FHC new PC installation hung

The Lite Touch Installation of FHC Desktop 5.9 is hung about half-way through "Installing FamilySearch 2.27", and has been for about half an hour. Windows XP Task Manager says the application is running, but it also says the CPU usage is 0%. The disk activity light on the Optiplex 780 is flashing a little faster than once per second, but nothing else is happening.

I think I have four alternatives:
1. force a shutdown to power-off, reboot, and hope the installation program can figure out where it left off
2. kill the installation process, reboot, and hope the installation program can figure out where it left off
3. leave it running all night and check it tomorrow morning on my way to work (but I think this will lead me back to choices 1 or 2)
4. choose Door Number Three.

For now, I am executing Option 3, since our local time is 10:10 pm. I'll check this forum after I get home and again before I leave for work tomorrow morning.

Any useful suggestions cheerfully and gratefully accepted.

-- champted

champted wrote:The Lite Touch Installation of FHC Desktop 5.9 is hung about half-way through "Installing FamilySearch 2.27", and has been for about half an hour.

I would suggestion one other option: kill the installer, and start over at the beginning, but do a minimal installation. Our FHCs aren't using FamilySearch 2.27 anymore -- I can't imagine what it's useful for. Installing that old DOS software might be problematic. By keeping it minimal, you increase your chances that you'll complete the installation. Then you can always add individual applications as needed later using the software deployment portal.

I ran into this same problem. Do not shut down or reboot the computer! You will lose the rest of the software installs. Worse yet you will not be able to get Sophos installed.

There is an interactive FamilySearch 2.27 dialog box hidden behind an installation graphic box. I can't remember what the graphic is but it can be moved to reveal the dialog box. The hidden dialog box states that to complete the installation it needs to reboot. It is waiting for your response whether you want to reboot or not. Select "No" to proceed on with the rest of the software installs.

Alan_Brown wrote:Our FHCs aren't using FamilySearch 2.27 anymore -- I can't imagine what it's useful for.

At minimum, the Scottish records are not available on-line, or at least not for free.

Some have claimed to have good luck with old IGI in searching for records. There's always a chance that a different search engine will find something overlooked by others.

By far, the simplest method to installing is just copying the C:\PAS file from a working machine. After all, it is DOS. No DLLs, no system files, or any other files that have to be registered, etc. If your old FS(DOS) was set up on a network, the copied version will already be configured.

Alan_Brown wrote:I would suggestion one other option: kill the installer, and start over at the beginning, but do a minimal installation. Our FHCs aren't using FamilySearch 2.27 anymore -- I can't imagine what it's useful for. Installing that old DOS software might be problematic. By keeping it minimal, you increase your chances that you'll complete the installation. Then you can always add individual applications as needed later using the software deployment portal.

The Dell 780 computers come with a Dell-FamilySearch deployment image that installs the OS and software on computer first boot. Starting over at the beginning requires re-imaging the hard drive with the OEM disc that comes with the computer. It is the DVD in the sealed cardboard sleeve. The image puts the computer in the same state as when the computer first arrived. There is no control over the install by the user for FamilySearch 2.27 as I recall.

However, the FamilySearch 2.27 installer can be killed during the deployment installation process and the rest of the deployment installs will continue without a problem.

jdlessley wrote:The Dell 780 computers come with a Dell-FamilySearch deployment image that installs the OS and software on computer first boot.

Thanks for the update. I was basing my earlier response on how the FHC Desktop 5.8 DVD worked, where it was optional to install the old DOS FamilySearch 2.27. But if it's not optional with the pre-installed deployment image, then my advice is out of date. My stake hasn't seen any of the new Dell 780s yet.

Alan_Brown wrote:Thanks for the update. I was basing my earlier response on how the FHC Desktop 5.8 DVD worked, where it was optional to install the old DOS FamilySearch 2.27. But if it's not optional with the pre-installed deployment image, then my advice is out of date. My stake hasn't seen any of the new Dell 780s yet.

The FHC Desktop 5.9 DVD can be ordered and used instead of the OEM DVD. But when I was trying to resolve the installation problem created by FamilySearch 2.27 I was told that it would take about two weeks to get the DVD. The order form now also requires the stake president's signature. They are not taking requests for the DVD over the telephone or by e-mail except in special circumstances.

jdlessley wrote:I ran into this same problem. Do not shut down or reboot the computer! You will lose the rest of the software installs. Worse yet you will not be able to get Sophos installed.

There is an interactive FamilySearch 2.2.7 dialog box hidden behind an installation graphic box. I can't remember what the graphic is but it can be moved to reveal the dialog box. The hidden dialog box states that to complete the installation it needs to reboot. It is waiting for your response whether you want to reboot or not. Select "No" to proceed on with the rest of the software installs.

Well, as Agent 86 might have said, "Aha! The old Hidden Dialog Box trick!"

Moved the graphic, found the dialog box, clicked the "No" button, and all was well again.

Thank you, JDLessley, for the solution.

champted wrote:Thank you, JDLessley, for the solution.

Glad to help. Only the credit goes to the missionaries of FamilySearch support who were able to track this down for me. I am glad to pass this along.

Hello everyone. I'm not sure where to go from where I am. I'm having the same problem, but I did reboot the computer instead of killing the process or moving the GUI window so I could see the window behind it to click NO. I rebooted the PC correctly (Start | Shutdown | Restart) and when the PC came back up it wanted to start reinstalling 2.27. It said I could repair or reinstall. I chose repair and the same thing happened - it sat there for 15 or 20 minutes doing nothing. I rebooted again and this time when it got into Windows nothing happened; I was just sitting there at Windows. Everything seemed to be running fine but I have no idea if all of the necessary software was installed. I haven't setup a FHC computer ever so I have no idea what's supposed to be on these things. I couldn't find any documentation on the church's web site for setting up these FHC PC's, either. I looked at the discs that came with the Dell 780 and they're all Dell discs - I can't find one that's a church disc.

Any thoughts or ideas on where to start now would be great. Thanks in advance for the help.

Thrasonic wrote:I looked at the discs that came with the Dell 780 and they're all Dell discs - I can't find one that's a church disc.

Any thoughts or ideas on where to start now would be great. Thanks in advance for the help.

Re-imaging the hard drive is your best option at this point since you will not be able to get the Sophos security suite installed. Rebooting the computer in the middle of the deployment install creates some registry problems that prevents installing Sophos from the LANDesk software deployment portal.

There are three discs that should have come with the computer. Two of them are OEM Windows distribution discs in windowed paper sleeves. One is for Windows XP SP3 and the other is Windows 7. The third disc is in a white cardboard tri-fold sealed sleeve. I don't recall exactly what the labeling is on the cardboard sleeve but it gives the impression that it is only program software. It is a bootable image DVD that will return the computer to the same state as when you first received it.

Place the image DVD disc in the DVD drive and turn the computer on. Immediately after turning on the computer you will need to go into the bios to set the DVD as the first device in the boot order. After setting the boot order continue booting the computer from the DVD. Just follow the prompts and it will re-image the hard drive and continue the system installation as before. This time when you get to the FamilySearch 2.72 install and it appears to hang follow the procedure I mentioned in post #3 of this thread.

Thanks for the reply JD. I'll give this a try and let you know how it goes. Hopefully I overlooked the DVD that was supposed to have come with the PC.

Well, I checked and found no CD or DVD from the church in all of the boxes. I guess I'll have to order it from SLC. What number do I call? The typical tech support number I've used for clerk PC issues or a different one?

Thrasonic wrote:Well, I checked and found no CD or DVD from the church in all of the boxes. I guess I'll have to order it from SLC. What number do I call? The typical tech support number I've used for clerk PC issues or a different one?

The family history center support number is different from clerk support. Call 1-866-406-1830. You may be told to contact Dell support for the missing CD. That number is 1-877-539-3355.


The restore CD does not say it is a Church CD. It says it is from Dell. It is a white cardboard quad-fold sleeve with a one inch blue stripe on right edge. It is labeled as Dell P/N OGJ8V4 in a large (16 pt?) font. In a smaller font (9 pt?) and just below the larger Dell part number is this line: US-OGJ8V4-70020-9CM-D0A1. (This is the part number for a replacement) The quad-fold sleeve is sealed. On the inside it says:

Dell Custom Factory Integration CD Restore
This is the Dell CFI CD Restore Disk
This disk is to be used to restore this system's drive to its original state.

Thanks for the quick reply. If the disc isn't a church disc but instead a Dell disc it's likely I have it. My bad - all this time I thought you were referring to a disc provided by the church. I'll check it out at home tonight and get back to you.

Yep, that did it. The disc is a Dell disc and it did the trick. Thanks for all your help.