MSDE Setup fails...

I don't think I've ever worked so long and tried so many suggestions, 
recommendations and followed KB article processes in my life with so little 
success -- in fact, none -- and so intransigent a set of symptoms.  I hope 
that there is someone here that will be able to help me.

To set the hardware scene:  I have a 3 year old Sony Vaio with P4 HT 3.2 
ghz, 1GB ram, 560 GB of hard drive and a new ATI video card.  It has had 
lots of software installed and removed over the last couple of years.  My 
wife has an almost identical eMachine that is 9 months old and is still in 
the exact state that it was when it came out of the box.  Both run XP Pro 
sp2.

The problem: I purchased a copy of Pinnacle Studio Plus vers 10 video 
editing software.  With it I got also their media manager which uses MSDE. 
I have not been able to successfully install that software.  It gets to the 
exact same spot (says that it is 5 sec from finishing the MSDE setup) and 
then quits with an error every time.  I've tried manually installing MSDE 
and the symptoms and results are exactly the same -- each and every time. 
I've verified that File & print sharing are installed and enabled.  I've 
verified that my policy is to install unsigned drivers.  I've cleaned out 
the registry of failed attempt entries.  I've removed all of the file 
directories.  I've run the MDAC repair that I found in another post here. 
I've got the setup logs and the error logs, including the verbose log from 
my manual attempt but it has not helped me.

Nothing has made one single iota of a difference.  Kinda like trying to 
teach a pig to tell time -- won't work, just irritates the pig and 
frustrates you.

Now, here's the kicker:  I tried the install on my wife's machine and it 
went perfectly.  Installed without a hitch.

The logs (setup & error) are similar, but as you might guess, differ in a 
couple of key respects.  I have put the successful setup log and error log 
into a spread*** along with the unsuccessful setup log and error log. 
I've matched the common entries from both on the same row and hi-lighted the 
differences.

If there is someone here that can help me I can provide this file, or 
anything else related that you might need, via e-mail.

Can someone give me a hand with this?

Frustrated in Seattle




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