Installation/Start-Up

I started installing Vista on a HP Pavilion a614n into a 50GB Partition for it
everything went ok
until the very end when it was bringing up the desktop and I got nothing except a nice wallpaper background.

I can't bring up task manager, start menu, no icons, no nothing.

Reinstalled several times
no luck

anyone had this problem before, usually google knows about my problems already, but can't really find anything about first boot up and no task manager

when I restart after no desktop I get the whole create a user name and password process again

someone help

UPDATE
now when I try and boot vista I get this work of modern art
http://otsosi.freehostia.com/img038.jpg
copy and paste as it link doesn't seem to work right and [img/img] neither
this should work http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/2637/img038hw2.jpg

UPDATE 2
swapped hd into a sony vaio for kicks and it seems to work fine
anyone know what the HP pavilion's problem might be? video?

probably the integrated intel pos graphics, but installation screens went fine and start up initially until the screen went crazy, ill just downgrade back to xp

Hi Cognac,
Welcome to the Vista forums.

Can you attach the pics, they don't display.

Did you install the Vista chipset drivers for your motherboard? Did you install clean or over the top of an existing OS? I would try a clean install. When you get into the install screen, delete the old Windows partition and reboot.