vista won't install

[hobey19]

i used the upgrade advisor, and it told me my secondary computer can handle it just fine (sans aero because of older graphics card, but thats fine with me). so i downloaded the beta and burned it. when i put the disc in, it gets to the end of "Windows is loading files" and then goes to the left-scrolling bar (with no vista logo, which i thought was odd). after about a minute or so, it just freezes midway through scrolling

i tried to run the setup from within windows xp to see if that was the issue, but it was the same.

my specs:
p4 2.8Ghz
1gb DDR
80gb HD (running off ATA100 not SATA)
ati 8500dv graphics card
Lite-On 16x DVD+/-RW

any suggestions would be great. just figured since i have an extra system i would give the beta a shot. thanks

craig

[MaxRat]

Vista is picky....

Make sure you Memtest your rig to see if your ram is giving any errors...you may have to give the ram a bit more volts to keep up with it...

did you do this from a fresh drive.... I would zero fill the drive 1st then put Vista on it...

I put it on a AV8/3000venice and it wouldnt take at stock settings till I gave the ram more juice...I went to 2.8vdimm from the 2.65default... loaded fine then...hth's

[hobey19]

i will run memtest. i ran the memory diagnostic tool that is in the vista boot sequence and it reported errors, but said i would have to view the log once vista booted. wow, that does me a whole lot of good.

anyway, memtest will be run and i will see about upping the voltage and if all else fails, a zero fill

thanks for the info
craig

[hobey19]

alright, update to what i have found out. ran memtest and it found a problem with one of my 256mb sticks, so i removed it

install still freezes at same point (scrolling grey bar)

upped the voltage from 2.6 to 2.8 and install still freezes at the same point.

i am now zero-filling the drive and will attempt to install it once its finished.

i will attempt to boot from the disc on another computer to rule out corruption

thanks for any advice
craig

[MaxRat]

run the Vista mem checker as before and make sure the ram isnt conflicting with Vista itself...

You can try to relax the timmings to see if that helps to...IE: if you ram runs 2-2-2-5...try 2.5-3-3-7....

I notice it is picky...some people running a nForce chipset dont seem to have the ram timming probs...but via does....but the via chipset seems less prone to problems once Vista gets loaded....but I'm sure it's because all the debuggers are turned on...

[hobey19]

i am running a sis chipset, but i will definitely give your timing switch a go. the zero-fill didn't help. the computer might be going to a new home soon, tho, because of the lightning storm we had the other nite. a lot of people lost computers in this area and there is a high demand for used computers right now on the cheap, so i may take advantage of it. i really want to try vista, though. i will let you know what ends up happening

thanks
craig