There might be a lot of reasons why Visual Studio 2003 setup failed on your machine.
So, the best practice to trace the error is always refer to the "Installation_Log.txt".
If you found something like the following error message:
RunMSI.exe exited with return value 1601.
Error code 1601 for this component means "The Windows Installer Service could not be accessed. This can occur if you are running Windows in safe mode, or if the Windows Installer is not correctly installed. Contact your support personnel for assistance.
Then, you must do the following to resolve this error:
a). Install the Windows Installer 3.1 or Windows Installer 4.5
b). Redo the Visual Studio 2003 setup
