Last time I mentioned that I ran into Event ID 4375 when attempting to install Search Server 2008 Express. It turns out that this is a Very Bad Event Indeed (VBEI). You know you’re in trouble when you find a Microsoft tech note that tells you that there’s basically no way you’re going to figure this out, and get ready to contact Microsoft Product Support. No way, sez I, and with the confidence of the uninformed, I attack the event logs. After all, that’s what they’re for, right?
One of the relevant ones is %windir%windowsupdate.log. Open that up in your favorite text editor and do a search for “error” and “fatal”. The other relevant log is the Component Based Servicing log, at %windir%logscbscbs.log. Here, just do a search for “error.” So far, so good: I found a number of reported problems in both logs. (There’s nothing worse than having a system problem that doesn’t generate any errors anywhere!) The trouble is that once you find these errors, there’s no good guide to tell you where to go next.
For example, after decoding some of the hex-based error codes with the help of the MSDN error list (at msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms681381.aspx), I discovered that one of my errors is “element not found.” OK, now what? I couldn’t find any guidance on microsoft.com or even on the broader Net that would take me further. The “element not found” error apparently wasn’t elementary. Your only choice now would be to bundle up the log files and send them off to Microsoft for analysis.
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