninstalling and re-installing the above errors occur.

Yes I have stopped all virus software etc whilst trying to do the install.

Microsoft has been no use (reinstall the operating system) and this is my last hope. Any ideas greatly received.

How are you installing MSDE on the client systems?

Does it fail on all client machines or only some?

Jeff Mason
Custom Apps, Inc.
www.custom-apps.com

Via InstallShield, it kicks off this batch file:

start /wait x86\setup\setupsql.exe -s -SMS -f1 "sql70ins.iss"

Contents of sql70ins.iss:

[InstallShield Silent]
Version=v5.00.000
File=Response File
[DlgOrder]
Dlg0=SetupMethod-0
Count=10
Dlg1=SdWelcome-0
Dlg2=SdLicense-0
Dlg3=SdRegisterUser-0
Dlg4=SetupTypeSQL-0
Dlg5=DlgCpSortUnicode-0
Dlg6=DlgServerNetwork-0
Dlg7=DlgServices-0
Dlg8=SdStartCopy-0
Dlg9=SdFinish-0
[SetupMethod-0]
Component-type=string
Component-count=1
Component-0=Local
Result=1
[SdWelcome-0]
Result=1
[SdLicense-0]
Result=1
[SdRegisterUser-0]
szName=microsoft
szCompany=1
Result=1
[SetupTypeSQL-0]
szDir=C:\MSSQL7
Result=302
szDataDir=C:\MSSQL7
[DlgCpSortUnicode-0]
SortId=52
LCID=1033
CompStyle=196609
Result=1
[DlgServerNetwork-0]
NetworkLibs=4095
TCPPort=1433
TCPPrxy=Default
NMPPipeName=\\.\pipe\sql\query
Result=1
[DlgServices-0]
Local-Domain=3855
AutoStart=61455
Result=1
[SdStartCopy-0]
Result=1
[SdFinish-0]
Result=1
bOpt1=0
bOpt2=0

Thanks Jeff, hope this gives you some ideas.

Not many, I'm afraid. We haven't used IS for installing MSDE; we instead used MSDE's setup with its setup.ini - that was MSDE2.0 (SQL Server 2000), though.

I find it interesting that no mention is made that I can see in the .iss file of the authentication method SQL server is to use...

Jeff Mason
Custom Apps, Inc.
www.custom-apps.com

Yes, well, er, keep that one under your hat. We have many of thousands of users out there successfully using our software, but all the problems that support receive are based on SQL Sever 7 becoming corrupted and not starting. (Sometimes because MDAC 2.7 is installed and sqlsvr.dll is incompatible - sometimes something else).

I have had to tell 5 individuals they can't use our software because they can't install MSDE.

So again, anyone with any success in enabling MSDE or SQL7 to install after seeing -> An error occurred while attempting to start the service (31) please let me know how.