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Khiêm 20 Reputation points
2025-08-22T08:55:20.9033333+00:00

I’ve tried downloading and reinstalling many times, and this error keeps appearing. I even tried using AI to help with the installation, but everything failed.

Error detail
Action required:

Use the following information to resolve the error, and then try the setup process again.

Feature failure reason:

An error occurred during the setup process of the feature.

Error details:

§ Error installing SQL Server Database Engine Services Instance Features

Invalid command line argument. Consult the Windows Installer SDK for detailed command line help.

Error code: 1639

Log file: C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\160\Setup Bootstrap\Log\20250822_131009\sql_engine_core_inst_Cpu64_1.log

Visithttps://go.microsoft.com/fwlink?LinkId=20476&ProdName=Microsoft+SQL+Server&EvtSrc=setup.rll&EvtID=50000&ProdVer=16.0.1000.6&EvtType=sql_engine_core_inst.msi%400x162A16FE%400x1639 to get help on troubleshooting

SQL Server Database Engine
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Accepted answer
  1. Erland Sommarskog 124.9K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2025-08-22T20:47:55.84+00:00

    First things first: what hardware do you have? If you have an ARM processor, beware that SQL Server does not support ARM. The rest of the answer assumes that you have a regular x64 processor.

    My belief is that this is an error that occurs mainly in the situation when a user tried to install SQL Server and it failed with some error. The user might have tried some random cleanup and made renewed attempts. Because the cleanup was incomplete, Setup now fails with another error than it did originally.

    Here is a link to an article that can help you to clean up properly: https://www.sql-easy.com/learn/how-to-uninstall-sql-server/. I have not tried it myself, but I learnt about it from a user who was in a similar situation as yours, and who was able to install SQL Server successfully after following the article.

    If you are on Windows 11, be sure to read the article Troubleshoot errors related to system disk sector size greater than 4 KB before you try again. It discusses a known issue where Windows 11 reports a disk-sector size that SQL Server chokes on. This could be the cause for your original failure. Check out this article, and if needed apply the workarounds it proposes.

    If you make a new attempt after cleanup, and it still fails, you find log files in C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\nnn\Setup Bootstrap\Log with one folder per attempt. (nnn is a three-digit number that depends on the version of SQL Server you are trying to install). The files of most interest are summary.txt, detail.txt and any file with ERRORLOG in the name. (The latter only appears if Setup came as far as trying to start SQL Server). Feel free to attach these to the thread here.

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  1. Alberto Morillo 34,926 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2025-08-22T20:01:30.77+00:00

    Please try to disable TLS 1.2 and enable TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1, and after that reboot the server. Next proceed to remove any remnants of previous installations using this procedure. Now you can try to install SQL Server again. Once you install it successfully you can reenable TLS 1.2.

    To disable TLS 1.2 and enable previous versions, please try this article.

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