Problems installing vista

[Andeh13]

Bought a new PC a few days ago. C2Q 6600, 250gb WD HDD, 2 gbs ram, CD drive, gigabyte mobo etc.

Built it without any problems but then couldnt install vista, kept getting boot disk fail, please insert system disc. Had a fiddle around & found that by taking 1 stick of ram out & putting the other stick in a different ram slot it would get past this error. After a few hours of worry i was relieved it had finally worked, until it stopped.

Now windows has loaded the files(black screen, white bar goes accross), then it went to a 2nd loading screen, where a series of green bars went accross(much like the XP loading screen, where it was blue & below the Xp logo), but now it has just stopped.

Iv reached a colourfull screen, with different colours fading into each other & my mouse icon is on it, but nothing else. Nothing has popped up, nothing seems 2 be loading & after 20mins of just staring at it iv lost hope of it changing.


Has anyone else had this problem? Or anyone else got some advice on getting around it?

cheers guys

[Andeh13]

Seems to be working now, changed to a screen where i could select the lagnuages etc, then moved onto another screen with ''please wait...'' on it, been on this screen for a gd 15-20mins then.

Does vista usually take this long? Only running on 1gb of RAM atm.
Surely microsfot would add in something to show you it hadnt frozen or a rough timer to tell you how long its gunna take?

thanks again

[Clunk]

Yeah, it does that for me as well, and theres also a few occasions where it does a black screen for a while as well, with nothing apparently happening.

[Andeh13]

CD sounds like its spinning, so in theory something must be happening. Would be nice to be kept updated about how much longer it has to go though.

Cheers clunk, least i know this is normal-ish then.

[Clunk]

I used v-lite and added all the latest drivers, that seemed to work ok, and stopped the black screens and speeded it up a bit

[Andeh13]

whats a v-lite?

Started from the beginning again, got to the point where it 'scanned for drivers' yet it kept comming up with a blank, and not letting me click next. Tried scanning the vista CD & mobo CD but it didnt find any drivers, after the 3rd attempt(each one taking a gd 20mins+) i decdeid to just try and start from the very beginning again. Tried iputting in my 2nd stick of ram first, but the PC wouldnt even start with that in, so back 2 the 1 stick.

Could be a long night.

[Agent]

whats a v-lite?

Comon!

http://www.google.co.uk/search?clien...=Google+Search

First result mate

[SadikP]

The Vista installation is funny to say the least.

Some installs are like magic 20 mins or so, then some give me the same problems your getting, each screen takes a few mins to come up, 5-8 mins, but nothing as long as 20 mins or so.

[Andeh13]

Comon!

http://www.google.co.uk/search?clien...=Google+Search

First result mate

Apologies, at my wits end here & common sense is being replaced with sheer in-patients. 3rd PC iv built and never had this many problems, been trying to install it for 3 hours now.

V-lite looks tempting, giving it a 2nd go and if this fails then ill try it.

thanks for that guys!



edit: in case it happens a 2nd time, anyone else had problems with the drivers page of it? where vista searches for drivers for your hardware? Mine didnt come up with anything & then wouldnt let me continue.

[DratUK]

Takes forever mate. Its loading the image file to your hard drive from which it will then install windows.
Bit disconcerting at first.

[Andeh13]

''A required CD/DVD drive device driver is missing. If you have a floppy disc, cd or DVD please insert it now.

Note: if the windows vista media file [etc] is in the CD/DVD drive it is safe to remove it''

That has appeared after about 90mins. Is that telling me i need to install the drivers for my CD/DVD drive, drivers which i dont have(i thought it was plug & play)?

edit: cheers drak, makes me feel a bit better about how long this is taking.

[Clunk]

Trust me, its quicker if you get rid of the old Nvidia drivers (assuming you have an 8800 series card) and use the latest ones in the v-lite image, same for all your other stuff.

You will have to reinstall the nvidia drivers after the main install, because it just installs the basic driver, no nvidia panel etc.

[Andeh13]

Funds dont allow a 8800 until mid-sept so im using a 6600GT to get me through until then.

Still gettng stuck at this 'asking for drivers', i dont fully understand what they're asking for. What other drivers need to be installed before vista? Surely any i would need would either be on the vista disc or my mobo disc?

[Clunk]

I was talking about making a v-lite disc. Just download the latest drivers for whatever hardware you have, such as graphics card, chipset, LAN, RAID, sound, SATA etc, and then unzip them to a folder and pont v-lite at it when it tells you to

[Andeh13]

Dont have any DVDs/CDs atm, staying with grandparents till i get back to uni next month, all that kind of thing is in boxes somewhere. Re-installing Xp pro, then gunna just try & upgrade to vista from it, see if that does the job. If not guess ill have to buy a pack of DVDs & try the v-lite approach.

Talk about a let down. First proper PC for myself in years, been looking forward to it for months and its given me nothing but grief, really disappointing.

[Clunk]

You can try extracting all the drivers onto a usb stick and then when it asks if you want to install any 3rd party drivers, you can point it at those...I didnt try it like that, so not sure how well it works.