Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013 encountered an error during setup

Question

Here's the error which occurs while installing the binaries

No product configuration wizard yet! Just good old Windows Installer

2014/05/16 23:49:06:025::[1880] MSI(INFO): 'Action start 23:49:06: ArpWrite.'
2014/05/16 23:49:07:409::[1880] MSI(INFO): 'CustomAction ArpWrite returned actual error code 1603 (note this may not be 100% accurate if translation happened inside sandbox)'
2014/05/16 23:49:07:409::[1880] MSI(INFO): 'Action ended 23:49:07: ArpWrite. Return value 3.'
[...]
2014/05/16 23:49:07:425::[1880] Error: Failed to install product:  D:\global\oserver.MSI ErrorCode: 1603(0x643). 
2014/05/16 23:49:07:425::[1880] Log level changed from: Standard to: Verbose
2014/05/16 23:49:07:425::[1880] Rolling back chain

I tried to install SharePoint 2013 on a shiny new Hyper-V VM (host OS is Windows 8.1).

This is what I tried already:

• Using Windows Server 2012 (no R2, no update)
• Using SharePoint Server 2013 (no SP1)
• installing all windows udpates prior to sharepoint installation
• any combination of these
• installing office prior to sharepoint
• installing visual studio prior to sharepoint
• using a generation 1 or generation 2 type virtual machine
• different license keys (enterprise and standard for sharepoint)
• using 2, 4 or 6 virtual cpus
• I made sure the .iso images I use match those on MSDN (SHA1 hashes match)
• both online and offline installations

The problem is reproducible. I did manage to successfully install the binaries twice (out of like 50 times). Curious as I am I tried to revert to an earlier snapshot and reproduce the successful installation attempt. I failed twice. I believe there's a 'random' thing part of the equation.

I'm out of ideas.

Answer 1

I was facing the same issue, after researching for almost one whole day I found all the failed solutions which you have mentioned here. Then I found the solution which worked, and is also very logical and safe. Here is the link to the blog post with details about the solution.

https://www.devfacto.com/insights/resolved-error-1603-installing-sharepoint

So to resolve this, we wrote the following PowerShell script (run as Administrator):

if(!(Test-Path HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Installer)){
New-Item -Path HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Installer | Out-Null
}
$regProps = Get-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Installer
if(! $regProps.logging){
New-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Installer -Name logging -Value voicewarmup -PropertyType String | Out-Null
}
if(! $regProps.debug){
New-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Installer -Name debug -Value 3 -PropertyType DWord | Out-Null
}

Answer 2

I got the same error Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013 encountered an error during setup,

In my case, the root cause was because of using only one processor core for my Hyper - V to install SharePoint that should be more than one so I followed the mentioned steps here to increase it , Hope this help you.

Answer 3

For those installing on a hardware server, check the Power Options in the server BIOS and change from Performance to Balanced. This was the fix for a similar reported issue when installing Office Web Apps, and it worked for our Sharepoint 2013 install after many, many frustrating hours.

Answer 4

I had the exactly same issue with my SharePoint 2016 installation. I unzipped the ISO and ran the wizard again which worked perfectly fine.

Complete details here.

Answer 5

In my case, I installed updates and restarted the server then the problem solved