Vista Installation Nightmares

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Hi all ;)

This is my first post to s MSFT Community and it is driven by sheer
helplessness.

Like three weeks ago I build myself a new PC and bought Vista 32bit Home
Premium along with the components.

So, after assembling the system and RAM check (I used the Memory Test
available via the Vista DVD) and crossed my fingers and installed Vista.
Everything worked as it should.

One week ago I wanted to check out a little piece of software called Witty,
a .NET 3.5 app for Twitter. Running the setuo file it reminded me to install
..NET 3.5. Piece o' cake, I thought. Downloaded the installer, ran it. Error.
Searched the web, found a couple of "solutions", none worked. Then there was
a post by a MVP (sorry, my bookmarks died, forgot to back them up...) telling
a user with the same problem to reinstall Vista. OK, let's try that.

Popped in the Vista DVD, told it to format and install anew. Here the
odditied started.

First of all, after running the Hardware Assessment, the PC would reboot ot
of the blue. Next startup of Vista, it told me to set up a user account, what
I did, and asked me for the name of the PC. So far, so good.

Vista proudly told me it was ready and started. Kind of, at least. It would
reboot. And ask my about user account and PC name again. And rebooted, after
saying Update 3 of 3 was installed. Then, again, Update 3 of 3, 100%, reboot.
And so on, in a loop.

Got that fixed by deleting the pending.xml file in \windows\winsxs. Finally,
my desktop. Installed Firefox, Thunderbird and a few other small tools. Cool,
seems to work.

Nope. It would not install updates, stating an error code of 8007000b.
Running fsutil wouldn't help, chkdsk'ed twice, ... Nothing.

OK, I thought, let's try that whole shebang again. Popped in Vista DVD,
formatted the drive via diskpart, installed. Hmm.

Vista again does the thing to ask me twice, interrupted by a reboot, for
user account data and PC name. This time, it would not want to install any
updates, it just says "Shutting down" and reboots. And reboots, and reboots,
....

Here's the hardware I am using:

AMD 4850e
Gigabyte GA-MA78GPM-DS2H (IGB, so no extra graphic card)
1GBx2 Kingston DDR2-667
Samsung F1 1TB (not the eco version)
Teac 'forgot the model number' DVD drive

The hell... BTW, a test install of OpenSuse 10 went fine, as XP Pro does.
And wtf, Vista did, too - at least once.

I have asboluty no idea what I could be doing wrong or what I could be
missing.

Maybe some of you know the trick?
.

Relevant Pages

  • RE: Cant install any Windows updates, manually or automatically.
    ... Did you reboot? ... The softwaredistribution folder cannot be created properly in Vista unless ... Every time I try to install them, I get the same message, ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsupdate)
  • Re: Vista Installation Nightmares
    ... Also, what size partition are you setting up, and I would suggest where you tell it where to install Vista, that you go to advanced and delete any partitions and create a new partition and format there and remember that Vista uses a slightly different version of NTFS so doing the partition with a product not compatible with Vista can cause problems. ... First of all, after running the Hardware Assessment, the PC would reboot ot ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.vista.installation_setup)
  • Re: Is my old RedHat computer doomed?
    ... Got the machine today and booted into Vista first. ... Lenovo MIGHT offer a refund on Vista and doesn't give any way to reboot, ... without completing the Vista install. ...
    (uk.comp.os.linux)
  • RE: Warning Latest Vista Updates Faulty ?
    ... yUP:(This is my sons new lappy runing Vista ultimate, ... after a couple more hours i hard reset, and on the reboot it imediately ... Update for Windows Vista ... Install this update to resolve a set of known application compatibility ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsupdate)
  • Re: Computer Name from Install - How do I change?
    ... You must create a new user name, and copy the old profile settings to it. ... a fresh install of Vista, ... My user account comes up as "MyName"/test, ... But in the Users list, test is still the account listed, and Vista ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.vista.general)