Sysprep - Fatal error occurred while trying to sysprep the machine

On the 4th attempt to sysprep a Windows 7 Enterprise system, I get the dreaded, 'A fatal error occurred while trying to sysprep the machine.'

The setuperr.log shows:

2010-08-04 13:57:58, Error [0x0f0073] SYSPRP RunExternalDlls:Not running DLLs either the machine is in an invalid state or we couldn't update the recorded state, dwRet = 31

2010-08-04 13:57:58, Error [0x0f00ae] SYSPRP WinMain:Hit failure while processing sysprep cleanup external providers hr = 0x8007001f

I've seen articles referring to the Windows Software Licensing Rearm program may have issues running more than three times in a single Windows image and to add 1 in the /unattend file... but this did not help. The Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service has also been disabled which is often referred to in other posts.

The KB article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947212/en-us indicated that the resolution is to re-create the image for the machine... This is very frustrating. I'm hoping that there is a better resolution???

How do you sysprep a machine more than three times to avoid this error?

Thanks!!

930193

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