Installation error 2330, 1392

So, here's the deal. I have, as is visible here somewhere, a copy of
Vista Home Premium 64-bit on a Gateway P-6860FX laptop. For a long
while, I've been having problems. They seemed to have gotten
progressively worse, potentially in response to my failed attempts to
fix it.

What happens is a failure to install almost any game and even a few
programs. For example, a Microsoft Installer CleanUp Utility that was
recommended I use has failed as well.

When it comes to the games, I believe the installation fails at the
point of attempting to install a file called vcredist_x86, a Visual C++
2005 SP1 Redistributable Package.

Some things give me both a 2330 and 1392 error message. Some just give
me a 2330. For example, the exact error message I am given when trying
to install the C++ Redist. on it's own is:
"The installer has encountered an unexpected error installing this
package. This may indicate a problem with this package. The error code
is 2330."

The CleanUp Utility gives me both.


Here is the more specific message given by the game itself, the latest
one to fail on my gaming laptop. There are two:
"Error 2330.Error getting file attributes:
C:\Windows\Installer\$PatchCache$\Managed\058A2239 1909E0D42B25E328DE3A9DA4
GetLastError: 1392"

"Error: -1603 Fatal error during installation. Consult Windows
Installer Help (Msi.chm) or MSDN for more information."

In fact, both this game and the CleanUp Utility reference
"C:\Windows\Installer\$PatchCache$"

My computer, I've discovered, has no C:\Windows\Installer folder to
begin with, unless it's a folder that only appears during an
installation.


Note - I've tried to circumvent these errors on previous programs by
copying files from the CD to a self-made directory, copying installation
folders from one computer to mine using a flash drive, and even
installing the C++ Redist. on another laptop and copying files to here.
While all those files have been deleted, I'm afraid they've made this
problem much much worse. There may be references to files that cannot be
deleted on this computer as they came from a USB drive, for instance.

If there's a way to solve this without reinstalling Vista (my disks are
at home, and I'm at a beach!), please share it with me! Though I'm
losing hope, and dooming myself to restart everything when I get home, I
figure I might as well try here.


--
TheN