Errors installing some programs

I formatted recently, and now I'm getting errors when installing the eMusic download manager or Visual basic 6.

Computer info:
AMD Athlon 1.4 thunderbird
256 Mb DDR 266 ram
Asus a7a266 mobo
WD 40 GB HD
ATI Radeon 64 MB DDR VIVO gfx card
Liteon 24x10x40 CD-RW drive

Windows XP pro

ALL windows updates installed, including dx 9 and sp1.
It started quite a while ago, I can't remember if anything changed right around the time it started.

Now for the errors:
for eMusic -
I run the installer - the installshild wizard come up, and extracts the files to a temp directory. Then, right after it finishes, it tries to execute the setup file that it extracted, but says "'Error executing the specified program - d:\tmp\pft~21tmp\Setup.exe' /SMS"
I press ok, and a box pops up - "Emusic Download Manager - Unable to execute the specified command line!"
I press OK, and it terminates.
I have tried going to my temp directory, and coping the emusic temp folder to my desktop and running setup. It says it can't find the setup file (the one I just double clicked). I then used winrar to extract the files out of the installshild installer. Same error, can't find the setup.exe that I just double clicked. Checked security, administrators, me, and system all have full control. No new entries in the event viewer.


Now for VB -
First, I copied the files to my HD so I can do this easier, so the root install path is c:\install\VB6. I got all the same errors when installing from Cd.

I double click setup.exe. Install wizard comes up, I hit next, accept, next, put my Cd key and stuff in, hit next , hit next for default config, hit next for default install dir, and I get the following error: "Installation Wizard for Visual Studio 6.0 enterprise edition - Error launching c:\install\vb6\acmboot.exe". Hit ok and a box telling me that the install failed and to try re-running the installer. Hit ok and it terminates. If I go to the vb6 dir, acmboot.exe is there, but, if I try and run it directly, I get the following error - "Windows cannot file the file 'c:\install\vb6\acmboot.exe. Make sure you typed the filename correctly and try again. You can use search yadda yadda yadda".
Again, nothing in the event viewer.

I've allready cleared my temp directorys, and rebooted. Anyone have any ideas?

 

Does anyone have any ideas? It also happens with Vernier graphical analyasys. It says it can't find the setup file.

 

I set it to extract to D, as a test i moved my temp dir there. And yes, I manually extracted files with winrar, and it tells me it can't find setup.exe when I double click setup.exe.

Dos prompt and safe mode give me the same error.