Today turned out to be a fun day installing sql server 2005 dev edition today.  The machine already had Sql express 2k5 installed from the Dell factory (or would have anyhow after the VS 2005 install i did). The problem occured when I tried to install anything greater than express (namely, sql server 2005 dev or standard edition(s)).  I intially had to back everything out of the machine to get it to stop complaining about the need to upgrade, and then once those were gone, the OWC11 portion kept failing (apparently Office Web components).  Those things looked installed, via a glance in add/remove programs (plus reflecting on the zillions of other machines with various installations with which never had this problem).  Googling, I found articles about temp file locks and such, so I cleaned up files, directories, and rebooted and such.

This blog entry turned out to be the simple solution.