Upgrade to Vista Business from XP Pro SP3 didn't complete

[Mike in Nebraska]

Dell Dimension 8300 about 5 yrs old, running WinXP Pro SP3.

Tried to do an upgrade the last 2 days, and it appeared to go most of the
way through the process. Walked in on it yesterday to check the status and
found it cycling through the bootup screens. It first says that Windows
didn't/can't start up normally and gives me 3 options - start vista, go back
to the previous version or do a setup rollback. Then it goes to the normal
F8 screen before it tries to load windows and begins the process again.

Tried doing a repair, with no luck. I'm kinda new to Vista so need some
guidance on this. Is there a log file that would help me figure out what's
wrong if I went back to WinXP? Are there known issues I should be aware of?
Any rough ideas on what happened? (I've upgraded 3 other 8300's with no
problems).

Thanks in advance,

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Log files that are created when you upgrade to Windows Vista from an earlier version of Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928901


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Dell Dimension 8300 about 5 yrs old, running WinXP Pro SP3.

Tried to do an upgrade the last 2 days, and it appeared to go most of the
way through the process. Walked in on it yesterday to check the status and
found it cycling through the bootup screens. It first says that Windows
didn't/can't start up normally and gives me 3 options - start vista, go back
to the previous version or do a setup rollback. Then it goes to the normal
F8 screen before it tries to load windows and begins the process again.

Tried doing a repair, with no luck. I'm kinda new to Vista so need some
guidance on this. Is there a log file that would help me figure out what's
wrong if I went back to WinXP? Are there known issues I should be aware of?
Any rough ideas on what happened? (I've upgraded 3 other 8300's with no
problems).

Thanks in advance,

 

[Mike_in_Nebraska]

Log files that are created when you upgrade to Windows Vista from an earlier version of Windowshttp://support.microsoft.com/kb/928901

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Visit the new Windows Vista Answers Forums:http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/windowsvista/

Dell Dimension 8300 about 5 yrs old, running WinXP Pro SP3.

Tried to do an upgrade the last 2 days, and it appeared to go most of the
way through the process.  Walked in on it yesterday to check the statusand
found it cycling through the bootup screens.  It first says that Windows
didn't/can't start up normally and gives me 3 options - start vista, go back
to the previous version or do a setup rollback.  Then it goes to the normal
F8 screen before it tries to load windows and begins the process again.

Tried doing a repair, with no luck.  I'm kinda new to Vista so need some
guidance on this.  Is there a log file that would help me figure out what's
wrong if I went back to WinXP?  Are there known issues I should be aware of?
Any rough ideas on what happened? (I've upgraded 3 other 8300's with no
problems).

Thanks in advance,

--
Mike Webb
Platte River Whooping Crane Maintenance Trust, Inc.
a conservation non-profit (501 (c)(3)) organization
Wood River, NE  

Thanks!

 

[Tim Quan [MSFT]]

Hi Mike,

Thank you for the post.

Before moving on, please understand that upgrading from Windows XP to
Windows Vista will sometimes cause driver and third-party software
incompatibility issues. In the previous installation (Windows XP), many
registry settings have been modified when installing third-party software.
During an upgrade, these registry entries are retained, which can cause
system issues. Therefore, an upgrade install is only recommended for
systems that have a simple and clean software environment. (A clean
environment means a system with few third-party programs and un-signed
hardware drivers installed.)

In this case, if you have a full version Windows Vista installation disk, I
recommend trying a Clean Install of Windows Vista. (Before a Clean Install
of Windows Vista, please backup your important files. )

If you prefer to perform an Upgrade installation, the issue can be caused
by incompatible software such as third-party burning and anti-virus
programs or hardware devices.

Please access the following site and run Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor to
check if there is any incompatible product on your system.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/buyorupgrade/upgradea
dvisor.mspx

In addition, please uninstall your anti-virus programs and then perform a
Clean Boot before upgrading to Vista.

Clean Boot
==========
1. Click Start, type "msconfig" in the search bar and press Enter.

Note: Please click the Continue if the "User Account Control" window pops
up.

2. Click the "Services" tab, check the "Hide All Microsoft Services" box
and click "Disable All" (if it is not gray).
3. Click the "Startup" tab, click "Disable All" and click "OK".

Then, restart the computer. When the "System Configuration Utility" window
appears, please select "Don't show this message or launch the System".

To avoid hardware conflictions, please also unplug all unnecessary devices
such as sound card, printer and network card before installing Windows
Vista.

Now you can try to install Windows Vista again.

Please let me know the result.

Tim Quan - MSFT

 

[Tim Quan [MSFT]]

Hi Mike,

How are things going? We have not heard back from you in a few days and
wanted to check on the status of the issue. Please let us know how things
turned out.

Tim Quan - MSFT