Manifest Parse Error…
You receive the following message: “Manifest Parse error: Invalid at top level of document” when installing Windows XP for the first time and the installation fails because it cannot correctly parse the CONTROLS.MAN file. At no point does Microsoft’s installation program allow you to select an alternate source location for the file. It doesn’t even allow you full command prompt access. And the Recovery Program is useless, as it doesn’t even allow you to copy directories or copy using wildcards!
That’s what happened to me, too, after I decided to give Microsoft one more chance to have one of its operating systems on my main computer. I must be a glutton for punishment, because rather than scrapping it completely, I decided to figure out how to get around the problem. Old habits, like most computers running Microsoft operating systems, die hard.
I’ve heard everything from “it’s a copy protection scheme” to “it locks you out after three installations”. I’ve even heard of hundreds of people who have experienced the error from fresh-out-of-the-shrink-wrap, boxed versions of Windows XP. I couldn’t even get my freshly opened XP CD direct from Dell to work properly. Also, many folks prefer to install from CD copies and keep the original disks in close-to-pristine condition, yet rumors abound that as many as 60-70% of the copies experience this same problem. It must be another one of those undocumented Microsoft features.
The /i386/asms/6000/msft/windows/common/controls/controls.man file on the CD is corrupt. Copy your entire CD to your harddrive, use my version of the CONTROLS.MAN file (don’t forget to change the file extension!), and burn another CD. In theory, you could copy the entire i386 directory to your harddrive, replace the damaged file, and then run \i386\winnt.exe to install, but if you really want a reliable and stable system, it is not wise to install the XP operating system over an existing, older OS. So burning a CD is the only viable option for a fresh, clean install.Whether the new OS works well enough to dissuade me from breaking down and purchasing an iMac remains to be seen…
Seems to be a CDROM issue too. I have one that didn’t work on one DVD drive, but did work when I replaced the DVD with an old CDROM drive I had. Go figure.
Interesting thought! My installation was on a Dell Dimension 8100 with a stock DVD. Maybe you’re on to something… - RDL
Actually, I had the exact same parse error, but with a different file:
i386\asms\6000\msft\vctrl\vctrl.man
I think I might give another CD-Drive a go. Bah! And I had to reinstall Windows-ME just to find out what’s gone wrong.
I had the same problem with the ISO CD Image that I downloaded from Microsoft’s MSDN Download’s Site. On that site, Microsoft claims the image is meant to be burned to CD. Upon mounting the image with Daemon Tools (CD-ROM drive emulator), I checked the file’s contents and they looked good. (So the download, at least, is viable.)
After performing a CD copy from the mounted virtual CD to CD-R (Plextor Hi-Speed Media) using Adaptec CD Copier (Platinum 5.1), I checked the contents of the copied file on the CD-R with Notepad and it appeared empty. I forgot to check the file size before I threw the disk away so I’m not sure if it was actually empry or just corrupt.
I re-performed the copy from the mounted virtual CD to CD-R (lower speed generic media) using CloneCD (4.0.1.10). I again checked the new copy’s file contents. This time the file looked good. The disk was usable.
One theory is that this is some sort of copy protection (the correct information is stored in the sub-channel of the CD image, or something) that Adaptec can’t or won’t override. CloneCD, better for making true bit by bit copies of any disk, seems to accomodate the problem.
I didn’t do any further testing to prove this theory. Just a thought for people trying to get around this problem.
I had this same problem. I tried everything mentioned above, and still no luck. I formatted my harddrive at least 6 times, started a new installation still nothing. I copied all of the setup files to my hard drive, and made a new controls.man file and then ran the setup. Even after all of that, still, I got the same error. After two days of dealing with this problem, I finally gave up (I’ve worked on it 20 hours in the past 48), and installed win 2k pro. If anyone can provide anymore info on this problem, and/or a working link to a cd image of a PERFECT working copy of the Windows XP cd, I (along with everyone else I am sure) will greatly appreciate it.
You guys are funny. It’s just copy protection. Copy XP to HDD, replace controls.man with a good copy from working XP CD and burn.
Maybe so, but I don’t usually buy two copies of the software I’m trying to install, perhaps naively expecting the single copy I buy to actually work as designed. Remember, my OEM original CD purchased separately from Dell experienced the problem originally. - RDL
“Reggi”, I have already done what you have said…and I had no luck. On a few of the copies, the controls.man file became corrupt?! I’m wondering wtf is with that.
Justin you need a working copy of controls.man. I can give it to you, or you can download it, or make your own. You might want to check all the *.man files before you burn to make sure they are not corrupt or empty.
If you’re gonna make a CD, you’ll probably want to make it bootable too… go here for help with that
http://members.chello.nl/a.vanheumen1/nero/
email me if you’re still having probs..
bryson_c@hotmail.com
The issue seems to be with the actual cd, I just had the problem occur and happened to have another XP pro cd handy. i took out the cd before setup started when it prompted me for the cd I put the new one in. and it worked like a charm.
I have been trying really hard to get XP to work over the past few days but I always no matter what i do get the Manifest Parse Error.
I have followed all the tips of this site ie
Replacing my DVD rom with a cd rom
Makeing a bootable disk
Replacing the controls.man file
And it still doesnt work and all its achieved is losing all my data
Anyone else got any suggestions?
SUCCESS STORY! I tried to install a copy of WinXP Pro, got the Manifest error… control.man errors, and catalog invalid rubbish… Copied entire disk to a folder on my desktop, replaced control.man with Richard’s text… burnt a new CD using Roxio Easy CD creator 5 (memorex700CDR)… Deleted XP folder from PC… removed all programs not compatible with XP… cleaned up HD… Put in XP Pro… and YEEEEHHHHAAAAA, I’m now running XP Pro… Upgraded instead of clean install, running smooth so far… Tx, Richard for your help!
Funny enough i tried to install Window’s XP using my DVD-Rom and i didn’t work even with replacing the Control.man folder.So i installed using my Burner rom…..And it works…So DVD players have a hard time reading the folder but Richards replacement controle.man file really works…THANKS
Heya guys.
I ran into this problem this weekend… I tried replacing the Controls.man and re-burning the CD using Nero but it still doesn’t work. The CD boots fine but it still fails when trying to read the controls.man … I double checked on another computer and the Controls.man file is in the right place and can be read by notepad. Anyway I did a little more searching and in addition to the link above describing how to burn the CD in Nero, another webpage said you need to check Finalize CD, and choose Disc-At-Once as the burning method (which the above link didn’t mention). Trying to re-burn the CD one more time… I sure hope it works!!
I’m encouraged by the other success stories here so I’m trying to stay positive… But god, failed Windows installs has *got* to be one of the most annoying things in the universe!! I hope I don’t have to send my CD back for a replacement because it could take another 5-7 business days to get it shipped 
(everyplace only wants to ship free replacements via Ground unless you pay extra $$, sigh)
I’ll try to write back again if those extra 2 Nero options work.
Still didn’t make a difference.. However I found an article on M$’s page. Going to try doing that now. Also, though the computer I’m trying to install this on doesn’t have a burner, I’m borrowing a cd burner from a friend and I’ll see if it has any better luck finding this file.
For some reason regedt32.exe refuses to run from that shift+f10 command line… tried using regedit on a WinMe box but it can’t do the “Load Hive” thing and it can’t read the System.sav file as a regular registry file so I’m out of luck. The vendor I bought the CD from is replacing it, though I’m going to have to wait for it to arrive.. sigh. Ah well. Hopefully that M$ kb article above can help someone in the future.
Oh yeah, one more *weird* thing. From the Shift+F10 command line I was able to xcopy the whole D:\i386 (cdrom) folder onto my C:\ drive. I rebooted and took the XP cd out. It asked me where the Asms folder was so I put in C:\i386. Still got the same parse error on line 0 in Controls.man
I double checked and the Controls.man file on my C:\ drive is an exact copy of what is posted on this site (with no extra spaces/lines at the beginning or anything). So much for XML being flexible! Anyway a new CD should do the trick, I just hate having to go back to WinMe for a week or so.
Works wonderfully! Just upgraded from Millennium Edition (which is REALLY bad; even Win98 ran better…) using your Controls.man . I don’t understand how it’s possible that my original controls.man was empty, but it works perfectly now. Thanks!
I followed instruction to download the new CONTROLS.MAN from a tripod server, burn a new CD, now instead of getting error in LINE O, I gets error in LINE 4. Any Ladies and Gentlemen out there know why this is and how to go about to overcome it? Please help. Please help!
Worked for me. Thanks
Hi everybody! This web page is the first result from Google when searching for the term “windows xp Manifest Parse error”.
I am having this problem too. Admittedly, I am using pirated software — I have no problem saying that. I downloaded a pirated ISO and a keygen for Windows XP. I intend to use it for test purposes only as I use all Mac and Linux desktops and I need to test Samba Winbind compatibility.
I have no knowledge of this actually occurring on non-pirated Windows XP disks, but it is possible. I discovered the problem after booting the system for the first time after a CD install. It gave me the manifest parse error. I then searched for answers online and found this website.
I checked my written disk itself and the CONTROLS.MAN file in question was indeed corrupt on the CD. Next I turned to the original ISO image and raw read the CONTROLS.MAN file. The ISO image file was not corrupted. Therefore, something occurred during the authoring of the CD itself. The CD is bad but not the image. So, using the same media, same CD authoring program, I made minor changes, writing out the image at 1x speed instead of the 40x speed that my CDRW drive is capable of.
The result was that the problem did not occur and I had a fully functional Windows XP installation disk. It may be a clever copy protection method based off of the image pattern, but I do not [know] of it. It is impossible for a CDROM or DVD drive to write to a CD, so forget about that right now.
If you are unlucky enough to have a CD copy but no original ISO image, you can use a program that runs under windows called WinISO to modify the file in the image itself, thus the easiest route of correcting this problem. Make a new image from your bad disk, modify the image, and then write it again until you have a working copy. Things that might make a difference are media quality, CD authoring program, and CD writing speed.
If you think working with Windows is a pain, I really ask you to try out Red Hat Linux, or if you have the cash to buy a new box, make your next one a Mac and get OSX — it kicks ášš, and it’s BSD based. Apple computers are quiet and still powerful, and the operating system is smooth and works. Listen to those Apple Switch commercials. If you are stuck on i386, Red Hat is very easy to install, you are in control of the operating system, and Red Hat offers REAL support for their users. If you are a more experienced user I highly recommend FreeBSD, OpenBSD, or Debian Linux. It is too bad that BeOS kicked it — it had serious potential too, but the common computer user is really a dumb person and too lazy to see what else is out there or learn new things.
I should know, I am qualified to say so.
Cool website Richard.
Jesse
MCSE, RHCE, CCNP, CCDP
Thanks! I just wish I had an answer as to why this sometimes happens with shrink-wrapped CDs. Limiting the write speed to 1x is a good idea. Nowadays I never write above 6x despite the higher rating of my drive. Using 8x and up always seems to corrupt the data, regardless of the installed drive or software. - RDL
I just used Richard’s control.man content to resolve my problem experiencing this Manifest Parse Error. Thanks a bunch RDL!
just a note:
images burned with nero will be fûçkëd (tho nero says succesfull)
burn with cdrwin
//pc is out
The following is the short version of the article from labmice.net. This article had been removed by pressure from Microsoft. http://www.labmice.net/windowsxp/articles/changeID.htm
If the product key used in your workstation installations [is a] leaked or invalid [key], you may need to change the key (re-enter a valid key) in order to install Windows XP service pack 1, and to make sure your environment is legal. You could completely re-install Windows XP Professional or you can try the method below. (Please backup your system before attempting this.) This workaround is only for the corporate editions of Windows XP Professional using a compromised or illegitimate key. Windows XP Home Edition and retail versions of XP Professional should not be affected by Service Pack 1. Although this procedure may work with other versions of XP, we have only tested it on the corporate edition (volume license version) of Windows XP Professional.
Backup your Registry/System State.
1. Backup your system state by clicking Start > Run > and typing ntbackup > Click the Advanced Mode button in the Backup Utility Wizard. >Click the Backup tab, then in Click to select the check box for any drive, folder, or file that you want to back up, select the System State.
2. As an alternative, you can backup just the Registry by clicking Start > Run > and type in Regedit From within the Regedit screen, right click My Computer, choose Export, name the file whatever you choose, and click Save.
To change the product ID.
1. Click Start > Run > and type in Regedit
2. Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\wpaevents
3. Double-click OOBETimer
4. Remove the ‘ca’ part from the value. (Changing or deleting any of the binary values will accomplish the same effect)
5. Click OK and close regedit
6. Click Start > Run and type in: “%systemroot%\system32\oobe\msoobe.exe /a”
7. Choose the 2nd option (phone activation)
8. Click Change Product Key (at the bottom)
9. Enter your valid Corporate Product Key
10. Press Update and close the window
11. Restart your computer
Verify the change.
1. After the workstation restarts, click Start > Run
2. Type in: “%systemroot%\system32\oobe\msoobe.exe /a”
3. Make sure the dialog box says ‘your copy of windows is already activated’
If you performed the above steps incorrectly, or used an invalid key, your system may not be able to boot. Use the F8 key to boot to the last known good configuration and retry with a valid key.
Thanks for the info. Sorry, but I removed the product key from your copy of the article because I really don’t need Microsoft on my ášš. I’ve had enough people stalking me lately! - RDL
After making the change of controls.man file, I was still unable to install Windows XP.
I just used Richard’s controls.man content to resolve the installation problem with XP’s “manifest parse error”. I tried to follow instructions from Richard to run i386\winnt.exe, but i could not find the winnt file in my dumped harddisk, instead of this it shows winnt32.exe file.
I followed the steps descibed by “Happy User” to change my Product ID. I only get the activation window without any options. It is a blue-colored window. Any idea why I do not get the options to change the CD key? I guess I can try installing SP1 without changing the Product ID???
It is a bad CONTROLS.MAN file that will stop XP from installing. I had the same problem, but with different error messages (when installing from a CD it only said “error: a required installation file cannot be found in i386\asms”, and when trying to install from the harddisk it said “error: the manifest file does not begin with the required tag or format information: *:\i386\asms”. Then my computer started forcing a boot into win xp, but win xp wouldn’t load! This would have disabled the system if I didn’t have a backup C: drive handy. I checked CONTROLS.MAN on my CD and HD (image from CD) and the CD said it was there with 2 kb, but when opened with Notepad it was empty. The HD image was missing CONTROLS.MAN entirely. I opened up a new Notepad window and copy/paste(ed) the script from above into it, then saved it as CONTROLS.MAN to the /i386/asms/6000/msft/windows/common/controls directory. I then successfully installed XP to my D: drive (previous C: drive made unbootable earlier). It works perfectly! Do not install using the key that starts with “FCKGW”. Find a newer corp key or use xpkey.exe (a search on Google, or any p2p can’t miss it)!!! Sorry if this is redundant to some, but I wanted the above errors to come up when others search. I looked forever, before finally finding this site. Thanks to everyone here for solving this small problem. XP should be free to anyone who got suckered into buying ME as the “ultimate OS”.
Actually you can get around having to do a full reinstall by letting the system restart after it encounters the error and removing the Windows CD. It will continue setup right where you left off and ask for the “asms” file and you simply click OK and it will let you enter in the path to the file. At this point you insert a floppy disk which you’ve made to have the complete file tree (all folders the same) as on the CD down to the CONTROLS.MAN file. Make sure that your CONTROLS.MAN file is correct (4kb or so) and then in the path change “E:/I386″ to “A:/I386″ and hit enter. This should do the trick. It will read the Manifest file from the floppy and when it’s done it asks you to reinsert the Windows CD and installation continues as normal. Email me if you have any other questions as I have done this install numerous times. Adios and Good Luck!
Thanks!
1. downloaded MSDN XP Pro image
2. burned to a CD-RW 8x
3. got the stupid manifest error
4. Google sent me here
5. used winiso to look at the image
6. all the files were correct on the downloaded image
7. burned a CD-R at 2x disk at once with Nero
8. checked that CD
Yea, finally got past the stupid error! Thank you, Microsoft, for making everything we do just a little bit harder!
If you go look on the CD, open up the CONTROLS.MAN file, you’ll see that’s it’s broken. It IS empty. Trying to change CDROM is just plain stupid.
I got a similar yet different error message when installing WinXP! My corrupted file was i386\asms\1000\msft\windows\gdiplus\gdiplus.man - line 0. Did anyone else find this file empty?
Jeez… Fûçk Bill Gates and use XP corp. plenty of keygens out there…. C’mon people! Civil disobedience is the only way to bring Billy Bob Gates down.
While I do not condone or support the illegal usage of pirated software, I do support the reduction of power currently held by the Evil Empire! - RDL
Dear, Richard — I have one thing to say about your help in proliferating the abuse of Microsoft software… THANK YOU!!!! That dámn error was driving me crazy after just spending $2K on a new PC and then not being able to even use it… Can’t even think about it now but, once again, thank you. You’re a gentleman and a scholar.
You’re welcome! My purpose of informing the interested public is certainly not to proliferate the abuse of Microsoft software, but merely to point out the ridiculousness of putting up with mediocre products from the Evil Empire. As I’ve stated several times, I ran into the problem with a fully licensed OEM version that I obtained directly from Dell with my PC purchase and desired to help others with the same problem. I am nonetheless very pleased that my tribulations and subsequent workaround has helped so many. - RDL
Well, I’ve had the same problems also, and I’ve wasted about 20 blanks trying to fix the problem!
There are some things I’d like to point out, firstly the *.MAN files are somehow corrupted by the Windows system! This happens either when its copied to an image file from CD or harddrive. It’s not that the text is changed in anyway… its how its written to the disk causing a “crc error” or “bad cd cluster”. I also had the same problem with MSWINCRT.MAN on installation “in the asms\7000 folder” (maybe cuz I have an Athlon x86 chipset?)
The only way around this was copying the ASMS folder from the WinXP CD, to the harddrive and renaming CONTROLS.MAN to CONTROLS.MA_ and so on (there are 5 *.MAN files in the ASMS folder)
E:\I386\ASMS\1000\MSFT\WINDOWS\GDIPLUS\GDIPLUS.MAN
E:\I386\ASMS\5100\MSFT\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\DEFAULT\DEFAULT.MAN
E:\I386\ASMS\6000\MSFT\VCRTL\VCRTL.MAN
E:\I386\ASMS\6000\MSFT\WINDOWS\COMMON\CONTROLS\CONTROLS.MAN
E:\I386\ASMS\7000\MSFT\WINDOWS\MSWINCRT\MSWINCRT.MAN
Next, add the *.MA_ files into the WinXP iso image using WINISO, and then delete the old “CONTROLS.MAN” and rename CONTROLS.MA_ to CONTROLS.MAN etc., inside the iso…
hope this helps
lenny
You guys rock! I just used the copy of controls.man file at top and it worked fine. I copied XP onto my hardrive and replaced the file, reburned it and it worked fine… Thanks for the help!
I have Win XP Corp edition and the same thing happened to me. Your solution at the top was right on, and now I am up and running perfectly! Also, I am making it a point to spread the word, thanks!
Am having the same problem as the rest. When I tried to install XP Pro, during setup I got a bunch of files not loaded correctly. Told to hit ESC to continue but XP may not load correctly.
Eventually I got through it but then the Manifest
Parse Error. My question, being a total novice, is
how is the Controls.man file replaced? When I tried to copy the CD to my harddrive using Adaptec, immediately it instructs to put a fresh CD in and it starts to burn. There isn’t any time or way to copy anything. And what are the exact
steps to replacing the Controls.man file? These may be stupid questions but I’ve only used a PC for a few years and am self-taught. If anyone out
there can discuss the process throughly, I’d
really appreciate it. Thanks.
Thank you so much your info about changing the files in controls. Helped me a lot and made šhìttÿ Windows finally work. Too bad Microsoft didn’t have the brains to figure it out.
– thxs again dave
ANOTHER SUCCESS STORY!!
Richard, you are a genius! Also, thanks to all for the postings, combined, I was able to figure out a resolution for this on my system. BTW, contrary to popular belief, this is NOT a copyright protection scheme by MS, it’s a bad design. Surprise! I know this because I downloaded XP Pro AND Home from MSDN and got the same exact error (I was burning them at 40x; bad idea looking in hindsight.) I went through two paths to fix this and they both worked. They are nothing new from what’s mentioned above, but I just wanted to share
1. TEMPORARY SOLUTION: Copy the i386 folder to a FAT32-formatted hard drive. Used winimage to extract CONTROLS.MAN and overwrote the bad file on the HDD. Ran c:\i386\winnt and installed as normal.
2. PERMANENT, FASTER SOLUTION: I burned the XP ISO using Nero 5 at 1x (2x did NOT work!!) also chose finalize, burn proof, and disk at once and that did the job! Now, I have a working, bootable XP Pro CD!
Thanks for all of the input. This is a GREAT site! Nice work, Richard!
Your fix solved my ‘Manifest Parse Error…..’ problem too. After my first failure I formatted the Hard Disk, copied the contents of my (copied) XP Pro CD onto it. I then patched in a new and correct Control.Man file. When my second XP install fell over in the same place I simply removed the CD, rebooted and when prompted I pointed the installation file at the /I386 directory on my hard disk. I was later asked to replace the XP CD but the installation continued and worked fine. Many thanks Richard.
I, myself, had this same problem, and I have three CD-capable Readers on this machine. A Cyberdrive CDRW 40/16/48, an Artec/Ultima DvD, and an old SCSI Yamaha 4600TICP. Got the same error on every one. Will try your fix now, and see if she works.
I had the same error as everyone else… I used a different Windows XP CD to install the OS and that worked fine. I think perhaps the fixed the file on different types of CDs, or perhaps different versions of the file work better on different computers. First I was using Windows XP Pro (OEM) then I switched to a different version of XP Pro… Basically, try a different CD with a different version.
Hey, Hey, Hey! I think it worked! I copied controls.man from WinXP home version. Thanks!
Well, for those of you that want a little different approach… here is how I did it. I used WinISO and made an ISO of my Windows XP Pro CD. Then using WinISO replaced the contents of the “Controls” directory. (Consists of three files - controls.man, controls.cat, and one other one)
Using Roxio EZCD Creator 5.1 Platinum I burned the new ISO back to a fresh new CDROM. Worked just like magic…
Saved my system! My friend tried it, but couldn’t change controls.man, until i told him it was read-only… some people don’t notice the obvious things. Now if I could just figure out why my system locks and goes BBBBZZZZZZZZZZ through my speakers…
Here’s my question. I just ran into this very problem myself. I used my XP disk to install XP onto one of my computers and it worked fine. In fact, being new to XP, I ended up reinstalling XP numerous times using this disk thanks to my curiosity with the XP registry. Anyways, I have scrapped the old computer and started using a new one. But when I tried to install XP using the same CD on the new computer, I received the Parse error. Of course, the control.man file was empty when I checked it, but then it’s always been empty hasn’t it… I mean, it’s not as if it was magically erased between the last successful install and this unsuccessful one. So what’s the deal? Do you think it is hardware related? I mean, are certain systems sensitive to this error whereas others are not? I can’t think of any other explanation since CD data simply cannot be altered after it is created… I mean on regular CDs obviously, not CDRW. Any ideas?
Like Dan, above, I am a novice and need specific details on how to resolve this manifest parse error when installing XP. I am not sure how to copy to HD nor replace the controls.MAN file using notepad. Can someone please make things as simple as possible. An idiot’s guide required. Thanks!
Gordon, I made up a quick webpage outlining the details for this fix. Hope it helps. There are several images on this page so be patient.
http://www.geocities.com/zrantheus
Had the same error and problems as everyone else but finally got it to work. Here’s what I did: Copied the contents of my XP CD to a folder on another computer’s hard drive, edited the CONTROLS.MAN file to include what you have posted here on your website, burned all the files with newly edited CONTROLS.MAN file to new blank CD at 2x speed (any faster and the buffer overruns), since I didn’t make the CD bootable I had to download the XP boot floppies from http://www.winxpfix.com, but when I tried it, it worked like a charm. One note though, I may have been the only goofball that did this but the information that you have posted as the contents of the CONTROLS.MAN file shouldn’t include the bracketed stuff. I initially thought that the file resembled a win.ini file with each section separated by bracketed headings. So I copied the brackets as well as the info and it didn’t work. Once I took out the bracketed info it worked great. Thanks for posting this info, it was very helpful.
I finally thought I’d managed to sort it out by following the instructions above, only to encounter a further problem. After copying the installation files my PC reboots and I get missing or corrupt hal.dll windows can’t find the file \system32\hal.dll. I am running 98 and trying to install XP Pro as a dual boot on D (a separate disk). When I look for the hal.dll file I can see it on D but not on the C drive where 98 is installed. Is this right? I’ve heard that it may be a boot.ini problem but being non-technical I am a bit lost as to what to do without clear advice. Any ideas?
This is apparently a problem many people are having whereas I found multiple references to it online. If the following article from Microsoft doesn’t help, try doing a search for “missing or corrupt hal.dll file” on a search engine. That’s how I produced the following link. Good luck!
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q320252
One more note, Gordon… Don’t give up. Relax, work the problem. Microsoft applications have millions of beta testers worldwide (that being the consumers) and someone has experienced your problem out there. Look for the reference, read, take notes and experiment. You say you have more than one harddrive? I myself have two harddrives. Both are 40 gigs. The first drive is partitioned in half for two operating systems. The second drive is for all of my personal data. This way, no matter WHAT I do to Windows, or what problems I encounter, I am only a re-installation away from grace, since everything important is easily re-accessable on the second hard drive. The reason I’m posting this is I just helped someone get their copy of XP to install. It wasn’t a big deal really, but they panicked. Now that it’s running, the modem won’t work and they’re going to dump XP. Gave up too easily and are missing out on a nice build of Windows… well, as nice as it can be anyways. heh! Keep at it, and continue to post here with updates and questions. I’ll keep a watch for your post and help you where I can as I’m sure the other users here will do as well. Good luck Gordon, you’ll get it straight in the end.
I’m afraid I didn’t think that sentence out…now that you mention it, the interpretation is rather dubious.
BTW, how’s the XP Install going Gordon?
ZD
I was just curious to know if anyone else was wondering if it may depend on the speed in which you write the disk? someone above had said that they tried burning again at a slower speed and it worked.
I have the same problem but the error says that my GDIPLUS.MAN file is corrupt as opposed to the controls.man file. I checked and indeed the gdiplus file (but not the controls.man) is corrupted on the CD i burned. I do not have access to the original image and those iso building programs are a pain in the ášš (You cant make an image with winiso over 100mb in the trial version, and I cant find a working key anywhere) I’ve tried just burning a regular cd with only the .MAN files arranged in the same directory structure as the XP CD. I checked the files and they werent corrupted after the burning process with nero. However, when I put the CD in and tried to continue the winxp install it gave the exact same error as before, even though the MAN files weren’t corrupted. My friend has a working WinXP Home edition cd but I dont know if it is the same as the Pro edition in the way of these .MAN files.
Here’s a suggestion. Don’t burn the CD directly from the Image file, even if you’ve altered the necessary files. Either use winiso or winimage to unpack the files to the harddrive, or burn a CD from the ISO and copy the burned files to the harddrive. Now that you have a working directory of the XP install files, alter the corrupted files on the harddrive XP directory. I’m not sure how all of the burning software works as far as exact procedure, but I’m sure they all offer this option. Insert a blank CD, manually select ALL of the files on the XP install directory located on the harddrive to be burned directly to the new disk…ie: In Easy CD Creator, the option is make a data CD. Now burn the CD at any speed. This is the process I used and it worked fine the first time around. I’m not certain, but the error may be materializing during that extra step when the burning software converts the ISO file for burning.
It’s just a suggestion.
ZD
Oh yes, I forgot to mention this. Pay attention to what the volume name of the Windows XP install CD should be and make sure you manually name the new CD before you burn it.
ZD
Woohoo! I got it working after downloading the image off the internet then burning with Nero. Thanks everyone!
I have an error where it says something about driver.cab unable to copy. Thing is, it opens fine in WinZip, and I can extract any file I want. Why is this happening?
Just a big thanks to Richard and all with the help. Openened up controls.man on my laptop - content. Opened up controls.man on the PC I was trying to install XP on with DVD ROM - no content. Burned a CD with the directory structure and the controls.man only - booted into existing XP setup , with new CD , swapped to old CD when prompted and Roberts your fathers brother - XP installed no problems.
hi when installing xp prof on my laptop i get an error message that says my vcrtl.man has an error in line 4 or 16. Can anyone help??
Hi! Thanks Richard for your really informative guide. Have recently moved to Germany and wanted to install windows xp professional in german on my Dell Inspiron 8200, which comes bundled with the crappy Windows XP Home.
I have read all the comments on the website. And am ready to try it out. My question however is, would the contents of CONTROLS.MAN work for Windows XP Professional (German Edition) as well? Unfortunately I no longer have the original Windows XP Pro (which I so naively copied onto a blank CD and gave back to my benefactor) so I cant compare the contents as well…
Would appreciate any help in this regard!
Thanks
Tim
Burning image from MSDN Academic Alliance to CD with Prassi PrimoCD Plus 2.1 on an Acer 16/10/40 didn’t work. But with Roxio Easy CD Creator 5 on a TEAC CD-W216E it worked! Read and installed on Acer 16/10/40. I finally can study for my final exam later today and maybe get a little rest!
God bless! –Loren
hey richard nice site! came across this because, of course had the same error, “error: the manifest file does not begin with the required tag or format information: *:\i386\asms”. this was from an iso burn from nero at 12x using a dvd rom to install. then used a cdrw for the next tries.
i tried changing the CONTROLS.MAN with yours above. burned it at 1x with nero checked it and still no luck. so i used winiso to check the iso image and everything looks complete including the CONTROLS.MAN so i tried burning from iso again at 1x with nero then checked the CONTROLS.MAN and sure enough it was blank, checked with notepad.
so my question is, after reading all the replies above, does it matter what operating system you are using initially on making the the CD? if not, then i really think its just my burning media NERO. after being unsuccessful i had to install win2k pro.
my assumption about nero comes from creating a win2000 pro CD from the time-limited version to the time-unlimited version where you have to alter the SETUPREG.HIV file with REGEDIT32. i have the original installation cd but time-limited. did all the necessary applications to alter the SETUPREG.HIV file then burned to cd with nero at 12x and 1x and installed unsucessfully. now i was burning this cd in win2k pro. now im confused because there are successful installs listed above when burning with nero. oh yea also chose to disc at once.. finalize cd.. still unsuccessful. im not giving up though. it might also be from dling it. so im dling 2 more iso’s from kazaa. if anyone can help me please do. THANKS
oh yea and the intial unsuccessful cds of xp were made in windows 98se. then the windows2k pro cds were made on installed time-limited version. created win2k pro cd and had missing installation files next time around ill try to list files unread. i know after the first reboot the TCPIP.SYS file couldnt be read and i think before the boot i dont recall but it would probably after the first boot too.. the browseui.sys i think couldnt be read too.. dont have time right now will list more later. thanks again
sorry i just read the above message i typed up this morning and it made only little sense to me hehe.. so here i revised it.
hey richard nice site! came across this because, of course had the same error, “error: the manifest file does not begin with the required tag or format information: *:\i386\asms”. this is the message i got after skipping a file. also the cd was from an iso i downloaded from kazaa and burned in windows 98se. then using nero at 12x, finalize cd, and using a dvd rom to install.
i tried changing the CONTROLS.MAN with yours above. burned it at 1x with nero checked it and the CONTROLS.MAN was there but still no luck with the install. so i used winiso to check the iso image and everything looks complete including the CONTROLS.MAN so i tried burning from iso again at 1x with nero assuming this would be a better burn according to previous posts above, then checked the CONTROLS.MAN and sure enough it was blank when checked with notepad.
so my question is, after reading all the replies above, does it matter what operating system you are using initially on making the the CD? if not, then i really think its just my burning media NERO. after being unsuccessful i had to install win2k pro time-limited version.
my assumption about nero comes from creating a win2000 pro time-limited version to the time-unlimited version where you have to alter the SETUPREG.HIV file with REGEDIT32. according to another website (http://www.winchan.net/win2000/) they say you have to be running nt or 2k already prior to altering the SETUPREG.HIV file. i have the original installation cd for 2k pro but time-limited. i did all the necessary applications to alter the SETUPREG.HIV file then burned to cd with nero at 12x and also 1x. installed unsucessfully. now i was burning this cd in win2k pro. now im confused because there are successful installs listed above when burning with nero. oh yea also chose to disc at once.. finalize cd.. still unsuccessful. so i started with one of the cds i made from the time-limited version got an error switched cds to an iso image made from a downloaded version of win2k pro then got one error which was the TCPIP.SYS file couldnt be found. but ended up with a succesful install of win2k pro but i had to get a new copy of TCPIP.SYS file and copy it into the drivers folder.
now back to winxp pro corp it might also be from dling it. so im dling 2 more iso’s from kazaa. ill try burning it with win2k pro with nero again.. then ill try using another burning software. if anyone can help me please do. THANKS
Thanks for the help on this forum, especially ZD who provided the much needed motivation and the knowledge I needed to proceed. I had reall almost given up, but I tried the link to Microsoft and their advice worked. The only prob was, I expected it not to work, and so had setup the install as an upgrade. This means I now have XP but no 98 - never mind, at least it works, most of the time.
Sometimes when i click on links the window I’m in shuts down for no apparent reason. Any ideas?
Once again, thanks.
Great news Gordon and you’re welcome. Glad to hear you are up and running. As for loosing Win98, it’s really unnecessary now. WinXP is the OpSystem us gamers who loved NT/2000 had been waiting for. It incorporates the necessary components of the Win95/98/ME OpSystem needed for game play. So, basically WinXP is a hybrid of both lines of software. I personally have yet to find any of my mainstream applications from Win98 that will not run in WinXP…drivers aside. However, XP drivers were a mere click away for my hardware.
As for your new problem, I have heard stories…unconfirmed by your’s truly, that an upgrade from any qualified Windows OpSystem to XP is a bad way to go. But then I’ve always felt this way whereas I’ve had problems doing it myself when Win98 came out. This could be a result of a piece of hardware, and/or it’s drivers corrupting XP. So here’s my suggestion:
1. Power down the computer and remove all add-in hardware. ie: Soundcard, modems, network cards, etc… Leave only the video card, and obviously don’t mess with the harddrives, CDROMS, etc.
2. Reinstall WinXP with a fresh FULL copy.
3. Now, basically we’re getting the system to the most basic state of operations. Get out a good pen and some paper. Make a note of what you’ve done so far.
4. Test for the problem. Try to recreate it any way you can remember from when it first occurred. And while you’re at it, test the entire system. Run a scandisk, explore the OpSystem, watch and feel how it responds. In this state it should react quickly and free of trouble…assuming you don’t have an actual problem with the computer itself.
5. No problems? Make a note and power down the PC.
6. Now, install one piece of hardware at a time, testing each time to see if the problem reoccurs. Keep notes each time, they help later I promise.
Odds are, your problem is from a nasty upgrade and can be remedied by a FULL reinstall of WinXP. But if it’s being caused by hardware or drivers, you will find it only through a methodical process of elimination. If and when you do discover the culprit, get online and start researching, and research some more. You’ll most likely find someone with a similiar problem and what they did to fix it…just like this page here. If not, you may have to consider an alternative piece of hardware.
Well, I’ll cut this short before Richard sends me a mail bomb for eating up his server space. Keep at it and ask if you need an answer. Personally, I loved moving up to WinXP. It’s like a puzzle, figuring out the new system, learning it’s little quirks, solving hardware issues, etc. Solve the puzzle Gordon, and take solice in the fact that unlike women, there will come a point when you will understand what the hëll is going on.
ZD
Another solution to the parse errors, I got them all . CONTROLS.MAN, GDIPLUS.MAN and VCRTL.MAN , Burned a lot of cd to try to fix it
when I got a bootable its man menu would not let me execute the install menu option. Using the soluton at barts http://www.nu2.nu/bootcd/#wxp
Go to microsoft get Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 1 Utility: Setup Disks for Floppy Boot Install
6 floppies,
Install up till you get the error.
Boot off the floppies.
It works.
Thanks, it worked! I created …\CONTROL.MAN on my HD, removed the CD, rebooted, it asked me for my cd i386 dir, I typed in my HD dir, no error, then switched back to CD for the rest. A floppy could be used too.
My FCKGW.. key failed (it worked running setup in windows) and my XFKFG.. key worked (it failed running setup in windows).
Richard, have you seen this? Any thoughts on how to help this problem? I have a pirated version of XP how do I go about preventing this from geting to me if I can’t update to protect against it? Also, is there a site to get updates for my XP pro system that I’m using without buying it?
December 19, 2002
XP Flaw Puts MP3, Windows Media Files at Risk
By Dennis Fisher
Thanks to a newly found flaw in Windows XP, two of the most popular audio file formats can be used by crackers to take control of remote PCs. Users only need to hover their mouse pointers over the icons for malicious MP3 or Windows Media files to execute the attacker’s code, Microsoft Corp. said in a bulletin published Wednesday.
The vulnerability lies in the Windows Shell, which is the portion of the operating system responsible for defining the user’s desktop as well as organizing files and folders and enabling the OS to start applications. An unchecked buffer in a function used by the shell to extract custom attribute data from audio files enables an attacker to create a malicious MP3 or Windows Media file and use it to run code on a remote user’s machine.
MP3 files are traded and shared by the millions on sites and peer-to-peer networks all over the Internet. Users commonly download and play files posted by people they’ve never met, and there is essentially no practical way of verifying the content of these files to ensure that they’re not corrupted. The Windows Media format is somewhat less popular than the MP3 format, but is still quite prevalent online.
To exploit the vulnerability, an attacker can do one of three things: host the malicious file on a Web site or on a network share or send it to a user in an HTML mail message. If a user hovered the mouse pointer over the file or the folder containing the file–on a Web page or on the local disk–the code would execute. A user would need to open or preview a mail message containing the code to execute it in the e-mail attack scenario.
Thank you, Richard for posting the fix! Thanks to you, my computer now is working! It’s people like you that make the internet such a wonderful place!
After reading all of the above postings, I decided to just try reburning the ISO image at Nero’s slowest setting (2x on my version). That did the trick. I join the many others in thanking you for this information. I wish Microsoft had the guts to publish this kind of stuff.
HELP!! I keep getting the syntax error on line 4 problem of the controls.man file when upgrading winxp from 98se, despite following the code and relevant instructions above. The same thing happened during a fresh install too ;(
Any suggestions??
Okay…I don’t know bout many other ppl…but I fixed the controls.man file…it’s changed and set…but now I get another error
“A Component’s file does not match the verification info present in the component manifest.”
Any one any idea what it means?
I’m installing from my hard drive cuz I’m sick of wasting cd’s trying…
OK ok… I just got a burnt copy of Xp… That’s right burnt. And I got the same message as everyone else something about not be able to copy some folder. I’m trying to change the controls.man, hopefully it works. I’m really lost when it comes to burning images with Ahead Nero, can anyone help?
Someone mentioned that Disc-At-Once and being sure to Finalise the CDburn fixes the problem - They are spot on… Unfortunately i had to drive back into work to try this, but it was well worth the drive in…
Thanks guys!!
I’m pretty certain those two steps ARE required Brad.
I uploaded a copy of the CONTROLS.MAN file to my “Manifest Parse Error” site for those having trouble creating their own.
http://www.geocities.com/zrantheus/
Good luck.
ZD
Richard,
thanks for the wealth of information you’ve collated and thanks to the community of contributors. List me as another victim of the abovementioned ‘manifest’ error. I had other options for restoring WinXP Pro on my PC (ie vendor disks to recover back to factory settings which included WinXP) but I tried a friend’s WinXP Setup CD to compare hardware support for an existing CD burner …an internal HP CDWriter Plus 8200 which has a top burn speed of 4X and came supplied with Adaptec Easy CD Creator 3.5c. It’s a trooper that’s served well for 18 months and highlighted the “manifest” error. I empathise with Tom Miller … I too have initiated at least 10 iterations of “format-hard-drive, install WinXP” but scrapping the burner was at the bottom of the ‘culprit’ list ie. there are 6,500 files that are burned on the WinXP Setup CD ….
a) why are there less than a handful of files bearing grief ??!!
b) you can burn a dámn lot of CDs using any number of CD burning freeware or shareware for the price of a new CD burner
c) there’s no guarantee the new CD burner will fix the problem
My problems appear attributable to the CD burning software. During the recent repeated rebuilds of my PC, I engaged the services of a colleague (well, actually…the colleague was useless but their Win XP CD was instrumental). Starting with a clean hard drive, my colleague’s CD installed WinXP Pro from ‘go to whoa’ without any grief yet my copy of that CD bogged down with he ‘manifest’ error. Went to Bill Gates’ support web links and their suggestion is ‘return to vendor or buy a new CD’…. the cursade was on …. Bill Gates’ “manifest” error was stinking up the corridors of my mind. I had used Adapter Easy CD Creator option “CD Copier” in the hope it would make a mirror copy that would be equally WinXP Setup bootable on a clean hard drive. Well, it appears that ‘CD Copier’ is a loose term….they probably should have called it “CD Approximator”. I’ve had ‘buffer underrun’ errors during CD burnin but never discrimate file erosion. I’ve made 3 copies using burn speed of 1X, 2X and 4X all resulting in the different versions of corrupted file CONTROLS.MAN … all occurrences of the file showed 2K on disk, 2 of the 3 were empty (well …. might have had non-display characters but I couldn’t be bothered …. we’d be quibbling on different degrees of error),the third occurrence contained text reflecting the make/model of the CD Burner… go figure. I then copied WinXP setup folders/files from my colleague’s CD to my harddrive and then used Adapter CD Creator to create a CD layout and burn the files and there were no curruptions in the files, albeit the disks were not suitable for WinXp setup bootable on clean hard drive. I then repeated the burn of all the files with the exception of CONTROL.MAN leaving the disc open, then added the file on a second burn and it was still in perfect condition. (as you can clearly see, the medical association warns that Bill Gates is a health hazard !!!) At this point, i now have 8-9 CDs pinned on the cork board ….. 10 more and I’ll have enough for a mock-up 18-wheeler MACK truck with bogie.
Today I downloaded 30-day trial CD burning software ‘Alcohol120 v1.4.0 Build 114′ (self extracting 4Mb EXE available from http://www.alcohol-software.com),
installed it in 30 seconds, fired it up, hit the ‘Copy Wizard’, chose maximum speed for the CR-RW (yep ….used all the available 4X it could muster)
and out popped a sweet copy. The trooper HP CDWriter Plus 8200 is still going strong and it’s Adaptec that’s on the ‘Re-consider’ list. Another colleague has made a copy of the CD using a CD-RW purchased last weekend and that CD appears useable. The fact that most people are getting clean copies using current CD burning software suggests it’s not the hardware that’s at fault. Another observation i’ve just noticed is that the *.MAN files in question have perhaps the longest path names on the CD… coincidence ???!!! …AM 21/01/2003 ESDT Australia
Worked for me! Jus’ copied the whole contents of the XP CD to HD and copy and pasted Richies text above into Notepad, replaing the whatever file it was. Got no errors and installing my second copy as we (I) speak.
I read with great interest the experience of the many downtrodden users regarding the Manifest Parse Error. I’m not sure if my problem is related. My wife purchased a DELL Inspiron 2650 laptop from DELL online in Sep 2002. My system came with XP PRO and SP1, IE 6.0, Office 2002, and other bundled software pre-installed. On many occasions my system just hanged, sometimes with as little as two or three appplications loaded. Outside of the Office 2002 suite I use Quickbooks. A local PC technician told my wife that it was normal since XP has a number of quirks still to be ironed out. I recently installed the System Mechanic utility to scan my registry since I became fed up with the persistent system hangs. The results revealed several invalid (orphaned) entries in the following registry locations:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WBEM\WDM
“sample value name is C:\WINDOWS\system32\advapi32.dll[MofResourceName]“.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WBEM\WDM\DREDGE
“sample value name is C:\WINDOWS\System32\DRIVERS\ACPI.sys[ACPIMOFResource]”
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches\Active Setup Temp Folders
“value name is Folder”
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SideBySide\Installations\ x86_Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls_6595b64144ccf1df_6.0.10.0_x-ww_f7fb5805
“sample value name is Codebase” and “value data is C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386/controls.man”
N.B. all the *.man files are listed as invalid (orphaned)
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Synaptics\SynTP\Install
“sample value name is MouseInf”
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SharedDLLs
“sample value names are C:\WINDOWS\System32\MSXML3A.DLL” and “C:\DOCUME~1\HEATHE~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\_ISTMP1.DIR\_ISTMP0.DIR\mediabuild20.dll”
I contacted DELL on 13-FEB-2003 and they sent me an XP hardware diagnostic utility - CD110210.exe - via email to run. It showed me that all my hardware devices except the Roxio Easy CD-ROM drive were okay. The CD-ROM drive failed the confidence test - READ, SEEK, WRITE, and AUDIO and was deemed incompatible. DELL Support indicated that if my hardware devices were deemed okay then I will need to reinstall my operating system, which I dread. DELL only supplied me with a reinstallation CD rather than an original operating system CD. They said that is all I will need for the job.
Since running the diagnostic test the system does not hang as often. I have to get back to DELL Support with the results. However, I am concerned about the number (55) and type of invalid registry entries that System Mechanic listed.
Would you please shed some light here? Thanks a $1,000,000 in advance. I regret being so lengthy, but I wanted to provide you with essential info to get a meaningful and effective response.
Cheers
MartinP
Another solution:
I had the same problem with setup giving me multiple .man file errors. My solution was to use Fireburner 2.1.7 to burn the ISO that I downloaded from MSDN.
It seems that the install process or the image itself is VERY sensitive to which program you use to burn the CD.
Rick
The problem is you are attempting to install an unauthorized copy of Windows XP. It is NOT a security feature. The easiest solution is to get another copy preferably from another more reliable source. The parse error originated when the original person was attempting to copy the windows xp on to another disc tried to copy from the windows xp cd-rom over to his hard drive and then to his cd burner. That’s the part when the security measure kicks in. What needs to be done is to use Roxio and do a disc to disc burn.
This site is a lifesaver! Can’t thank you enough for all the help it provided. I copied the I386 folder to my HD and modified the CONTROL.MAN file but rather than copying it back to a CD-R just told it to look there rather than the CD when it prompted. Worked like a charm! I built a new comp and was rather annoyed with having to use Win98 (FIRST ADDITION!). It was a major step up. However, will my OS be stable? I only did the upgrade and was wondering if it would be better or improve my proformance to do a full fresh copy of XP?
same problem tried your fix didn’t work just need a working copy of controls.man can you provide?
please and thanks.
Norman
Response to the slightly different comments about “Error: SXS.DLL: Syntax error in manifest or policy file “e:\I386\asms\6000\MSFT\WINDOWS\COMMON\CONTROLS\CONTROLS.MAN” on LINE 4.” or “A Component’s file does not match the verification info present in the component manifest”
I was initially having the problem with controls.man at line 0. After replacing the file with a non-corrupt version I started getting the error at line 4. Strangely on my XP CD I had 2 folders containing Controls.man, one in the usual e:\I386\asms\6000 folder, and one in a folder e:\I386\asms\60100. It was the one in 60100 that seemed to be causing the problem. Most of the comments on this site seemed to be talking only about the folder 6000. I thought it would be worth just deleting this 60100 folder to get a CD with the same file structure as most of the people commenting on this page. And it seemd to work!
So if you have the problem at line 4, it may be worth trying this. Look for a folder called 60100 in \I386\asms\ on your CD. Copy everything but this folder onto a new CD. Install from you new CD. You may get an error during install saying something is missing, but XP seemed to install anyway.
It seems strange that it installed OK without this folder on the CD, but so far I seem to have a working copy of XP.
['m] getting this error trying to install XP on [a] Toshiba Laptop with DVD. So pìššëd because I’ve used this disk several times. [The] .man files [are] there and intact - made a copy of CD with EZCD Copier ===NO GOOD=== made a copy with Clone CD Max read and 8x write and everything worked great. Apparently the DVD has problems with the CD as mentioned above. WEIRD! Maybe they should add thet [sic] to the XP compatiblity list! *LOL*
I had the same problem with a dell optiplex G1 that i am upgrading. then i used another copy cd and it worked. i still dont get it.
I have gotten the parse error also but I got it in a differnt file. My error is below.
Fatal Error
An error has been encountered that prevents setup from continuing.
One of the componenets that windows needs to continue setup could not be installed.
A component’s file does not match the verification information present in the component manifest.
***
Error:
SXS.DLL: Syntax error in manifest or policy file “E:\I386\asms\6000\MSFT\VCRTL\VCRTL.MAN” Line 11.
***
Error:
Installation Failed E:\I386\asms. Error Message: A component’s file does not match the verification information present in the component manifest.
***
Fatal Error:
One of the componenets that windows needs to continue setup could not be installed.
A component’s file does not match the verification information present in the component manifest.
What can i do about this? When i get this error XP setup restarts my computer and attempts to start setup again but it gets the same error, how do i fix this? It keeps going into an infinate loop. I have tried several times but keep getting the same error.
How do i fix this, please help me out.
Copied the data and created a new controls.man file and reburnt the cd with all the contents including the new man file but the man file will not run in dos. Any suggestions?
I actually went out and bought WinXP Home Edition today, only to get the same EXACT error ksuchoc is getting. Is there a solution to this?
Having not pirated XP, I took the original CD back to Best Buy today and received a new copy. XP installed off the new CD without a hitch…it seems that the original CD was faulty, right off the shelf. Now I see why people truly hate M$.
Being a computer builder and having installed XP Pro on many machines (new and used) from the same disk, it was, to say the least, extreemely frustrating to get the ‘manifest’ error. I used the 6 floppy disk boot for XP Pro and finished up with the CD. Worked well installation went without a hitch.
The version of CONTROLS.MAN in the .ISO file seems to be intact so the problem occurs when the ISO is burnt. A previous post mentions that these *.MAN files have longer paths than others on the CD. Anyone have any other ideas as to what could be the cause?
From the comments above it seems there is no common factor - different burning software, different hardware setups, pirated and legal versions all seem to be prone to the problem.
Could it really be some sort of copy protection by M$? I don’t see how it can be but then i’m not an expert in .isos and CD burning…. this is bugging me.. I want to know what is happening!
Ok it is my turn. I received the GDIPLUS.MAN error on line 4. This is after I (1) copied my XP to my harddrive; (2) revised all my .MAN files; (3) burned a CD at 2x with Easy Creator Version 4; and (4) banged my head against a wall until I was unconscious. What do I do???
joenrene - check that the files burnt onto your CD OK - do all the *.MAN files contain what seems like meaningful data when read from the CD? My guess is yet again for some reason they are screwing up during the burn process. I suggest burning again and verifying the *.MAN files are all OK on the CD before attempting the install.
It may take a few burns to get them all OK. Try varying burn speeds and maybe different software if you have no luck.
Dom -All the *.MAN files contain what seems like meaningful data when read from the CD. I then attempted the install with the same error gdiplus.man line 4. I do not have any other burn software to verify if my 2x burn is bad.
The main problem with these files, from what I can see, is that they violate the way cd’s are made. The directory length, along with the file name can be no logner than 64 characters on a cd-rom encoded with joilet, as is the XP cd’s. Unfortunately, MS has decided to push that number when burying these files. Some burning software might not recognize this file name scheme, and just leave files empty.
I counted 46 characters in the file name
I386\ASMS\6000\MSFT\WINDOWS\COMMON\CONTROLS\CONTROLS.MAN
Some drives may not support joilet correctly, especially when in the ghetto setup program. Your drive might default back to 32 character ISO 9660 mode 3, which EVERY cd drive faster than 2x has. Looking at my 2k pro cd, I can’t seem to find stuff that is more than 32 characters deep. Everything is in 8.3 format in the i386 dir, with short names. Perhaps this is the flaw we’re all seeing with XP cd’s?
Shawn.
Someone gave me a copy of XP Pro copied with Nero, which obviously gave the manifest error! I made an image file from it with CD Mate, replaced the controls.man in WinIso. Saved it and renamed to .bin. (No ISO files used). Burnt new CD with CD Mate using standard settings (including burning at max speed). Then installed XP using the usual FCKGW… key, and it worked fine. Simple as a pimple. Many thanks for the file!
Thnx Richard…had some difficulties just copying the CD to hd, but put some muscle into it and forced it to work. Copy-paste-drag-n-drop, replace… Burned the new CD using Nero 5.5.5.6 with no hitches. Now my $%&$ CD Key won’t work, BAAAAHHHHH!!! >:( Yes, I love MSFT… Thanks for the resource nonetheless.
hey i have this problem with windows xp rebooted after showing the logo load up screen…it just stops there i can’t get into my system, recently my computer came up to a pop-up screen that says it’s missing the asms file or folder i guess…does anyone know what i can do to fix it? ..it started out with just a modem prob, because my sister updated our modem and i happen to click roll back because it said it would go back to the most recent driver for our modem but i ended up with a lan\dsl\cable connection..i thought i could replace the file because our original os is win me and i decided to use the recovery cd..well that made it worse, it kept goin to safe mode and the other choices in the black screen… then i tried to repair the console now it just reboots.. finally i got to that screen, in the installation part which is sayin missing asms or something like that, i can’t really elaborate on that part much…sorry.. i’m on my friends computer right now.. but if anyone could help mne out that be GREAT! i would reformat, but there are important documents that i need for school..
Can anyone tell me if the following content is right in the “vcrtl.man” file ? I am getting the manifest parse error for this file and not for the “controls.man” file:
<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″
standalone=”yes”?><assembly xmlns=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1″
manifestVersion=”1.0″> <assemblyIdentity
type=”win32″ name=”Microsoft.Tools.VisualCPlusPlus.Runtime-Libraries”
version=”6.0.0.0″ processorArchitecture=”x86″
publicKeyToken=”6595b64144ccf1df”/>
<dependency
optional=”yes”>
<dependentAssembly>
<assemblyIdentity type=”win32″
name=”Microsoft.Tools.VisualCPlusPlus.Runtime-Libraries.Resources”
version=”6.0.0.0″ processorArchitecture=”x86″ publicKeyToken=”6595b64144ccf1df”
language=”*”/>
</dependentAssembly>
</dependency>
<file name=”mfc42u.dll”
hash=”d9357dbe54a1f754cd8d662323acdeb100a0b0d1″
hashalg=”SHA1″> <comClass
description=”Font Property Page”
clsid=”{0BE35200-8F91-11CE-9DE3-00AA004BB851}”/>
<comClass description=”Color Property Page”
clsid=”{0BE35201-8F91-11CE-9DE3-00AA004BB851}”/>
<comClass description=”Picture Property Page”
clsid=”{0BE35202-8F91-11CE-9DE3-00AA004BB851}”/>
</file> <file name=”mfc42.dll”
hash=”138a2057b090678d865720ed22276b00ede39168″
hashalg=”SHA1″/> <file name=”atl.dll”
hash=”60f116cba40bf191e78dd71177de8de79d79c50b”
hashalg=”SHA1″> <comClass
description=”Registrar Class” clsid=”{44EC053A-400F-11D0-9DCD-00A0C90391D3}”
progid=”ATL.Registrar”/>
<typelib tlbid=”{44EC0535-400F-11D0-9DCD-00A0C90391D3}” version=”1.0″
helpdir=”"/> </file>
<file name=”msvcp60.dll” hash=”0d48860c3fdc649067ae29ef95635443d9d7064d”
hashalg=”SHA1″/>
<comInterfaceExternalProxyStub name=”IAxWinAmbientDispatch”
iid=”{B6EA2051-048A-11D1-82B9-00C04FB9942E}”
proxyStubClsid32=”{00020424-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}” numMethods=”35″
baseInterface=”{00000000-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}”/>
</assembly>
hey everyone…I just wanna say that I have had these problems too about parsing errors and invalid files and whatnot, but I just re-downloaded the iso from microsoft and burned it and it worked fine…so maybe the errors just lie in the download and not in the actual image.
For those who have replaced the CONTROLS.MAN file but still get the parse manifest file error (this time in line 4 rather than line 0): the other files in the i386\asms\…\CONTROLS\ folder (the .CAT file and the .DLL file) may be corrupt too. I’ve done a compare with working files, it showed that .MAN and .CAT were completely screwed and the .DLL was OK in the first half (that’s why it showed DLL version correctly), but the rest of the file was broken as well.
After replacing all 3 files with their working versions (I took them from xp home cd) the setup went ok.
Hope this helps.
Thanks to everyone. I will share my experience as well.
A guy in my company downloaded JP_WinXP_PRO_x86_build2600_ISO.IMG and burned it to a CD (probably high speed). Using the CD, I got the manifest error when trying to install Japanese Windows XP on a second partition of the hard drive. The particular file that had problem was GDIPlus.MAN. However, I can open and see GDIPlus.MAN just fine (it’s not blank). I also compared it to the copy on our MSDN Windows XP (English) CD using ExamDiff — they are identical.
The guy used the same ISO image and burned a CD again, only this time with x1 speed. It worked.
Everyone, I have found the easiest way to resolve this stupid error. I have been getting this same message for quite some time and finally found a fix. All you have to do is start the installation and after Windows XP copies the files to your HD and reboots, wait until you get the setup screen that says installing windows. Take out your Windows XP CD. Wait until it asks you for it, then reinsert the CD. Give it a few seconds, maybe 15 seconds, take the CD out again. Each time you take the CD out you will get message that you need windows XP cd to copy a certain file. Do it once or twice more and the installation should continue without a problem.
I tried a few of the solutions posted here before coming up with my own combination that works well and easily:
Andrew wrote above on Sept 12, 2002:
[quote]
Actually you can get around having to do a full reinstall by letting the system restart after it encounters the error and removing the Windows CD. It will continue setup right where you left off and ask for the “asms” file and you simply click OK and it will let you enter in the path to the file. At this point you insert a floppy disk which you’ve made to have the complete file tree (all folders the same) as on the CD down to the CONTROLS.MAN file. Make sure that your CONTROLS.MAN file is correct (4kb or so) and then in the path change “E:/I386″ to “A:/I386″ and hit enter. This should do the trick. It will read the Manifest file from the floppy and when it’s done it asks you to reinsert the Windows CD and installation continues as normal.
[end quote]
The disk you make has to contain all three files in that CONTROLS folder — the .cat, .man, and .dll files. That way, Setup looks for the .man file, finds the working one you put on the A-drive, and can still find the .dll file that the .man file refers to.
Easier than burning a new cd… and it works!
I tried the floppy disk workaround suggested by Andy above… Setup read the floppy disk for 30 seconds or so and I thought I was home free, but then I got the error message:
“An error has been encountered…
One of the components that Windows needs…
Data error (cyclic redundancy check),
If you are installing from a CD, there might be a problem with the disc; try cleaning the disc or using another disc.
If you are installing from the network, it is possible that not all of the files were copied correctly to your drive. Run the disk checking utility on your installation drive from the Recovery Console and start setup again.”
Is something wrong with how I created my floppy? I copied in the correct “controls.man” content and duplicated the .dll and .cat files on the floppy. I created all of the folders in the i386 directory but not on the entire CD. Do I need to recreate EVERY single folder on the CD (there are tons) or just the i386 tree? Or could something else be causing the problem?
Richard, thanks for creating this awesome resource.
Follow-up to my comment above:
It works now! I went ahead and replicated the ENTIRE directory tree from the CD onto a floppy and then included just the three files in the Controls folder (with the fixed Controls.man). To replicate all the folders on the floppy, I just copied the CD to my hard drive and then erased every file in every folder (took ~30 mins) and then copied the resulting empty directory tree onto a floppy. Then everything went off without a hitch as described by Andy on May 6, ‘03. I now have XP Pro up and runninng.
Thanks again to everyone for enabling me to circumvent the evil empire.
***
Error:
SXS.DLL: Syntax error in manifest or policy file “E:\I386\asms\6000\MSFT\VCRTL\VCRTL.MAN” Line 11.
***
Error:
Installation Failed E:\I386\asms. Error Message: A component’s file does not match the verification information present in the component manifest.
***
Fatal Error:
One of the componenets that windows needs to continue setup could not be installed.
A component’s file does not match the verification information present in the component manifest.
What can i do about this? When i get this error XP setup restarts my computer and attempts to start setup again but it gets the same error, how do i fix this? It keeps going into an infinate loop. I have tried several times but keep getting the same error.
How do i fix this, please help me out.
if it helps i had this error from an original copy of xp, i made an iso and keep it for back up purpose on my computer. well i made a burn of it at 8x. tried it and the above fix and got all kinds of other errors of corrupted files. i just got the original xp disk made an iso of it again and reburned it and it worked fine. chances are if this happens its due to a corrupt iso file (or other cd image file). making a copy from the original should work just fine.
The fix to all is in the WinXp files folder of
http://briefcase.yahoo.com/login99ph
When Windows XP installs, it makes a directory named $win_nt$.~ls to your main drive. It copies almost all the CD files to it. Manifest files like VCRTL.MAN or CONTROLS.MAN check the files. Component files do not match component verification when they do not became identical to the original CD’s. To fix this. They should first all be of the same time and end with 12:00PM. I have a file copy program i made. Available to you if you email me. And if you ned the fix to VCRTL.MAN component manifest error. Download the fies in my briefcase link above and then copy them to the $win_nt$.~ls\i386\asms\6000\msft\vcrtl\ folder. Or if you got more problems email me, or post. Ill read it once i get more money. Im out of dough, and im a hacker/programmer. See ya!
Dont forget to make abootdisk first. If you dont know DOS, just email me.
Thanks for the great wealth of information Richard!
I’m getting the GDIPLUS line 4 error. All the .man files on my CD are fine. If fact, I used the same CD to do a successful install on my other virtually identical PC. I’ve tried copying the .man files to hard drive, floppy drive, pulling out the CD and nothing keeps me from getting this error. I’ve reformatted my hard drive 5 times. I’ve re-installed Win98 and tried to upgrade from there twice and it always comes down to this error!
Any help would be appreciated.
I was getting the “vcrtl.man error in line 21″. So I just edited vcrtl.man in edit and overwrote line 21 with a bunch of spaces. XP installed fine after that.
I got a NEW one! While trying to install WinXP Corp I get absolutly NO errors, however during the copying of installation files the install stops at 37%. I try it again, it stops at 2%. Again, it stops at 55%. What the hëll it going on??? I am suspicous of my CD drive, but it has worked great up till now. Is it something else? Is it possible to install from HD or a network drive??? Can I make a temp install dir and install XP from HD???
continued from last msg…
OK I watched more closely this time. This time setup files stopped copying at 27% (driver.cab). This is after I deleted partitions and did a full format using the NTFS file system. I could hear that the CD-ROM remained spinning inside the drive, green read light stops flashing.
Just stopped AGAIN at 27%, but this time I did NOT delete partitions and reformat. I chose to overwrite existing C:\windows dir. You should also know that I am putting this on an older sys. It might be below min. req.??? It use to run ME just fine; except for the usually ME/Windows bûllšhìt, which is to be expected with all M$ products.
Anyways…
“it” is a:
400mhz AMD K6-II
256MB SDRAM
FIC VA-503+ (rev.1.2a) motherboard
ATI Rage Pro Turbo (2X AGP)
Maxtor 16gig HD
Yamaha 20×10x40x CD-RW
I stuffed this all into an old Gateway 2000 case
I am trying it again right now.
This time it stopped copying setup files at 12% (mshtml.dll). I deleted all partitions and reformatted using NTFS file system before this attempt. What the hëll is going on???
The reason I ask about a HD install is because I use to be able to do that w/ ME and older windows. I copied all the cab files, etc.. onto the HD and installed that way.
Any help on this would be great cause I have no F*@#kin’ clue!!!
Thank you Thank you Thank you for all your help guys, here’s what I tried and what worked for me:
* Tried a burned CD of XP Professional
* got the Manifest Parse error with CONTROLS.MAN on Line 0
* Copied a GOOD version of the file to a floppy disk, all directory names intact
* Got same error, BUT on Line 4 instead of Line 0
*******
Here’s the kicker
*******
THEN I had to copy, IN ADDITION to the CONTROLS.MAN file, the COMCTL32.DLL and CONTROLS.CAT files
Then it worked!
Hope this helps some of you others out there!
How do i fix the I386\asms\6000\MSFT\VCRTL\VCRTL.MAN problem. I have read the whole page here and still cant work it out
PLEASE HELP ME!!!
Ok, I tried doing what you said. I tried to burn the disk to hard drive, create new file off of yours, and then everytime I went to burn it to cd, it said there was an error, and wouldnt burn it. grrrr Is there anyone who can help me? Im getting so frustrated!
Hello. First I tried copying a [pirated] XP Home cd. It failed. Second, I copied to my hard drive, except for one file “sxs.dl”. I can’t, for the life of me, figure out why this file won’t copy over. Any recommendations? By the way, I’m trying to copy the trial version of the CD. I do plan on purchasing the full version, but I want to make sure I like it first.
what the hëll i had same problem i downloaded a win xp iso a year ago burned the cd and installed it and everything worked fine recently i couldnt find the cd so i burned a new one using the same hardware and software as the first cd i burned and now i get the stupid parse error.. wasted about 5 cds and thought about it so i did some bong hits and realized hmmmm i know where the cd is so i found the first one installed xp and it works fine… firgure that out.. oh well f@ck bill gates. by the way even when i got the parse error xp worked better than anything mac or apple has ever put out who the hëll would want a mac piece of šhìt (well except for the government)
I had a problem with the VCTRL.MAN file
I was getting the manifest error on line 16
I looked at the file to make sure it wasn’t corrupt, and it wasn’t. I tried the method mentioned before about copying the files to a floppy and that worked.
simply copy the file structure from I386/ASMS/6000/ and so on…. inlcude all the VCTRL files inluding the dll’s and whatnot as well as all the CONTROL.MAN files
boot without the cd-rom and when asked to locate the files type A:\I386
this worked for me and hopefully it will work for anyone else with the VCTRL problem.
Tip for VMWare users - if you get this message while trying to install XP Pro as a guest, close down your VM and check “Enable raw access” to the Cd/DVD.
Ta just wot i wanted cos my contols.man file was corrupt and the original cd was at work
I was getting the wonderful controls.man CRC error on my just out of the shrink wrap XP PRO OEM CD. At first I though all my nice new hardware was suspect, but thankfully all that is great. Anyway I replace the very old 8X CD-ROM with an borrowed brand new Samsung DVD reader and bang, it works like a champ. I guess better readers can overcome MS’s cheap CD presses!
Just like all of you…
I got exactly the same message as peter (look for [Posted by: peter from 132.238.187.69 on March 2, 2003 11:58 AM]).
To all who have this problem, remember this: WinXP Setup seems very sensitive to CD media and/or readers!
My little story. I mounted myself a new PC with recent components:
-MB Asus P4P800 Deluxe
-P4C 2.4Ghz (Intel cooler, too noisy)
-2×256Mb TwinMos PC3200
-ATI 9500 pro
-Maxtor 80Gb (6Y080L0)
-DVD-Rom Samsung (SD-616Q, *very* noisy, unacceptable for me; if someone has a suggestion for a RPC1 and silent DVD drive, thanks)
-Antec black case with 380W
-wireless Logitech combo key/mouse
On my first attempt to install WinXP, Setup wasn’t even able to see the Maxtor hard disk. It seems it was the fault of the Asus MB BIOS (was 1004) which I upgraded to 1006 (needed to borrow a floppy drive for this: I didn’t buy one for this new PC!)
Then the Setup could start… and stop after the first reboot (you know, at 39 minutes remaining). I tryed 3 times, changing BIOS settings between them. Then I looked on internet and I found this page. Obviously I began to doubt about the CD copy, but it appeared to contain all needed files under the ASMS/6000/MSFT folder with the correct content. So I tryed the CD on another computer (an old Dell with P2/450): same problem. Finally I burned a new CD-R and the problem gone. In brief, success story!
Thanks Richard for this page.
Wow… Thank you!!!
I was having so many problems installing Xp on a friends computer, til I found Richard!
Your idea to make the new Control.man file and burn a new cd.. I did this using nero by selecting burn disk at once and all was bootable fun after that.
Something else I did was also do the copying all of I386 into a Folder on C:\I386 as stated in one of the posts on your site.. with a link to windowz. This came in handy when during final fazes the computer could not find the files it was looking for on my cd, for some reason, It could find them on the hard drive..
All is happy and good now.. as I stare at the god awful desk top that I am so happy to see, who knows what XP was thinking with the rolling hills, but happy to see them now! Thanks Richard and fellow posters! Hopefully my experience will help someone else
Kissed
As stated above, the fix for the ‘Line 4′ error is to replace ALL of the files in the controls directory. I used some from an XP Home CD I had, and it worked perfectly.
I cant get the updated CD to boot. Where do I put the boot.img file?
TD
dear friends, thank you so much to all who povided such a comprehensive page and hëll to MS with such a hating product!!
I have a Fujitsu/Siemence C series notebook. I tried to reinstall win xp with the original winxp CD_ROM I had(it was included with notebook) I got the error message of manifest mising for msm\5100…. directory and i tried most likely all the solution mentioned above. copying a new image with winiso, copying to HD, copying the tree to Floppy and i’m still unsuccesfull. my HD is NTFS formatted and the installation goes till 35% and then a blue page that I can’t read comes and stay just for 1 second and then reboot and it repeats again and again and again. what that just can I do is going to command line during the installation by clicking SHIFT&F10. i’m really frustrated and dieing. i rush all the sites and i tried to install more than 100 times during last 40 hours. i need my data on HDD. please help me freinds, thank you so much to all.
I had the same problem on a copied XP Pro CD. Clean install on a A7N8X-X
I found the CONTROL.MAN was 1742 bytes of some binary and mostly blank data. Replacing it with the XML above did the trick.
None of the other XML MAN files were blank.
Since I had to burn the CD again, I took the opportunity to include a few keys and a keygen proggy.
Thanks everyone who’s added their knowledge to this page, it ranks high on Google.
First I want to say thanks for this page. It was a great help.
The solution I found to this problem was to take the ISO image file I had and extract it with ISO Buster. Then I burned all of the files to a CD at 4x (it may actually work at a higher speed but I didn’t want to add to my pile of coasters). It seems that whenever I burned a CD from the ISO the controls.man file was corrupt. When I burned it from all of the extracted files it was fine.
If you are unable to extract the actual ISO, another solution would be like was suggested earlier and copy the entire CD contents to the HD. Chances are, if the commons.man file is corrupted, that an error will occur in the process (so be forewarned). Once the CD contents are on your HD, delete the commons.man file that is there and create a new one with the contents above. Then burn from the HD files you have and you will hopefully be good to go.
GL, HF, and thanks again.
Hi there
This guy is writing to you from Israel, I came across the phenomenon exactly the way that Richard described it at the top - while trying to install XP on a blank machine. Went to check the file - indeed distorted, replaced with the suggested xml text, burned everything into a new CD, boot the PC with new CD and BINGO! everything’s perfect.
All thanks to the good souls here - I especially want to express my gratitude to Richard who saved me a very nervous night.
One think I want to point out which was not mentioned before: all MS knowledge base links that people mentioned above point to articles that are not really relevant to the problem as described by Richard. When searching the database specifically for the “Manifest Parse error”, MS’s search engine *interestingly* finds you this thing:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;331881
I leave you all to see what’s MS’s suggestion in that case - definitely speaks for itself!
Cheers & GL!
HEELLPP!!!
This seems to be the only website i have found that has an idea of the sort of knowledge base to help me with my predicament. I was running on windows XP pro after updrading from ME. I foolishly took my PC into PC WORLD for it`s health check and had a new hard drive added. Perfect until i got it home. Firstly it was missing it`s SYSTEM32.Config file, now after deleting prtitions and reformating C: drive it will not let me reinstall XP saying that the C: Drive is corrupt and you cannot proceed with the installation. It will however let me install the Ghost CD of ME that came with my PC. I`m fed up with the crashes already with ME and want my XP pro back. Can anyone help???
Stuart
Thankyou, Thankyou, Thankyou!
Used your text from the start for controls.man
Created a cd with just the i386 directory, poped it in just after winXP restarted setup(after the obligatory parse error and reboot) and the install went along like it was DESIGNED for a two disc set.
Now to add the other 1/2 gig of memory to make my new os a happy camper
can anyone send me CONTROLS.MAN file but not of folder 6000 but of foler 60100. I would appretiate if anyone could send me the file in my email as soon as possible my email is sachindra@mountdigit.com
Thanks,
I’m having the gdiplus.man problem, but the thing is, I only ran setup so i could repair some files, and now I can’t finish booting my computer without setup trying to run again.
Is there not any way to just keep setup from continuing and get back into my machine?
A very helpfull thread. Didnt help me to solve the CONTROLS.MAN problem here but it showed me what it wasn’t. The computer is a Dell C600. Everything above was tried but to no avail. I knew my burn(ed) XP ISO’s were OK but still the parse error. Eventually I got XP to install by deleting the suspend to disk partition. A flawless install followed.
ALL YOU NEED IS A DIFFERENT COPY OF XP! THATS IT! TRUST ME!
FYI… after reading this post and feeling too lazy to copy and burn another CD, I simply put the controls.man file on a floppy disk in the appropriate \i386 directory structure. Then all I had to do was remove the install CD, let the installation restart and point it to the floppy drive. Once it got past that point, it prompted me for the CD again and I put the install disk back in the drive and… wala!
Absolutely Genius … It’s now at least a year after this thread was started and I am thrilled that I was able to use the “Floppy” method to get my software going ….
Thanks Richard !!
~oh yeah.. floppy solution all the way~
MY BAD>> IT WAS LENI WHO CAME UP WITH IT!! sry!
This is just my experience…
I just came across the SXS.DLL manifest error for the first time. This might not be the same solution for everyone, but for me it was a hardware problem. After I swapped out memory and a CD drive I had no problems with XP. This is the same CD stored in a jewel case that I’ve used numerous times before. Likewise I had similar blue screen and install problems on the same system attempting a W2K install. Therefore, for all those frustrated while trying to get a clean XP install, try changing memory modules. IT’s worth a shot.
Matt
I came across this page last night while I was trying to get round the same problem. The floppy drive in my spare pc is dead and I didn’t want to mess around getting my cd burner set up (I was reinstalling my main pc), so decided to try to hack it… and here’s how I managed it:
1. remove installation cd and reboot. wait for setup to start
2. press shift-F10 asap after setup starts
3. when dialog box appears with “insert XP cd”, move it to one side & ignore it for now
4. examine problematic file in cmd window - on my cd, the files seemed fine (use “type controls.man | more” or, in my case, “type vcrtl.man”) - maybe some people suffer more corruption that I did…
5. put cd back in drive (but DON’T click OK on the “insert XP cd” dialog)
6. create a new directory c:\i386 and cd into it. Use “xcopy /e d:\i386 .” to copy installation files from cd onto drive C. Check file still looks ok in the new copy.
7. go back to “insert XP cd” dialog and make it look in c:\i386.
8. Wait a short while. It had a problem finding “nt5.cab” (I think that’s what it was called, I’m doing this from memory), so at this point I reinserted the XP cd.
9. Installation continued from here and completed successfully!
Good luck to anyone who decides to try this… worked well for me and saved me having to burn another cd
Thank you Google! Thank you Richard! Thank you whoever posted the “floppy method”. I almost lost my mind when I got this error…Googled it for the hëll of it and found this page. XP is up and running smoothly.
THANK YOU
Ok, I was trying to reformat my computer and do a fresh install of a pirated copy of XP PRO, but it would not let me delete the partion so I had to install over my old version so windows could run again, I ran into the manifest error this is how you fix it quick and easy.
1.Borrow a legitimate copy of XP Home or Pro.
2.Get a blank floppy disk.
3.explore your CD drive when you have the legitimate copy in.
4. the control.man file should be located somewhere like
D:I386/ASMS/6000/MSFT/WINDOWS/COMMON/CONTROLS/
All the files needed are in there,
5. copy all the folders above onto the floppy disk, but only the folders not the files inside!(it would probably be easier if you just made new folders and named them appropriately)
The 3 files in the controls folder are the most important thing, directly copy the CONTROLS folder into the COMMON folder.
6. Boot up the computer with NO CD in the drive, it will ask for you to insert the windows XP pro cd, hit ok but DO NOT ENTER THE CD.
after you hit ok it should show you
D:/I386 or something, change that to A:/I386 and hit Ok.
it will run for a while and voila it takes the needed files, after it will ask for the XP Pro cd again so pop it in and continue the install, it may ask for some other files but just hit cancel and it will ask if you want to just continue installing anyway.
Good luck hope this helped because I could barely understand the other explainations.
I am another one with the problem of upgrading to Windows XP Pro,a handfull of files “cannot be downloaded” from the burned cd and after skipping these files,i get “components file does not match the verification info present in the components manifest”. Problem is,i fix cars for a living,and was looking for the simplest solution for a dummy like me. Thank You.
OK, I have yet another stupid question re installation of XP. Maybe someone here knows.
I have a ‘reinstallation CD’ for XP Pro from Dell that came with a laptop I bought. I’m wiping the laptop and installing another OS on it. Can I use the reinstallation CD on another, non-Dell machine, or will it fail?
This is in response to Chris on February 24, 2003 12:52 PM
Chris, you are a God. THANK YOU SO MUCH! I have fought and fought with this stupid install and kept having problems with the 60100 folder (not the 6000). I finally found your posting and just DELETED the whole dámn folder and…will wonders never cease….XP works! Gee Microsoft, that’s so intuitive.
Many thanks to all of you who took the time to help; by your success stories and by your expertise. Like many of you who took the time to comment because you found answers at this wonderful site I offer my experience in exchange for what you gave me. Thank you Mr. Richard.
The only error message I ever got, after 8 burned CDs, 20 pages of instructions and three days of frustration was: SXS.dll syntax error in manifest or policy file “E:\I386\ASMS\6000\MSFT\VCRTL\VCRTL.MAN” on line 16.
The solution. I copied the entire I386 folder(1) from the installation CD to my hdd, used Nero to burn the entire folder to another CD(2) and named the folder for the hdd C:\I386. I named CD-ROM drive folder G:\I386(3). I began the installation from my DVD drive and the installation continued until it automatically shut down and restarted. Seconds after the restart, XP stopped and displayed the above error message. I warm booted the computer, took the installation disk out and waited for XP to display the “cannot find files of indicate where the files may be found” message or something similar.
I Change the offered file location to the location where I had saved the I386 folder. For this drive it was C:\I386. XP copied the files and displayed a menu prompting me to place the XP installation back in the drive. Seconds later the installation was complete. Hours later I am beyound words in attempting to thank all of you. I plead with those of you who have been helped by this site to add your successful experience. An aside. If you are considering purchasing an ASUS Motherboard, be aware of their support service. Their resellers claim they have no knowledge about the product and email to ASUS.com is three days out with no response.
If I were to say thank you a million times it would not be enough. Interestingly my retail copy of XP Pro Corp SP1 (got it on the first day it was released) gave it up on the second time I tried to re-install. Fortunately I found this site and it saved my life. I downloaded the Common.man from above. After copying XP to my hard drive I over wrote the file and burned the disk contents using Nero Burning Rom without finalizing. My burner is a Verbatium 24/10/40 and I am happy to say that it did the trick. Installation stalled at 39 minutes remaing and then the error message(s). Can you imagine my delight when the install continued? YES! Thanks again for the correct fix.
SIMPLE SOLUTION FOUND.
Problem: XP setup failed, with manifest error in line 4 related to the gdiplus.man file.
Solution: Disabling on chip cache of microcontroller in BIOS during Xp installation.
Remark: it is an old system (AMD-166Mhz).
Greetings Marcel.
Who besides me thinks that the installation of an operating system should actually work flawlessly without having to mess with hardware or the BIOS?! *sigh* - RDL
THANK YOU ALL!!!!! To keep my story short, It definitely helped me. I faced so many problems.
The BÙGGÊR in this story is the CONTROLS.MAN file, which you need to patch according to the (many) instructions above.
Regards
Eef
I came across this problem last week formatted my hard drive several times and couldn’t get a clean install without this manifest parse error. I took my hdd drive out and checked what files where on it, found the recycled folder with a fair bit in it, deleted each item individually then FDISK and put the drive back in original machine, used my cd/rw dive instead of my DVD rom formatted and hey presto a complete installation without errors. I don’t know too much on the technical side but it worked for me. Hope it’s of help to you.
Well, the story starts a few weeks back. I lent my good copied version of XP to a friend, but then he kinda lost it :\ So, I was stuck without an XP disc (which I really wanted to have). Now, we all know how M$’s products have a very unpredictable stability, so I really needed to have a copy of XP handy so if anything did happen, BINGO it would be fixed.
So anyway, I downloaded an ISO of XP PRO, and I had heard about this error before (so i checked the ISO and the controls file was ok). Burnt it and guess what…the directory that controls.man was in wouldn’t even load. So I tried it again..and again - this time on 2x speed…both times failing (same thing happening).
So I extracted the contents of the ISO (using Undisker) and then proceeded to burn the files using Nero 5 on 4x speed. I then did data verification..Nero said everything was fine. I was a bit sketchy with this result so I checked out controls.man with Notepad..BINGO everything there! I haven’t had to reinstall Windows as of yet, but I’m assuming the disc is in working order (tested it by installing some Windows components).
I hope this story helps anyone out there having trouble
I only have copied winxp corporate edition cd.
would someone pls send me all those manifest files or contents of files?
\I386\ASMS\1000\MSFT\WINDOWS\GDIPLUS\GDIPLUS.MAN
\I386\ASMS\5100\MSFT\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\DEFAULT\DEFAULT.MAN
\I386\ASMS\6000\MSFT\VCRTL\VCRTL.MAN
\I386\ASMS\6000\MSFT\WINDOWS\COMMON\CONTROLS\CONTROLS.MAN
\I386\ASMS\7000\MSFT\WINDOWS\MSWINCRT\MSWINCRT.MAN
thank you in advance
Here’s my story. I have a legitimate copy of XP Home ed. in the form of a restore CD for my Emachines rig. It’s in Ghost format and computer-model-sensitive. I wanted to install XP in my older rig to test it, and came upon an info-site that instructed me to just copy the I386 folder outta my XP-equipped rig instead of worrying how to extract it from the disks and remove unwanted files. So I copied the I386 folder to a cheap Imation blank using the XP burning software and the CDWriter in my Emachines rig. I formatted my old 450’s HDD and popped in the I386 CD. It asked me if I wanted to enable SmartDisk or something like that. It sait it would greatly improve the performance of that stage of setup. I said Nah and just ignored it. It took 24+ hours to copy to the HD! several files wouldn’t copy, like the cyclad/cyclom inf’s - typical for a copy CD. Then I had the option to Change the File system to NTFS, so I opted for it, and XP copied to the HD for a 2nd time, but only took a few minutes this time. Fast-forward to the install-I get an error about XP not being able to complete setup because of a mismatch. There was no mention of “parsing” or anthing else, just something about the manifest catalog. I clicked the log button to discover that it was a problem in “line 4″ of the CONTROLS.MAN file. Fast-forward to my Google-search leading me here-I’m reading about all of these conflicting accounts, most of which support or debunk the CONTROLS.MAN issue. I checked the file on my cd. It was fine. What do I do now? I keep readin. I read about copying the file to a floppy and waiting for setup to ask me to manually search for the file if I take out the CD and reboot, then I tell it to look in the floppy. Hmm-ok-lets try that. I yoink out the CD, reboot and wait for it to look for the file, then not find the file, then ask me to track it down. BANG! the sonofabitch finishes setup without a hitch! IT DIDN’T ASK ME FOR THE FILE. It was like the CD was getting in the way of the identical file already on the HDD. WTF? Anyway, that’s my XP-copy story, try yankin the cd and rebooting if you haven’t done so already. I have to report that it seems less stable than my fast fast rig with OE XP-maybe due to a slower machine and less ram…whoknows. It works 90% fine. I’m Happy
I have a Gateway Solo 1200 laptop without a recovery disk, the hard drive have been formatted, i also have a copied XP cd and i also get a manifest parse error, I tried to downgrade to win2k pro, it works but my display is not right, my network card doesnt work, and i dont have sound, does anyone know how i can get my drivers, without going to gateway since they are charging me $190 for a recovery disk.
You are a GOD !! Thank you very much for the advise on the Manifest Parse Error - the advise to copy/replace the controls.man files worked perfectly. I made a new copy of Windows XP Pro following the step-by-step instructions here: http://www.geocities.com/zrantheus/ (really easy!)
I have one note to make, however, for those of you out there getting ready to follow Richard’s directions…follow them to a “Q” and make sure the files get put where he tells you (don’t make the mistake I did and attempt to copy the Windows XP files to a different hard drive other than the c:\temp …it won’t work!!)Keep up the great advise Richard!! Thanks again!
P.S. - I used the Roxio Easy CD Creator program for MY copy needs & it worked like a charm (but you still need to follow the step-by-step directions…)
I am having the problem of ” The file “asms” on Windows XP Pro CD-ROM is need. Type the path where the file is located and the click O
I have done everything that I was supposed to but I cannot get it to work. Someone said in an earlier post about a floppy disk with the tree. How do you do that and please be specific. I have been working on this forever.
If some files are needed please eamil them to me jimflagg@sbcglobal.net
I got it to work. I just burned it to the CD at a slower speed and did what Rob said at the top. Thanks for your help.
Thank you this worked great.
I followed the steps on this page and it worked like a champ.
http://www.geocities.com/zrantheus/
WOW. That’s all I can say.
Been burning my own cracked version of XPprofSP1a and it’s just not working! Weird thing is, check this:
~ Crappy Korean generic CDR :: burn, works fine
~ Quality Sony CD :: burn, parse error VCTRL.MAN
From my years as a PC user I can only think that the chap that talked about Joliet standards is right - the directory structure is too deep and therefore it’s incredibly temperamental to burning errors. It’s got to be that. All very well saying that but none of the methods mentioned above seem to work. Very odd this, I’m amazed there’s no KB article on this since MS do say that making one backup copy of a CD is fine (correct me if I’m wrong).
Hmm… this has got me pìššëd off - 5 CDs burned so far with no luck. Run out for tonight, gotta go buy some tomorrow!
I hope this post will help. I had to download the WinXP Pro twice to get it right. I did not bother about the speed of burning (2x in my case). The problem with the first download was I could not get the VCRTL.MAN currectly. I downloaded another XP iso image and burned it on another cd. Started installing from the first cd and once it booted (before the famous 39 min notice), I removed the first cd and waited for the prompt to insert the XP cd and popped in the second cd. It worked like charm and I had no problem. I would also suggest to go with FAT32 and not with NTFS. NTFS supporters can convert later once the installation is perfect. Hope it helps.
Shekhar
i don’t know if this has been posted, but some people were saying after using your fix that they then get an error on the 4th line. this may be because they have word wrap on in note pad, with this enabled the second half of the third line becomes the 4th line which may explain why the 4th line is now the problem, hope this helps some people.
well, another sucsess story, worked first time for me, i used win iso to rip my win-xp cd to the hard disk as an image, then replaced the controls.man with the one from this page. saved the iso, burned it to cd-rw at 2x, checked the file on the cd to make sure it had worked, and it had. so i installed xp and had no troubles. thank you so much, i’d have never done it without this site!!
matt
I checked the control.man file and everything was OK with it.SO I decided to burn the CD again with a lower speed.I created an image with Alcohol 120% and reburned it using the same program, with 8X speed.Voila,it worked fine. I booted the computer using the CD and install Windows XP with SP1a just fine.Hope it works for all as it worked for me.
Hi everybody..I’m from Turkey and I have good news for u all 2 fiz all these *.man errors… In addition to all these methodologies and Richard’s marvelleous technique here, I also tried other advices without burning any CDs and yes! it worked. How it works? If u have 2 partitions, it is easy. Copy all XP files to D: for instance and setup to C:. You get some .man errors like controls.man or gdiplus.man etc. PANIC NOT! Go to MS’ website to download SP utility as Franks tells in this web page as follows: Go to microsoft get Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 1 Utility: Setup Disks for Floppy Boot Install 6 floppies. When you get these error insert floppy #1. Reboot, then #2, 3… 6… and VADAAAAA! MS XP is installed! Congratulations… now you can eat some turkish delight or schich kebap. LOVE From Turkey…
Erhan
Many thanks for your website richard. After 5 days of suffering I finally managed to install winXP. dámn that manifest error
Hi. I had tried to do a clean boot from a copy of xp pro sp2, the downloading worked okay until I got to the “install windows” part of the process.It came up with the error message - SXS.DLL:Syntax error in manifest or policy file “D:\i386\asms\52\POLICY\MSFT\WINDOWS\NETWORKING\RTCDLL\RTCDLL.MAN” on line 0. Can anyone advise me in reguards to this error? It’s giving me a headache & I’m going nuts over it! I do not have the original installation CD
PS - I checked the CONTROLS folder on my cd & it contained following files -
COMCTL32.DLL
CONTROLS
CONTROL.MAN
@Rico: What’s in the RTCDLL folder? Grab a copy of the RTCDLL.MAN file from another torrent, since you don’t have the CD. Also, try burning the CD with different software or version, and/or at the slowest burn speed. Try burning on CD-R disk instead of CD-RW. Good luck.
Hi Richard.
The RTCDLL folder contains the following files -
RTCDLL.CA_
RTCDLL.MAN
Does this help? I will try the other options and keep my fingers crossed. Thanks.
Rico
Re-burn the XP CD using a different program or slower burn rate. I burned 3 CDs, from two different ISOs, and got this error. I then burned a 3rd CD at 10x speeds and everything worked fine.
Thank you, Thank you new .man file worked great. My original disk was created through an electronic software distribution deal through my university. Reformatted the hard drive stuck the original in and it stopped halfway through.
Greatly appreciate the info.
Brian