Hello. For several months our installation of XP Pro failed to give us access to Help and Support. We tried a number of things to fix this, copying files from other pc's running XP Pro and such. When nothing worked we finally decided to do a Repair Installation.
There were two problems that presented during that installation, both generating error messages. The first referred to the absence of a file called msdart.dll, which I have since located and installed. The second referred to an inability to locate the 'expected' version of Internet Explorer. Whether either of these things is relevant to the problem I'll define, I do not know.
My Belarc Advisor reveals that virtually all of my Windows XP Service Packs were undone by the Repair Installation. This included SP1, SP2 and what is called an SP3 Preview. Efforts to reinstall them consistently fail, citing the absence of a file called update.inf, a file I have been unable to locate anywhere at all --- not even on another pc running XP Pro.
It gets decidedly worse. Microsoft no longer recognizes our system as capable of Windows Update, giving an error message of 0x8024D00C. When I search the MSDN for that error code I find nothing. As it turns out, according to what I've read elswhere, some error code references are 'blocked' by Microsoft if you're not running SP1. So the whole thing is something of a self-defeating loop.
SP2 and the SP3 Preview I have as setup files on my computer. They will not install because of the absence of this update.inf file. Moreover, it's probably not so wise to install them without SP1 in place.
In short, everything seems to hinge on the loss of the update.inf file and probably its partner update.pnf in the same folder. I have run Google searches for several days on the matter trying to locate a source for these files and have learned that it is likely I am missing six other files from this same folder. Of course they're not on the installation disk at all. They appear to be files that Microsoft installs post-installation persuant to both activation and registration. But it may be that once, for any system, this has been accomplished there's no mechanism in place to note their absence and install them a second time. I do not know this to be the case. But since these files are not on the installation disk itself, it seems like the only conclusion to draw.
My objectives then are twofold and appear to be overlapping in nature. One is to be able to recover access to Windows Update. The other is to be able to reinstall all my Service Packs. I have followed a great deal of technical advice as I've found it, doing such things as making sure my Cryptographic Service is running and using the command console to verify a dozen or more differnet dll's. Again however it is the absence of update.inf that seems to be the issue. Anyone willing and able to help me acquire this and other related files would likely be instrumental in getting our system back in working order. Please respond and advise if you consider yourself familiar with this kind of a problem. I'd be perfectly glad to have someone send them to me by mail as file attachments. To date what I've seen mentioned as needful are the following files.
update.inf and update.pnf
updatebr.inf and updatebr.pnf
updencin.inf and updencin.pnf
updencts.inf and updencts.pnf
Thanks,
Tom and Roxanne
