I've redone my cd 3 times already. there's clearly something wrong that I'm not seeing. I'm not trying to crap the boards or anything, I just need a solution.

r u using reduction programs or anything ? such as nlite or gosh's method?

I used nlite on my first cd, but on my most recent two I just manually removed cmpnents, SUPPORT, VALUEADD, i386\WIN9XMIG, i386\WIN9XUPG, and i386\WINNTUPG.

r u applying tweaks or anything? cuz just that wont do it

Now seriously, DON'T do it again. Next time you will have posting disabled. If nothing else, double/tripple posting will have members NOT even look in the topic.

so msiexec.dll is missing during install? but a repair fixes it?

Are you repairing from your Unattended CD? or the original?

verify the file is on the Unattended CD. verify if it is on the CD, that it's also listed in TXTSETUP.SIF.

If the last two conditios turn to be false (they're not there) then you're doing something else and not telling us.

the repair was done from my "original" (a normal windows xp cd with SP2 slipstream) and that fixed the problem. I went and checked, and cant find msiexec.dll listen in txtsetup.sif on the original or the unattended, nor can i find the file anywhere.

hmm...I'll check my CD when I get back to my dorm...I'm in the Computing Lab atm.

Do a search (using the Window sSearch function) and have it scan archives as well. Do remember that it could very well be msiexec.dl_ in I386

ok - checked my cd and the harddrive, doesn't appear to be on either.

just cause I was curious, I have no msiexec.dll ANYWHERE on my system, but Windows Installer works fine.

Listing your files, and SPECIFIC edits will help to solve this problem. And I mean SPECIFIC! Did you edit any file? What did you remove? WHat tweaks are you using?

If you don't remember, start over AGAIN, and go STEP BY STEP adding something till it breaks.