Wayfarers of Veeshan

So I tried today to load Vista Service Pack 1, since you have to
install that before you can install SP2, and I wanted the service
packs in place ... well, just cuz I thought it would help the
computer run better.

After spending hours of "failed attempts" to finally get SP1
installed, I was able to manually download something
called the "System Update Readiness Tool". That finally
installed, and so the SP1 finally seemed to go all the
way through too.

Final reboot after installing SP1 and it just spun, and spun,
and spun...at the opening reboot screen (past the DELL Bios
screen) that has "Microsoft Corporation" and a status bar.
Mostly the status bar just spun and spun. I let it go for
an hour...it just didn't make progress. So I shut down,
and fired it back up and the screen says "windows failed
to start" and that I should put in the initial Vista disk,
reboot, and choose "repair disk" ...but it also gave me
the standard options of "safe mode" , "safe mode with
networking" etc.

I try and try with the disk in the drive to restart the computer,
but it fails to even read the disk, so I keep going to the
"failed to start" screen. I'm trying to enter "safe mode
with networking" now, but it's saying "Installing Service
Pack: Stage 3 of 3 - 44% complete" (and growing).
This tells me that maybe SP1 didn't actually fully install?

I'm not even sure why I entered safe mode...but now that
SP1 seems to be back to installing, I'm letting it go for
now. Maybe installing SP1 in safe mode will make it work
for normal boot up...I don't know.

Anyway, don't know if anyone has any advice or similar
experiences, but I'm all ears.

Drex

_________________
Drexxell , 71st GNecrOMancEr -- Wielder of ()
Druul , 60th Troll Shaman () + Wielder of and
Driss, 51st Dwarf Priestess of Brell Serilis
Dralia, 36th Erudite Enchantress

Bah...after an hour or more, I got (under the attempt to boot in safe mode) "Service Pack did not install. Reverting Changes". Now it's rebooting...and we'll see what happens...

Might not be anything anyone can do, but typing out this log is helping me keep
myself sane right now...

_________________
Drexxell , 71st GNecrOMancEr -- Wielder of ()
Druul , 60th Troll Shaman () + Wielder of and
Driss, 51st Dwarf Priestess of Brell Serilis
Dralia, 36th Erudite Enchantress

Ugh, I run XP still so I can't help. My laptop is running Win 7 and I've had no glitches other than having to reinstall my email program so Firefox would see it as default mail program for email links.

I was unable to install SP one also so I gave up and went back to xp.... but now im on windows 7

_________________
*Diggen 73 Cleric

Drex,
I was working on a neighbor's PC a couple of weeks ago that was running Vista and it had never been updated. It turns out that it was having identical problems as you... Service Pack 1 wouldn't load, nor SP2 since SP1 never fully installed. I contacted Microsoft's Windows Update support team (it's free for Windows Update issues), and the gentleman had me try a bunch of different things.... however, it took days to hear from him and the things he had me try didn't work. I ended up rebuilding the PC due to the time issues (I had his machine for a couple of weeks at that point) with the email correspondence. I figured that it was easier to backup the data and start fresh as opposed to trying to figure it out.

I'll check my emails to see if I still have those, but I'm afraid I trashed them.... if I find them though, I"ll forward them to you.

For the issue where you machine wasn't reading the windows DVD/CD on boot up, when the machine is first loading and going through the memory check there should be an option to enter BIOS (it's either a function key (F1-F8), delete key, or something like that). Go into that and look for a setting called boot devices or something like that. It should list some drives in order (hard disk, optical drive, USB, Floppy Drive, etc). Make sure that the optical drive/CDROM/DVDROM is listed before the hard drive so that it will attempt to boot from that before attempting to boot from the hard disk. I would think most machines these days would already be set up like that, but some still only have floppy drive listed before hard disk.

_________________
Merlaina Mistweave - 85 Magician

Nemesis of Quillmane and self-proclaimed master of Kedge Keep
Lease holder for the rooftops of Gyrospires Beza and Zeka

Thanks all for the info thus far! The machine is back running normally again, for now. SP1 did
not install.

What I'm not clear on is whether I should care. I keep all my personal data on an external
drive (learned that the hard way), so if the machine should ever need to be rebuilt or trashed,
I can just unplug my external and move it to a new machine.

But anyway, the question is...am I at risk of viruses because I don't have SP1 or SP2 loaded?
According to the Microsoft website, as of April they are no longer supporting
upgrades(?) for non-SP loaded Vista machines.

_________________
Drexxell , 71st GNecrOMancEr -- Wielder of ()
Druul , 60th Troll Shaman () + Wielder of and
Driss, 51st Dwarf Priestess of Brell Serilis
Dralia, 36th Erudite Enchantress

_________________
Merlaina Mistweave - 85 Magician

Nemesis of Quillmane and self-proclaimed master of Kedge Keep
Lease holder for the rooftops of Gyrospires Beza and Zeka

Thanks for sharing your expertise, Merlaina and everyone else who's responded.

WoV is lucky to have so many knowledgeable people who will take the time to help out their fellow Wayfs.

At my work a few years ago with Windows XP Pro 32 bit, sp2 would not install and I finally figured out that it needed other updates installed before it would install. Perhaps you could check and see if other updates are available to install and install them before installing Vista Sp1.

Is the account you are using and administrator account?

Bring up task manager and see what else is running and kill anything that does not need to be running ( itunes crap, hp printer crap, etc, etc).

Delete temp files (empty trash can), defrag the hard drive, and make sure there is enough free space; if hd is full that'll give you problems and if it is too fragmented that can give you problems as well.

Sounds like a good opportunity to start fresh. My best recommendation would be to get a usb drive together with all the necessary drivers and av software (I like Avast), backup the data, and start from scratch. If you do, don't forget ie/firefox favorites (every other rebuild I seem to forget'em).

If you have any friends with a copy of the install disk, see if their copy has sp1 or 2 already. Maybe you can just use that to install over the existing copy; might save some trouble ( not advocating piracy blah blah blah, you'd still want to use the existing product key ).

Go to your local Frys / big box computer store and buy an OEM version of Windows 7, no tech support, IIRC, but much cheaper, then blow up the Vista disk this coming 4th of July.