Vista install help

[mat64]

Ok this is becoming irritating now, I've installed Vista (ultimate) twice on my laptop now and it keeps doing the same thing. It installs fine, asks me to create a user and that lot then the desktop appears as expected. However before I can even try to do something it restarts (which I'm used to considering the number of times it does it during the install process) but once it has restarted it informs me of a hardware error and asks in which mode it should boot. Any option I choose (safe mode or normal etc) just has the computer restarts and I am returned to the same place. I'm not really too sure where I can go from here, it will boot from CD and run the installer again and I have attempted to repair it but that doesn't seem to work either.

Any suggestions, decent ones will be awarded with rep.

[Kieran]

Hmm,
Seems to be a hardware capatability issue with Vista. Are you able to install XP on it and that works fine or does that restart the same?

[mat64]

Hmm,
Seems to be a hardware capatability issue with Vista. Are you able to install XP on it and that works fine or does that restart the same?

Well it had XP running on it previously, is that what you mean?

[DarrenToogood]

He is saying, I think, that your laptop can not cope with Vista Ultimate - after all it is the top end Vista.

[Tomm]

What are the specs of the laptop? Also did you perform a clean install or upgrade?

[Kieran]

Ye that's what I was getting at Darren. I was trying to see if it was just Vista causing the problem or his laptop. It does seem like your laptop cant handle Vista Ultimate.

[mat64]

The first was an upgrade and then I tried a clean install. I'll try find some specs later on for you, although I think the theory about it not be able to handle vista is plausible. My desktop could use a clean up later on anyway so I might try it with that, spec providing.

[DarrenToogood]

If you don't know the specs of your laptop, why did you buy Vista Ultimate :s I am a little confused why you would spend so much money, or time downloading without checking first.

[iFuseDan]

Okay quick step for you, if you can that is:

Most initial reboots are usually networking related (not 100% the case though), so make sure you dont have anything plugged in - when it does reboot go into safe mode - save to a usb flash drive if you can (they still work in safe mode) the most recent file from c:\windows\minidump - in there are small memory dumps from when the problem occured - if you can zip them and upload - i can run a debuging tool and tell you what device it is or what problem it is thats causing the problem. One advantage of safe mode is that it is driver free - so you shouldnt get reboots from improperly installed hardware.

[mat64]

Whenever I select safe mode I see a blue screen (not the standard BSOD), has a white bar accorss the top and about a paragraph worth of information split into 3 or 2 line paragraphs. That only appears for a split second though, and it does the same for any boot option I select. I'm trying to reinstall XP at the moment anyways.