philandsuek

Hi thanks for that detailed info. Yes it's 32-bit.

Yes I was trying to install Vista without the product key and then perform an upgrade installon top, but it was still giving error codes and failing to upgrade.

I got back through to MS phone support and they ended up giving me a NEW product key which turns my Vista Home Premium "upgrade" into a stand-alone version of Vista.

Hurrahhhh !!!

I've entered the new product code on the clean-installed version of Vista, and it seems to have taken.

Happily I have a full-time job.. so I do NOT have time to do all this.. I will try again installing SP1 tonight - they reccommend booting the PC into safemode, and removing all periferal hardware to perform the install.

I will post the outcome on here later.

My major question is.. how can MS have a mainstream product like Windows 2000 which works fine with software and hardware, but the new product Vista has conflicts??

I know nothing of the complexity of programming - but it seems like a lack of backward compatibility.

Enough grumbling - I have spend HOURS on the phone to MS tech support, and at least they keep trying.

Phil