SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1 and the Invoke or BeginInvoke cannot be called error message

Sunday, May 30, 2010

When trying to install SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1 to a SQL Server 2008 instance that is running on a virtual machine, the installer will start:

But then after about 20 seconds I receive the following error message:

TITLE: SQL Server Setup failure.
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SQL Server Setup has encountered the following error:
Invoke or BeginInvoke cannot be called on a control until the window handle has been created.
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BUTTONS:
OK
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Searching for this issue I found that several people have the same problem and there is no clear solution. Some had success with closing windows or Internet Explorer but that didn’t work for me; what did work is to make sure the SQL Server 2008 “Please wait while SQL Server 2008 Setup processes the current operation.” dialog is selected and has the focus when it first shows up. Selected (with the current focus) it looks like this:

Without focus the dialog looks like this:

Add a comment if you find out any information about how to consistently get around this issue or why it is happening in the first place.

14 Comments

The easy way to get around this problem is to extract the file (SQLManagementStudio_x86_ENU application is in a compressed format) to a new folder, name the folder appropriately, and run the setup from there.

Rolly Salonoy - Wednesday, June 2, 2010 5:18:56 AM

Thanks alot for this!
I found other sites saying that a reboot would be the solution, but it didn't work for me.
Making sure that dialog was focused did the trick!

Emil Nordén - Monday, June 7, 2010 6:41:39 AM

Thanks.

Extracting the exe file worked for me

Udayarc - Friday, July 16, 2010 10:13:34 AM

Thanks a lot.
I did the below.

1. Installed .net framework 3.5
2. Installed Power Shell (It wasn't installed before).
3. Restarted. ( :) SQL Server setup shown this as error)
4. Extracted the SQLServer Setup.exe to a folder and executed setup.exe in it.

It started working.. :D

Venkatx5 - Tuesday, July 27, 2010 5:01:29 AM

It's working! But you should not deactivate this window all the time while it's visible.

Mikle - Tuesday, September 14, 2010 8:50:09 AM

I got this error installing sp1 on SQL Server 2008 standard ed. When I tried to redo it it won't. It says it's installed already. How can I tell if it installed correctly, should I uninstall and reinstall everything?
Thanks very much.

denise - Wednesday, September 15, 2010 2:56:32 PM

solution
go to your Dns server. Add the account from you installing sql in it.

Muhammed Mohsin Khan - Thursday, March 17, 2011 3:43:45 AM

Sql server 2008 service pack 1 and the invoke or begininvoke cannot be called error message.. Slap-up :)

weblogs.asp.net - Thursday, March 24, 2011 5:09:21 PM

Hi, I had this problem when trying to update SQL Server running on a virtual machine. It went away when I gave the VM more memory.

Nicke - Friday, April 1, 2011 9:21:24 AM

Thankyou the unpack first then run worked for me.

Sam - Wednesday, August 24, 2011 12:28:12 AM

I followed as Mr. xptiger said It worked fine.
thanks for the support

pasha - Thursday, November 17, 2011 4:00:26 PM

Thank Rolly Salonoy so much.

Plane - Wednesday, March 21, 2012 12:38:46 AM

Thanks...Maintaining the focus worked on the popup windows...

Rajiv - Monday, June 11, 2012 3:45:21 AM

thanks extracting .exe working for me

moonshine - Monday, December 3, 2012 3:33:55 PM

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