Upgrading SQL Server 2005 Express to SP3

Question

I'm trying to install SQL Server 2005 Express SP3 on two of my machines. When I try to do this I get this error message: "None of the selected features can be installed or upgraded. Setup cannot proceed since no effective change is being made to the machine. To continue, click Back and then select features to install." And of course it won't let me go any further. When I get to the "Existing components" screen (which is before the error message), the only item that's listed is "SQL Server Database Services 9.2.3042.00" and it's grayed out (can't be checked). I'm assuming this is the "none of the selected features" it's talking about in the error message.

I tried this on two different computers, both running Windows Server 2003. Both also have MSDE (SQL server 2000), not sure if this matters. The reported SQL 2005 version is 9.0.3068 for both machines. The link I used to download the service pack is:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=3181842a-4090-4431-acdd-9a1c832e65a6&displaylang=en

Any ideas? Thanks.

EDIT:

If I click on details, this is what I get:

Name: Microsoft SQL Server 2005 (SQLEXPRESS) Reason: Your upgrade is blocked. For more information about upgrade support, see the "Version and Edition Upgrades" and "Hardware and Software Requirements" topics in SQL Server 2005 Setup Help or SQL Server 2005 Books Online.

Edition check: Your upgrade is blocked because of edition upgrade rules. For more information about edition upgrades, see the Version and Edition Upgrades topic in SQL Server 2005 Setup Help or SQL Server 2005 Books Online.

Answer 1

It's probably trying to upgrade the MSDE instances. Are they default instances? - this is not what you want (but for others' sake, if it was what you wanted, you would run d:\setup.exe SKUUPGRADE=1).

I suggest using the INSTANCENAME command line argument to setup to specify that you want the 2005 server upgraded. Check out some of the examples on:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms403393(SQL.90).aspx

-Oisin

Answer 2

The solution, in my case, was to use this installation package instead:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=B448B0D0-EE79-48F6-B50A-7C4F028C2E3D&displaylang=en