Live Communicator 2005 fails to install – fixed

I had a client’s LiveCommunicator 2005 stop working and part of the troubleshooting was to remove the software and reinstall. Unfortunately, when I went to reinstall the software, the installation was interrupted and did not complete. No errors were logged in the event log but by looking at the install log file and searching for “return value 3” (standard practise when debugging msi installs) I found the following “ActivateTimeBomb. Return value 3”.  A google  search only pulled back 3 results, all for Live Communicator which was a good  sign, but I did find a posting on the appdeploy forums that offered a solution.  I had already applied this patch to the server but had not needed to apply it to the client before, but doing so fixed the problem. The patch file can be found from the kb article 974571 or a direct download.

I was suprised to see how little information was available on google and how useless the install process was. The timebomb information was hidden away in the install log and  knowing that “Return Value 3” was the key to a successful troubleshooting session.

Comments

  1. Jawad chow

    I am on the same boat when installing the office comm in clients pc and face same issue.

    Downloaded the .exe from the direct download link in above.

    used it and works a treat…

    very helpfull…

    thanks heaps

    Jc

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  3. Zenro

    Hi.. I’m using Win7. Download the patch but still show the same error.

    Told to remove the update but still encounter the same error.

    May i know if there is any way i can do? I cant find any other information online.

  4. fred

    thanks sooo much..this was driving me nutts!!…I had a couple clients that just couldn’t log in… I was comparing network info and firewall configs and this patch did the trick… I first uninstalled the existing client, applied the update, reinstalled client and it worked..

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