ERROR: Unable to install PST Port Driver error prevents E-Prime installation [31283]

This article applies to:

E-Prime 3.0

E-Prime 2.0

Symptoms
E-Prime is unable to install the Port Driver prerequisite, which causes the wizard to be interrupted before E-Prime installation can be completed.

Detail

The "Unable to Install PST Port Driver" error occurs because of one of the following reasons:

• A prior installation of E-Prime was partially removed.
• An installation of E-Prime was interrupted which results in a prtdrv.sys file being written to the drivers subfolder within the System32 folder.
• E-Prime is unable to write to the System32 folder to install prtdrv.sys due to a lack of elevated permissions or common security restrictions.

The Port Driver is one of several prerequisites needed to install E-Prime. A successful installation of the Port Driver is needed to utilize any port communication in E-Prime.

Workaround

Workaround 1:

Workaround 1 requires you to manually delete any pre-existing prtdrv.sys in the System32 folder and attempt installation again with full Administrator privileges.

The prtdrv.sys can be found by opening Windows Explorer and navigating to This PC > Local Disc (this is typically the C: drive) > Windows > System32 > drivers.  Delete prtdrv.sys if it is found and run the installer again.

NOTE: Attempt workaround 2 if workaround 1 does not resolve the error.

Workaround 2:

Workaround 2 involves installing the other prerequisites independently and utilizing the Custom - No Drivers installation option. Because no drivers are installed using this method, the Chronos driver, SR Box driver (only needed on 32-bit systems; located in the Subject Station subfolder) and HASP driver need to be separately installed.

1) Install the E-Prime prerequisites with full Administrator privileges from the article below that matches your version of E-Prime:

• INSTALL: E-Prime 3.0 Prerequisites required for Minimal (download) installation [26947]
• INSTALL: E-Prime 2.0 Prerequisites required for Minimal (download) installation [19325]

2) Reboot the machine after all prerequisites are installed.

3) Run setup.exe (lowercase) from the "E-Prime" installation subfolder with full Administrator privileges to perform a Custom installation:

Note that, if using the downloaded installation package from the Support site, the contents of the self-executing .zip archive need to be extracted using ZIP extraction software such as 7-zip or WinRAR to access setup.exe within the "E-Prime" installation folder.

4) Navigate through the installation wizard to the "Setup Type" screen and select the Custom option:

5) Select the dropdown menu for the Drivers node and select "This feature will not be available":

6) Finish the E-Prime installation.

7) Run the attached PortDriverInstaller.exe with full Administrator privileges.

NOTE: If either of these workarounds do not allow the E-Prime installation to proceed past this error or the Port device you wish to use is still not working, contact PST Product Services & Support. Submit the resulting diagnostic log file on the Desktop that was created by the PortDriverInstaller.exe to PST Product Service & Support.

See Also:

GETTING STARTED: Installation Options [22671]