Fail to install/update issue

Question

Hi, I'm a Japanese member here, but no one seems to be around in jp forum for months, so I decided to post here to get some advices.
I'm having some issues installing/updating flash to latest version.
<My PC setup>
Win XP Pro  SP3(up to date) 32-bit
Flash
IE8: 11.9.900.170
Firefox: 11.9.900.170
(brouser: both latest version)
<issue>
I fail to install after installer completes to download the package with an error message saying
"general installation error" in japanese
(Sorry don't know how it's written in english version though) in both IE and firefox.
It seems that my xp refuses/stops to extract and install by some reason, and feels like it's due to some OS error. 
I've serched for the deatil information about "general installation error" but have not found any clue yet.
I've done this job as admin, tried it with safe mode, or with all programs disabled, but the issue persists, no luck.
I've also defragged my hdd, checked hardware stuff and malware, but nothing wrong, My pc seems to be working fine except for this installation issue. 
I'm recently having same types of issue installing some other applications too, so that I checked error logs on my xp, but no log related found.
Is there any information about this "general installation error" thing?
I've thought about Windows Installer error issue that might be causing this, so I've reinstalled and updated my installer files from 3.1 to 4.5 to see any improvement, but still no luck.
Windows Installer 3.1 to 4.5
updating
msiexec.exe
msihnd.dll
So, I uninstalled all my previous Flash and tried to reinstall all from fresh,  but failed as expected.
I now have no flash installed, that it's really big trouble now. Some part of sys. files or registry keys may be corrupting, but I'm not any expert for such, so can anyone sort this out for me?
I really want to avoid reinstalling xp, willing to provide more information if needed.
Any advice appreciated.
Regards
Satoru

Answer 1

Hi, Pat
Thanks for pointing me out some basics and for all the informations,while you are tired  late at night.
I've always wanted  to know where the log file for Flash is saved, and should've serched in this forum etc more carefully before posting any questions here.
(The " log " I wrote in the first post I saw was a log for application in Event Viewer to see any error for windows installer related, not for Flash itself, sorry for not making it clear)
Due to my work, I only have limited time to do this everyday, and didn't know the actual name for it, that I only serched for "Adobe" folders inside my PC to find log file, never thought about "Macromed" though.
Sorry everyone, my being such a noob.
Anyway, I've looked into log, and tried to understand it, by doing install > uninstall over and over again to recognize the behavior, to determine whitch info, is for IE or Firefox before posting,
so that I could understand more clearly when recieving any information from you and for my future knowledge.
But another issue occured during this reserch.
I couldn't uninstall Plug-in for Firefox(after my first offline installation) even if I used "Add and Remove Programs" for XP. and uninstaller(12.0.0.38) doesn't even run at all.
(Active-X for IE was succesfully removed by A&R Programs, and this uninstaller might  only work  for IE Active-X though, but no idea)
So I tried to uninstall it from A&R Programs again by overwriting plug-in(installing same plug-in again by offline installation) but still fails.
I did reboot every time I tried to remove it, but still located in Macromed\Flash folder and plug-in does disappears from the list of A&R Programs everytime I tried to remove it.
I've serched for informations about this issue on internet with limited time I had, but have no idea what causes this issue, and want to make this clear before I post log here to move on safely.
Another thing,
I'm no tech of computing, cannot read commands written inside the log fully, and want to know some of their meanings.
What does these mean?
[ I ] ------install??
[W] -----Write??
[E] ------Error??
[F] ------Fail??
[ x ]0000xxxx ------ error number code?
[ x ]0000xxxx : xxxx ------- what does this one or four digit number means?
[error] 1257 0  or  1226 1062 ------- what are these combinations of one to four digit numbers mean?
I tried to serch for their meanings, but counldn't find anything clearly with time I had. Could  you teach me or show link in description if possible, so that I could understand well?
Thanks for your cooperations.
Satoru