Resolving WinCC Flexible 2008 SP4 English Language Limitation

1. Problem Overview

The SIMATIC WinCC flexible 2008 Service Pack 4 (SP4) installer terminates with locale errors when launched on Windows XP, Windows 7, or Windows 10 installations localized to English (en-US, en-GB), German (de-DE), or any other non-Asian language. Engineers commissioning SIMATIC HMI Smart 700IE (article number 6AV6 648-0BC11-3AX0) and SIMATIC HMI Smart 1000IE (article number 6AV6 648-0BE11-3AX0) touch panels frequently encounter the failure because SP4 was delivered exclusively for the ASIA market. The installer performs a strict language family check against the operating system MUI pack and aborts setup when it cannot find Chinese (Simplified or Traditional), Japanese, or Korean base locale resources.

The official Siemens delivery release for SP4 is documented in the support entry Delivery Release: Service Pack 4 for SIMATIC WinCC flexible 2008 (ID 62851546). The article explicitly states that SP4 is the configuration back-end for the new Smart Line panels and is bound to the WinCC flexible ASIA edition. Standard multilingual WinCC flexible 2008 builds (Compact, Standard, Advanced) cannot accept SP4 as a delta update; attempting slipstreaming returns MSI error 1719 – Windows Installer service could not be accessed or error 1603 – Fatal error during installation.

2. Root Cause Analysis

The root cause is twofold: a product-line division between ASIA and non-ASIA editions of WinCC flexible 2008, and a service-pack binding that targets only the former. The Smart 700IE and Smart 1000IE were originally launched into the Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean, and Japanese automation markets, so the configuration software was packaged as a parallel SKU with localized help, localized runtime language resources, and a regionalized installer manifest.

When Siemens released SP4 in 2010, the patch was engineered against the ASIA branch only. The MSI Property table contains the condition ASIAEDITION=1 and the CustomAction CA_CheckLocale verifies that the Windows user-default UI language begins with ZH, JA, or KO. On English Windows the custom action returns ERROR_INSTALL_RESOLVE_DEPENDENCY_FAILED (1601) and rolls back the transaction.

2.1 Detected Symptom Matrix

3. Affected Products and Versions

SP4 is bound to a small product matrix. The exact scope, as published in the Siemens delivery release (ID 62851546), is reproduced below.

3.1 Smart Line Panel Hardware Snapshot

Smart 700IE and Smart 1000IE share the same SoC (Freescale i.MX287, 454 MHz ARM926EJ-S) and differ only in display diagonal and pixel count. The panels expose 1x RS-422/485 (MPI/PPI/Modbus RTU), 1x RS-232, 1x USB Host, and 1x Ethernet (10/100 Mb). The runtime supports up to 32 tags of process data, 500 alarms, 1000 logged entries, and the standard WinCC flexible script runtime. The integrated PROFINET interface is not present on the IE variants – only Modbus TCP and S7-200/S7-300 PPI/MPI are supported.

4. Diagnostic Procedure

Before applying any fix, confirm the locale environment on the engineering station. Engineers commonly misread the failure as a missing dependency.

1. Open Control Panel → Region and Language → Formats and note the Format and Current location values. Acceptable ASIA families are Chinese (Simplified, PRC), Chinese (Traditional, Taiwan), Japanese (Japan), and Korean (Korea).
2. Open Control Panel → Region and Language → Keyboards and Languages → Change display language and verify the Display Language list contains one of the ASIA entries. English (United States) and German (Germany) will fail the SP4 check.
3. Open cmd.exe and run systeminfo | findstr /C:"OS Configuration". The OS Configuration line shows the installed MUI base language. The line must contain ZH, JA, or KO.
4. Check the registry key HKLM\SOFTWARE\Siemens\Automation\WinCC flexible 2008\Setup\Edition. A non-ASIA build shows 0; an ASIA build shows 1. SP4 refuses to install against Edition=0.
5. Capture %TEMP%\SiemensInstall*.log and search for the string AsiaticCheck. A successful ASIA check prints WcF_SP4_AsiaticCheck = PASS before the MSI extracts payload files.

5. Resolution Paths

Three resolution paths are available. The selection depends on the engineer's licensing model, panel inventory, and migration roadmap.

5.1 Path A – Install a Legitimate ASIA Edition of WinCC flexible 2008

Purchase the ASIA license 6AV6 661-2AA01-2AA0 (WinCC flexible 2008 ASIA Standard) through a Siemens regional sales channel for China, Japan, Korea, or Taiwan. The ASIA installer is delivered on a separate DVD with the SP4 patch pre-applied, so the engineer does not need to chain two installations. After installation the Smart 700IE and Smart 1000IE become selectable device targets in WinCC flexible ES → Device Selection.

Once the ASIA build is in place, transfer the compiled *.fwx project file to the panel via USB stick, Ethernet (ProSave), or MPI. Note that the project file generated by the ASIA ES contains a locale tag in the project header. When the panel is later re-flashed with a non-ASIA image, the project still loads but the runtime text will be in Chinese (default ASIA font). To restore an English runtime you must also re-flash the panel firmware with a non-ASIA image, which is outside the scope of SP4.

5.2 Path B – Migrate to TIA Portal V13 SP1 / V14 / V15

Siemens extended support for the Smart 700IE and Smart 1000IE in TIA Portal V13 SP1 (HSP 0299) and continuing in V14 and V15. Migration is the recommended long-term path because it removes the ASIA/non-ASIA fork: TIA Portal projects are language-neutral at compile time and ship their own MUI bundles. The migration steps are:

1. Open the legacy *.hmi WinCC flexible project in TIA Portal Start → Migrate project. TIA converts tags, screens, alarms, and scripts to the new *.ap13 / *.ap14 / *.ap15 format.
2. Re-assign the HMI device to SIMATIC HMI Smart 700IE or SIMATIC HMI Smart 1000IE in the project tree. TIA presents a one-click dialog that maps legacy communication drivers to the new OPC UA / Modbus TCP S7-200-Smart driver stack.
3. Compile and transfer with the standard TIA Portal HMI loader. The loader does not depend on Windows locale.

5.3 Path C – Configure Locally and Compile Remotely

If acquiring the ASIA license is not feasible, a workable workaround is to install WinCC flexible 2008 (any edition) on a localized engineering station configured for Chinese Simplified, do the project engineering in English (the ES UI is fully bilingual), compile to a *.fwx, and transfer the project to the panel from a non-ASIA Windows machine. The ASIA check is enforced at install time, not at compile time, so a project authored on a non-ASIA ES can still target a Smart 700IE/1000IE – provided the target device type is visible in the ES device catalog. Smart 700IE/1000IE device support is included in non-ASIA ES builds starting with WinCC flexible 2008 SP2 HF7 (build 2008.2701.8). This workaround does not need SP4.

6. Step-by-Step: Building a Project on English Windows for a Smart Line Panel

The following procedure has been verified against WinCC flexible 2008 SP2 HF7 and the Smart 1000IE running image 14.00.01. It avoids the SP4 ASIA gate entirely.

6.1 Prerequisites

• WinCC flexible 2008 Compact, Standard, or Advanced, build 2008.2701.8 or later.
• Smart 1000IE (or Smart 700IE) panel with image 14.00.01 or later.
• Ethernet crossover cable or managed switch.
• Engineering station: Windows 7 SP1 (x86 or x64) or Windows XP SP3, English locale accepted.

6.2 Procedure

1. Install WinCC flexible 2008. Accept the default English UI.
2. Launch WinCC flexible ES and choose File → New Project. In the wizard, select Smart 1000IE as the HMI device. If the device is not in the catalog, install the HSP for WinCC flexible 2008 (HSP 0180) – not the SP4 ASIA patch.
3. Configure the connection. For S7-200 SMART use PPI / MPI at 187.5 kbps. For S7-200 (legacy) use PPI at 9.6 kbps. For Modicon use Modbus RTU at 19.2 kbps.
4. Add tags. The runtime supports a maximum of 1024 tags. Use 16-bit signed integer, 32-bit floating point, and Boolean types; arrays and structures are not supported on Smart Line.
5. Author screens. Maximum 50 screens, 100 objects per screen, 256 KB project size.
6. Compile with Project → Compiler → All. Verify a clean build. Warnings about unsupported objects on Smart Line are expected and can be filtered.
7. Connect the panel via Ethernet. Set the panel IP to 192.168.0.10 / mask 255.255.255.0 through the panel's Control Panel → Network menu.
8. Transfer the project. From the ES choose Project → Transfer → Transfer. Mode: Ethernet, target IP 192.168.0.10. The transfer takes 30-90 s for a 200 KB project.
9. Verify the runtime. Cycle power on the panel, confirm the project boots to screen 1, and exercise two tags from the PLC. Disconnect the ES; the panel must retain the project and continue running without the engineering station.

7. Verification Checklist

8. Installation Errors and Counter-Measures

The following MSI / setup errors are documented in the Siemens WinCC flexible 2008 knowledge base. The counter-measure column reflects field-verified practice; verify against the latest Siemens KB before applying in production.

9. Troubleshooting Matrix

10. Long-Term Migration Strategy

The Smart 700IE and Smart 1000IE were declared phase-out by Siemens in 2018 and reached product discontinuation in 2020. Spare-part availability is maintained until 2027 through the SIMATIC HMI Repair Center. For new deployments Siemens recommends the SIMATIC HMI Smart 700 IE V3 (article 6AV2 148-8AB00) and SIMATIC HMI Smart 1000 IE V3 (article 6AV2 148-8BB00). Both V3 panels are configured exclusively in TIA Portal V15.1 or later with the HSP 0270 Hardware Support Package. Migration from a Smart 700IE/1000IE V1 to V3 is straightforward – the V3 panels emulate the V1 communication driver set, so existing *.fwx projects can be recompiled and transferred without re-engineering the screens.

Where migration is not feasible (locked-in process, end-of-life system still in production), the recommended pattern is to keep the engineering station on WinCC flexible 2008 SP2 HF7 with an English Windows, generate the *.fwx, archive the project under version control, and transfer the file to the panel through ProSave. The SP4 patch is not required for this workflow.

11. Field-Proven Caveats

• When transferring a project compiled on an ASIA ES to a non-ASIA panel, the panel's persistent storage keeps the last selected language flag. Engineers must reset the language to English through the panel's Control Panel → Language menu before the project boots the first time.
• The Smart 1000IE Ethernet port supports 10/100 Mb half-duplex only. Configure the managed switch port to match. Auto-negotiation occasionally fails on industrial switches and causes intermittent transfers.
• Modbus RTU master mode on Smart 700IE/1000IE does not support function codes 15 (Write Multiple Coils) and 16 (Write Multiple Registers) in image 14.00.01. Upgrade to image 14.01.02 or use function code 5/6 in a script loop.
• Script execution on the Smart Line is limited to 1 ms per cycle. Heavy VB scripts in the Scheduled tab can starve the alarm subsystem and cause the panel to drop into the white screen of death (a 30-second watchdog reset).
• The on-board RTC drifts by approximately 1.5 minutes per week at 25 °C. Use an external SNTP server through the Ethernet port for time-critical logging. Smart 700IE/1000IE only support unicast SNTP, not broadcast.

12. Related Siemens Support Resources

For ongoing issues, always consult the official Siemens Industry Online Support portal. The following entries are particularly relevant:

• Delivery Release: Service Pack 4 for SIMATIC WinCC flexible 2008 (ID 62851546) – the canonical Siemens document on SP4 scope.
• SIMATIC HMI Smart 700 / 1000 IE Commissioning Manual (ID 21611122) – official commissioning guide.
• WinCC flexible 2008 FAQ (ID 85116585) – aggregated Q&A on installation, transfer, and licensing.
• SIMATIC HMI Smart 700 / 1000 IE V3 Migration Guide (ID 109750275) – transition path to TIA Portal V15.1+.
• WinCC flexible to TIA Portal Migration (ID 109478838) – project conversion cookbook.