restart loop

[Guest]

Before I purchased my copy of Vista, I ran the update advisor, which said I
was good to go. I installed the program, but when it restarts to boot into
Vista for the first time, it goes into a restart loop just after the display
with the green Knight-Riderish "progress bar" animation

When I get into the bootloader to try other options, I am first advised to
run the Repair feature from the install DVD. The repair fails, citing a
corrupt boot partition. Trying to boot into Vista through safe mode fails
also, triggering another restart.

Chkdsk says the drive is fine, memory tests are all fine...

any thoughts?

 

[John Barnes]

You don't say whether this was and upgrade over XP or a prior version of
Vista or custom install, from and upgrade of full version and how you
installed it, from within the prior os or from the DVD
If this is an upgrade from XP, you should make sure to uninstall any low
level programs such as A/V and firewall before upgrading. Also you should
try with as few peripherals connected as are necessary for the install,
particularly and that had any hints of problems in your advisor report.
There are times when it just isn't possible to get an upgrade to work and
you need to do a custom install, particularly if you have an old version of
XP that has had many programs installed and uninstalled over the years.

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi Matt,

Check for a BIOS update and make sure you are not overclocking. Timings
should be set at default.

Just as a bit of information, the upgrade advisor is not a fool proof method
of determining suitability. It only can report on what it knows about, it's
not a "smart" tool that can decipher unknowns. If there is an
incompatibility that it is unaware of, then it simply will miss it and not
report the potential for an issue. The only way to be sure of compatibility
is to check with the component manufacturers for the availability of
supporting drivers.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

 

[Guest]

I purchased the home premium upgrade but since I had xp professional
installed it would only do a clean install from within the prior OS. My AV
program was disabled but not uninstalled. I did uninstall my firewall and now
the machine won't connect to the internet when rolled back to XP. The only
peripherals I had installed besides keyboard and mouse were two external HDs,
I am going to try the install again without them and see if anything was
affected. The upgrade advisor reported that all of my hardware was fine. If
all else fails, I'll reformat the HD, install XP again, and try the update
again from there. Thanks!

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the tip, Rick - the mobo BIOS is up-to-date and doesn't allow for
overclocking - I know I'm just missing something somewhere, as I know of
someone with the exact make and model PC who has successfully done the
install. Thanks again!

 

[John Barnes]

If you try the update with a fresh install of XP, I would do a custom
install instead (if you mean a reinstall of an image copy, then you may want
to try an upgrade again)

 

[Guest]

Hi Matt,

You cannot upgrade Windows XP Pro to Vista Home Premium using upgrade media
directly. You need to perform a clean install. Refer to my post 'Clean
Install Windows Vista Using Upgrade Media', also in this newsgroup, for
detailed
instructions on how to do this.
Dwarf