How to: Error Installing SQL Server 2005 Express SP3

RPS 5.12

Helps when encountering error 'SQL BPA Command line has encountered a problem and needs to close' when running the Windows Installshield Wizard for Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition Server Pack 3 (SP3).

If you open the Application Event Log in the event viewer after the failure, you can notice the error below:

The error 29552 indicated in the MsiInstaller error means that the Upgrade Advisor (SQL tool used during setup) encountered a problem when dealing with Reporting Services.

If you open the RS.log log file located under C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data\Microsoft\SQL Server 2005 Upgrade Advisor\log, you can get more information about what leads the Upgrade Advisor to fail.

This indicated that the BpaCmd.exe command line (called by the Upgrade advisor) failed because it couldn’t locate the file BPAClient.dll (causing the FileNotFoundException exception).

There is a simple workaround that you can use in order to achieve the setup of SQL Server 2005 Express Edition Service Pack 3 with success.

Here are the steps of the workaround:

• Copy the BPAClient.dll file located under 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Setup Bootstrap\BPA\bin' to:  'C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Setup Bootstrap\BPA'.

• Run the SQL 2005 SP3 setup again.