A solution to 1603 Fatal install error at driver preloading stage

[XPEHOPE3]

I've invested two weeks of my life to get past this error and finally solved it. Maybe someone would find this helpful...

The problem was the following: I was trying to install the full driver package for my All in One HP Photosmart C5283 for Windows 7, and no matter what the installation stopped at the third 'stage', showing "1603 Fatal install error". After some days I've found the following (the log file names and contents are from trying to install only the basic driver, with both update options unticked):

File c:\ProgramData\HP\Installer\smth\hpzset000.log contained these strings:

20120314214144:000288EBA:0001(0215-0000)(hpzsetup.exe)[00002154|a|000003|t|+00000000000011583488|d|+00000000000011583488|s|Now Launching=C:\HP\Setup\hpzprl01.exe -inf -m preload_drivers "-wStub" "394238" -l RUS -f "C:\Windows\hpoins21.dat" -Validate No -w 459624]
20120314214145:0003FE9A8:0008(0216-0001)(hpzsetup.exe)## Exit code=1603

 File c:\ProgramData\HP\Installer\smth\hpzprl001.log contained these:

20120314214145:0003F4818:0001(0001-0001)(hpzprl01.exe)DriverPackagePreinstall did not succeded for the file: C:\HP\Setup\..\hposcu12.inf with error = 0x5
20120314214145:0003F95DC:0008(0001-0000)(hpzprl01.exe)## SetupINFsListedInDatFile failed with Fatal error during installation.

 File c:\Windows\INF\setupapi.dev.log contained these:

     sto:      {Index Driver Package: C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\hprdv_u.inf_x86_neutral_f2327da0664d824f\hprdv_u.inf} 23:54:43.306
     idb:           Registered driver store entry 'hprdv_u.inf_x86_neutral_f2327da0664d824f'.
!!!  idb:           Failed to update active driver store entry, Error = 0x00000005
!!!  idb:           Failed to publish 'hprdv_u.inf', Error = 0x00000005
!!!  idb:           Error 5: Access is denied.
!!!  sto:           Failed to publish 'C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\hprdv_u.inf_x86_neutral_f2327da0664d824f\hprdv_u.inf'. Error = 0x00000005
     sto:      {Index Driver Package: exit(0x00000005)} 23:54:43.343
     sto:      {DRIVERSTORE_IMPORT_NOTIFY_END} 23:54:43.343
     ndv:           No system restore point was set earlier.
     sto:      {DRIVERSTORE_IMPORT_NOTIFY_END: exit(0x00000005)} 23:54:43.343
!    sto:      Failed to rollback driver package registration. Error = 0x00000032
     sto:      Rolled back driver package import.
!!!  sto:      Failed to import driver package into Driver Store. Error = 0x00000005
     sto: {Stage Driver Package: exit(0x00000005)} 23:54:43.346
!!!  sto: Failed to stage driver package to Driver Store. Error = 0x00000005, Time = 218 ms
<<<  Section end 2012/03/14 23:54:43.358
<<<  [Exit status: FAILURE(0x00000005)]

 After the last log I understood the error to be of "access denied" type. However no fiddling with permissions, taking ownership of any driverstore related directories, running anything  as administrator wouldn't help. The REAL problem was that some oem##.inf files in c:\Windows\inf were READ-ONLY.

So if you see something alike in your logs, try the following:

1. Start an elevated command prompt: Start -> All Programs -> Accessories, Right click on Command Prompt and select "Run as administrator"
2. run 'pnputil -e' there
3. look what NEXT several oem##.inf files are going to be installed: If the command from #2 enumerated oem0.inf, oem1.inf, oem3.inf, oem4.inf, the next THREE oem##.inf files are going to be: oem2.inf, oem5.inf, oem6.inf. I mean, at first fill the 'holes' and then add 1 as many times as needed.
4. Navigate to c:\Windows\inf
5. Check that each file from #3 is NOT read-only.

Now some explanation.

 hpzprl01.exe preloads something. In my case it was run with keys '' -inf -m preload_drivers", so it preloaded drivers. In case of the full driver package for C5283, it would preload THREE drivers: hposcu12.inf, hpRDV_u.inf, hpRDV_vp.inf. Unpack your driver package somewhere and look at all inf-files but Autorun.inf in the root directory - these are probably going to be preloaded.

To preload a driver the driver installation package actually does something like this: "pnputil -a C:\HP\ hposcu12.inf" . After such commands the drivers are copied to c:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\hposcu12.inf_x86_neutral_... AND A NEW oem##.inf file is created (OR OVERWRITTEN) in c:\Windows\inf. The next in queue in my case were oem9.inf, oem10.inf, oem11.inf. They all existed in my case, and all three were read only. Actually there are all from 0 to 24, while 'pnputil -e' lists only the first nine (0-8). BTW, oem10.inf and oem11.inf appeared after some VMWare installation (bridge and net adapter, and the network at my only virtual machine is still working after I've overwritten the oem##.inf files. Yet I haven't tried uninstalling anything yet - this might remove wrong drivers).

PS: after I've made three files not read only, I could install the package, but any addition of any devices fails, but that's gonna be another post.

PS2: seems like this might solve a lot of problems:

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Printer-All-in-One-Install-Setup/Photosmart-C4385-printer-installation-...

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Printer-All-in-One-Install-Setup/error-during-C309a-installation/m-p/12...

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Printer-All-in-One-Install-Setup/HP-photosmart-C4580-fatal-install-erro...

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Printer-All-in-One-Software/Fatal-Installation-Error/m-p/1204171

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Printer-All-in-One-Install-Setup/install-error-1603-for-c4480/m-p/12673...

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Printer-All-in-One-Install-Setup/Access-Denied-installation-errors-for-...

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Printer-All-in-One-Install-Setup/Officejet-6500-software-installation-p... 

[XPEHOPE3]

Actually on further investigations it appeared I had a corrupted driver store: it just shouldn't be the case of 'pnputil -e' listing not ALL oem##.infs present, I also had an inordinately small c:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\INFCACHE.1 file (40kB instead of 1.7mB) and c:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\drvindex.dat was dated 2011, July 13. Also I couldn't add ANY printer with an error of 'can't find core package', and most inbox printer drivers would appear unsigned in the add printer dialog.
Thanks god I've found my old HDD with this very system dated 2011, July 1. Everything works there.