Vista blue screen of death on install.

[Tyler777]

I cannot install vista ultimate. I get to the last step which is completing installation and about half way through I get a blue screen that says "A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer." I installed the vista upgrade advisor from microsoft and it said everything was fine and vista would work! Any help would be appreciated.
Computer specs:
HP m370n desktop
4x512mb sticks of RAM (2gigs)
ATI x1600 graphics card
Windows xp media center edition

[stocius]

I cannot install vista ultimate. I get to the last step which is completing installation and about half way through I get a blue screen that says "A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer." I installed the vista upgrade advisor from microsoft and it said everything was fine and vista would work! Any help would be appreciated.
Computer specs:
HP m370n desktop
4x512mb sticks of RAM (2gigs)
ATI x1600 graphics card
Windows xp media center editionA few questions. Are you upgrading to Vista Ultimate? It looks that way from your post. Are you installing x64 as an upgrade. 32 bit XP cannot be upgraded to x64 AFAIK...you must do a clean install of x64. Vista x64 is all about signed drivers and you've got legacy hardware so x64 would bork its way to failure due to the need for signed x64 drivers.

Yeah, I'm at work tonight and it blows chunks. Lemme know what you've got and we'll go from there.

[alexanderhuzar]

Possible solution: Install it with a maximum of 3 GB RAM (better if it's only 2 GB).

For further info go here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929777

UMM...NEVER MIND LOL! U only have 2 GB...

[stocius]

Possible solution: Install it with a maximum of 3 GB RAM (better if it's only 2 GB).

For further info go here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929777

UMM...NEVER MIND LOL! U only have 2 GB...
I thought so as well but its only 2gb. Might try taking out 2 sticks?

[alexanderhuzar]

Yeah that's a good idea. Some chipsets don't like all 4 slots being used up by RAM, and XP is a lot more tolerant to bad system settings. So even if your Orthos passes 6 hours, but fails after 13 hours, it will run fine on XP, but Vista will give you the boot.

[Tyler777]

A few questions. Are you upgrading to Vista Ultimate? It looks that way from your post. Are you installing x64 as an upgrade. 32 bit XP cannot be upgraded to x64 AFAIK...you must do a clean install of x64. Vista x64 is all about signed drivers and you've got legacy hardware so x64 would bork its way to failure due to the need for signed x64 drivers.

Yeah, I'm at work tonight and it blows chunks. Lemme know what you've got and we'll go from there.
I have tried to do a clean install and an upgrade and both do not work. I'm installing the x86 version of vista because my processor is a 32bit. If it makes any difference my processor is a 2.8ghs pentium 4. Thanks for the help guys.

[alexanderhuzar]

Ok then try this:
1. Make sure your computer can pass the Orthos "stress CPU" and "blend" tests. Run it at priority 6 or higher, and run it for more than 12 hours each test.
2. Run ATI Tool. Make sure your card does not get any artifacts for at least 6 hours.
3. Make sure your install DVD is not corrupted - try it on another computer.
4. When installing take out everything except: the hard drive you're installing windows on, a single DVD-ROM, a single video card, and no more than 2 sticks of RAM. Unplug everything else like your sound card, other hard drives or CD-ROMs, and floppy drive.