This is a collection of helpful Newsgroup posts from MS people. 
See also H2 FAQ for H2 related issues.

>I've been using h2reg for quite a while, and am now getting the 
>following error when trying to register or unregister a namespace:
>MS Help 2.x services have been locked by another process. If this 
>error persists restart Windows to release the lock.
>I've tried restarting my machine several times. I've also tried to 
>unregister and re-register the namespace several times to no avail. 
>I get the same error when trying to unregister my namespace or any 
>other namespace using FAR.
>I can still open up VS .NET and view the installed help just fine.
>I'm assuming my system is in some sort of weird state. Does anyone 
>have any ideas of how I can fix this?
>
>Thanks,
>Earl Seugling

In <MSHelp2@yahoogroups.com>, "Mark Brandjord" <markbran@m...> wrote:

It sound like you started a help installation that has not completed, for one reason or another.

Check for the presence of the file: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users{.Windows}\Application Data\Microsoft Help\Rgstrtn.lck

If that file is on the system, it prevents another help install process from running until the one that is currently running completes.

Rebooting the system should clear that file.

If the file is still there after reboot, you can manually delete the file to clear the lock; however this means that one of help systems you installed recently did not complete its installation correctly. When the lock file is created, a directory in the Microsoft Help folder is also created to back up the HxN/HxL files that get changed during a transaction. On Commit, this folder is thrown away, on Revert/Rollback, the backups are restored. The name of this folder is the GUID representing the product key that created the transaction.

I hope that this helps. 
Mark Brandjord

"Jon Titchener" <jtitchen@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:071201c2a146$809e8410$89f82ecf@TK2MSFTNGXA01...
> Hi,
>
> I'm trying to install the core SDK, the common files are
> downloaded and then when it tries to download the core SDK
> I get the following errors.
>
> 1603: A windows installation error has occurred
> 512: Installation failed with one or more errors. Please
> correct errors and try again.
>
> I'm running Windows NT with SP6
> Any help would be gratefully appreciated.
>
> Thanks.

Jon,

there can be various causes of 1603 error

msi documentation says:
	1603 The file [2][3] is being held in use by the following process: 
	Name: [4], Id: [5], Window Title: '[6]'.
We have run into the following issues occasionally:
Error 1603 If you receive a 1603 error from the Windows Installer (InstMSI.exe) 
and are installing on Windows 2000 or Windows NT 4.0, restart your system and log on 
with an account that is a member of the local administrators group.

Error 1603 If you receive a 1603 error from the Windows Installer and 
your %TEMP% directory is encrypted, you must decrypt the
directory to successfully install the SDK.

Error 1603 If you receive a 1603 error from the Windows Installer after having 
cancelled an install. A file rgstrtn.lck (its a hidden file in a hidden directory) 
is created and install will not be allowed until the file has been deleted or the 
machine rebooted also have heard about some virus scanning engines locking files while 
scanning, this could also cause the 1603 error

--
Cheers,
Derek [MS-SDK]
-Please do not send email directly to this alias.  This alias is for newsgroup purposes only
-This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights

Hi John,

I am sorry to hear the problem still exist. I have already done some 
research on the log you have posted. However, I am not very clear about the 
logs. There seem to be 2 separate errors here:

IHxRegisterSession::CreateTransaction() returned
8004036e. BeginTransaction() ERROR: Attempt failed because another
transaction was running. Trying to Rollback current transaction
({E05F0409-0E9A-48A1-AC04-E35E3033604A})
IHxRegisterSession::ContinueTransaction() returned 80004005.
BeginTransaction() ERROR: Could not restart current transaction.
BeginTransaction() ERROR: Could not Rollback current transaction.  HelpFile
registration will abort. Registration session
{E05F0409-0E9A-48A1-AC04-E35E3033604A} was *not* created.Action ended
19:18:41: InstallFinalize. Return value 3.

and

***ERRORLOG EVENT*** :
ISetupComponent::Pre/Post/Install() failed in
ISetupManager::InstallManagerHelper()[03/15/04,16:36:06] setup.exe:
***ERRORLOG EVENT*** : Component error string not specified in
ISetupManager::AddToActionResultCollection()

As a result, I thought reading the MSI log directly might be necessary.

I have another suggestion. Please look for the file "*.lck" (e.g. 
"Rgstrtn.lck") on your machine. The file is likely a hidden file and under 
the following folders:

%appdata%\Microsoft Help 
or %temp% 
or \Documents and Settings\All Users{.Windows}\Application Data\Microsoft Help

If we can locate the file, please copy it to another folder for backup and 
remove it.

Also, please see if ANY directories exist under  "%APPDATA%\Microsoft Help" 
or "\Documents and Settings\All Users{.Windows}\Application Data\Microsoft Help", 
they need to be moved to another directory, a rename to another name will 
not work.

Please give it a try and see whether this helps or not.

Regards,

Felix Wang
Microsoft Online Partner Support
Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
This posting is provided "as is" with no warranties and confers no rights.

Michael, 

I apologize for not responding sooner. These MSDN July 2002 issues are 
really putting our debugging skills to their limits. For the error you 
mentioned here, I got this out of the log: 

MSI (s) (C8:34): Creating MSIHANDLE (7135) of type 790536 for thread 1844
 IHxRegisterSession::CreateTransaction() returned 8004036e.
 BeginTransaction() ERROR: Attempt failed because another transaction was 
running.
 Trying to Rollback current transaction 
({005F0409-6759-11D5-A54F-0090278A1BB8})
 IHxRegisterSession::ContinueTransaction() returned 80004005.
 BeginTransaction() ERROR: Could not restart current transaction.
 BeginTransaction() ERROR: Could not Rollback current transaction.  
HelpFile registration will abort.
 Registration session {005F0409-6759-11D5-A54F-0090278A1BB8} was *not* 
created.
Action ended 20:38:04: InstallFinalize. Return value 3.
MSI (s) (C8:34): User policy value 'DisableRollback' is 0
MSI (s) (C8:34): Machine policy value 'DisableRollback' is 0

For this problem, please see the solution below. Also, please note to 
everyone else reading this, that if you have a problem installing MSDN July 
2002 and you don't see the above in your log file, DO NOT implement this 
fix. 

1) On the machine in question, can you see if we have the following file: 
Rgstrtn.lck
    This file would be under: 
   "%APPDATA%\Microsoft Help" or %temp% or directory under %temp% or 
"\Documents 
and Settings\All Users{.Windows}\Application Data\Microsoft Help"

2) Also, see if ANY directories exist under  "%APPDATA%\Microsoft Help" or 
"\Documents and Settings\All Users{.Windows}\Application Data\Microsoft Help", they 
need to 
be moved to another directory for this error to go away, a rename to 
another name 
will not work, the code is checking the existance of ANY directory 
regardless of 
name and the directories "%APPDATA%\Microsoft Help" or "\Documents and 
Settings\All 
Users\Application Data\Microsoft Help" having any directory under it will 
not resolve this error.

Will Buffington
Microsoft Developer Support