installing. net 2002: error 1937...HRESULT 0x80131045? WHY?

[msnesw.microsoft.com]

I've been searching for a solution for over two days, but have found no
solution.
I've installed everything in Studio .Net 2002 except for a development
language. When I try to install C#, I get the error:

Error 1937. An error occurred during the installation of assembly... The
signature or catalog could not be verified or is not valid. HRESULT:
0x80131045

Things I've already tried:
rename mscoree.dll - I then get error 1935.
I've read that the message can be fixed by the way "occurred" was spelled.
In the message it's spelled correctly.
I also read that it may be due to an incompatibility with an HP peripheral.
The laptop is a Compaq nc6000.

I used these same CD's to install it over a year ago, and I didn't have a
problem. The funny thing is that I can open and create project while the
error message is there. But once I close the error messagebox, it stops
working. As long as I don't close it, it'll work.
I also thought that if I closed it through the Task Manager (so it doesn't
do the rollback), it'd keep on working. But it doesn't.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks.
VM