Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013 encountered an error during setup

Question

(the html editor over here is a pain you know where - not even bold text is working...)
Every time I try to install SP 2013 SP1 on my WS 2012 R2 Update virtual machine the installer dies.
NOTE: I can reproduce this any time. Both the SharePoint 2013 (including SP1) .iso as well as the WS 2012 R2 (including Update) .iso are fresh copies out of the MSDN library.
The installation fails where the installer tries to install the binaries. No configuration wizard yet. I made sure all the prerequisites are there. The PreRequisitesInstaller.exe reboots the virtual machine several times (twice) and then it is all set.
PS C:\Users\bsom> add-windowsfeature net-wcf-http-activation45, net-wcf-tcp-activation45,net-wcf-pipe-activation45
Success Restart Needed Exit Code Feature Result
True No NoChangeNeeded {}
PS C:\Users\rsom> Add-WindowsFeature Net-Framework-Features,Web-Server,Web-WebServer,Web-Common-Http,Web-Static-Content,
Web-Default-Doc,Web-Dir-Browsing,Web-Http-Errors,Web-App-Dev,Web-Asp-Net,Web-Net-Ext,Web-ISAPI-Ext,Web-ISAPI-Filter,Web-
Health,Web-Http-Logging,Web-Log-Libraries,Web-Request-Monitor,Web-Http-Tracing,Web-Security,Web-Basic-Auth,Web-Windows-A
uth,Web-Filtering,Web-Digest-Auth,Web-Performance,Web-Stat-Compression,Web-Dyn-Compression,Web-Mgmt-Tools,Web-Mgmt-Conso
le,Web-Mgmt-Compat,Web-Metabase,Application-Server,AS-Web-Support,AS-TCP-Port-Sharing,AS-WAS-Support, AS-HTTP-Activation
,AS-TCP-Activation,AS-Named-Pipes,AS-Net-Framework,WAS,WAS-Process-Model,WAS-NET-Environment,WAS-Config-APIs,Web-Lgcy-Sc
ripting,Windows-Identity-Foundation,Server-Media-Foundation,Xps-Viewer
Success Restart Needed Exit Code Feature Result
True No NoChangeNeeded {}
PS C:\Users\bsom>
UPDATE: I had a quick look at %Temp%\SharePoint Server Setup(20140513...).log
2014/05/13 20:30:40:858::[2344] Log level changed from: Verbose to: Standard
2014/05/13 20:30:40:858::[2344] Error: Failed to install product:  D:\global\oserver.MSI ErrorCode: 1603(0x643).
2014/05/13 20:30:40:858::[2344] Log level changed from: Standard to: Verbose
2014/05/13 20:30:40:858::[2344] Rolling back chain
Any ideas?
UPDATE: Installing office prior to the sharepoint installation had no effect (solution was suggested  here).
UPDATE: Installing all windows updates (for Windows Server and Office client applications) didn't help either... same error.
UPDATE: I made sure my windows server and sharepoint server images are exactly those you can currently find on MSDN. SHA1 hashes match.

Answer 1

I just did a Server 2012 R2 and SP 2013 w/ SP1 install the other night on Hyper-V running on 8.1 Pro without issues. ISO was from MSDN.
Have you run a crc (or md5, forget what is used) to validate the ISO matches what MSDN says it should be?
Trevor Seward
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This post is my own opinion and does not necessarily reflect the opinion or view of Microsoft, its employees, or other MVPs.