I think you should CALL cakewalk support to see if they can navigate you through this. They won't be around today but should be tomorrow. Don't wait until Tuesday though because they may be understaffed because of NYE and will likely be closed completely on NYD.
 
Can't help you beyond that.

I'm installing from the DVD.  I don't have Gobbler but being a laptop there are a lot of background programs running.  I'll try shutting them off.  Perhaps Tech Support will let me try the download version tomorrow.

I'm not sure but if you manage to get it installed and registered on your home system then a download link might appear in your store account. I forget whether I got a dl link for my first Sonar version (X1 Pro Suite on DVD). If not they'll likely at the very least email you the downloads so if you can try to install at home tonight (to register and create an account) and call them tomorrow.
 
It does sound to me like an issue on that system whether through permissions, setup or other gack on the system. Sonar is a little more invasive than the usual app so perhaps it's fiddling with parts of the registry you you simply were not intended to.
 
Are the owners/admins of this computer aware of the fact you were going to attempt this install? Is this for like an a/v course or something? We had an issue a while back with a fellow trying to install it on a work or school system (I forget) and he really should not have been. IIRC it really ticked off one of more helpful members (Bob) who was going out of his way to get him going because the guy tried to hide that fact from us throughout a very long thread and wasted everyone's time. He was not supposed to be installing it and the system was set up to NOT allow such shenanigans and he couldn't disable stuff that was interfering with the program.
 
Not saying that's what you are doing and you seem to be being very upfront but it is quite possible there is a good reason the system isn't letting you do this.... because the owners don't actually want you to. Knowaddimean?
 
Either way, good luck. There are some other things you'll probably run into if you are trying to run Sonar on a laptop (especially if you don't have an interface) so even if it does install you may not be out of the woods yet. Just let us know. Lots of smart and helpful folks here.
 
And welcome to the forum. :-)

You know I just thought of something. Maybe try a custom install for now and just install the DAW without any of the extra stuff. See if that at least gets you through the first bit so you can register it and start poking around. Another thing would be to use the Cakewalk tech support email thing to type up your system specs and as much detail as you can about what's going on. That way when you call them you can point to the support ticket or email and save some time because they'll have all the pertinent info on their computer screen instead of having to convey it all over the phone which is far less efficient or accurate.
 
All the contact info is available here.
 
Cheers.

Tried the custom install with just the program checked and it still dies at the same point.  I'm supposed to have privileges to install software on this computer, so that shouldn't be an issue, but as others have pointed out it may be doing things with the registry that require full admin.  Thanks for the tips.

It should not reboot no matter what your status is. The worse it should do is put up a dialog that you can't do that or something of the sort. Something is not working on the system. Make sure you have all your drivers up to date. Also be sure that the down load of X3 is not corrupt. 

I have a hunch it may be what Bob pointed out above. Out of curiosity, right click on that first install file, select Properties, then click the "security" tab, then click on your user name in that listing... do you have everything (except special permissions) listed as "Allow"?
 
Edit: It would actually be easier just to right click something already installed on the machine.

CakeAlexS
Regarding Windows 7 Administrator priviliges - I think confusion remains about Administrator - To the best of my knowledge, there are differences between a user account being assigned Administrator account type and program execution privileges.
 
When signed on to Windows 7 with an account that is set to have Administrator privileges, there is an additional token created - a program execution token - that is given a more basic set of privileges.  This is part of UAC.

It can be as simple as permissions to access HEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and HKEY_CURRENT_USER in the registry.
 
Regardless there can be other factors at play i.e.
* File Permissions
* Group Policy Objects (restrictions and allowances all over the machine and for the user)
 
If group policy (GPO) is set then it's anybody's guess where permissions can be assigned at a granular level for the user. Who knows how group policy has been set for Ross.
 
Here is an example to prevent a user installing printer drivers for instance:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc938161.aspx
 
The only true way to bypass all this is to log in as Administrator of the local machine or as a Domain administrator. Clearly Ross has neither of these permissions and needs to obtain them at least temporarily (time to talk to the University SysAdmin).

Yup, everything but "special permission" is check as "allow"

Is your OS drive an SSD? Reason I ask is mine does not take kindly to having massive files uncompressed on it, so installing from a DVD that is where it will default to putting them. I have always had to install SONAR from magnetic media because of this.