Vista boot woes

[Yellowhello]

I built my friend a computer over the summer and now it's having some problems booting into Vista. The specs are as follows:

E4300
Gigabyte P965-DS3
1GB Corsair XMS2 DDR2 675MHz
MSI 8600GTS
Thermaltake 650W
WD 250GB

The machine gets past the BIOS fine, but when it comes time to load Vista, it falters. The Vista loading screen goes, and it seems to have loaded all the way. But instead of the Windows symbol appearing, the screen stays blank.

I have loaded the default settings in the BIOS, and nothing seems out of place or detected wrong.

I really need to get this fixed, as his Mom is pissed and I don't think there is much longer 'til she tries to sue me or something crazy like that.

Thank you.

[Capper]

Well, first.....Vista doesn't really like 1GB of RAM......I've put together a few systems with it, and it is awful.

Second, I'd try to use the recovery/restor feature using the disk, and if that doesn't work, I'd reinstall Vista......making sure you use the right drivers (some people accidently use XP drivers).

[polobunny]

Ha dang, that happens quite often it seems with Vista. Try booting into safe mode and see if it works. If it does, uninstall the latest windows updates. See how it goes.

[Reloadron]

This may help with using the repair console / options in Vista if it comes to that:

John Barnett's Windows Vista Support: Windows Vista Repair Options

Next with regard to your comment of:

I really need to get this fixed, as his Mom is pissed and I don't think there is much longer 'til she tried to sue me or something crazy like that.

I will be more than happy to represent you. My standard fee of ten bucks, a bottle of wine and a hooker apply!

Have you or your friend tried a restore if you can get a safe mode boot?

Oh yeah, on Capper's note, I would kick the RAM out to 2 GB. Not that you, your friend or the mom will want to hear about added cost but that is the way to go.

Ron

[screwballl]

sounds to me like it needs an updated video card driver or the video card went bad. This can happen because the bios and loading screens are all in very low resolution vga whereas the desktop and everything from that point forward is handled by the video card... so I would boot into safe mode with networking and download/install the latest video drivers... if that doesn't work then try another video card.

[Yellowhello]

We're trying the repair feature on the disk now... I'll let you guys know how it goes.

[Yellowhello]

So I just talked to my friend... the repair software has been going for a good 3 hours, with no results. It just sits at the "Attempting Repair" screen, and it seems like nothing is happening. What should I do next?

[Stormcrow]

Ask him if he has any important data to backup, and swap the HDD to another comp to back up if so. Then give a shot at reinstalling it, the partition and/or install might have become corrupted. In any event, it'd give you a clean slate to see if it's Vista or a hardware problem.

[Yellowhello]

Well, I think a clean install will be like a last resort. I talked to him this morning, apparently the repair "failed". We are now trying a System Restore, hopefully that works. If not, I guess I'll throw the drive in my computer and do a clean install.

[Reloadron]

Originally Posted by yellowhello

Well, I think a clean install will be like a last resort. I talked to him this morning, apparently the repair "failed". We are now trying a System Restore, hopefully that works. If not, I guess I'll throw the drive in my computer and do a clean install.

Yellow, I am just winging it but... If you remove the OS drive from your friends computer and place it in your computer then format the drive and install the OS. Then you remove the drive and install it back in the first computer the OS won't work.

You need to install the OS on the machine it is going to run on.

Ron