Vista Tutorial - Hang during Vista Install

I'm trying to install Vista Ultimate (32-bit) and I get a hang when it tries
to reboot the machine.

Machine is a dual processor workstation (two AMD Opteron 285 processors),
mainboard is a tyan thunder K8SE (S2892) with 8GB of RAM (box dual boots into
Windows XP 64). Video card is Asus EN7600GS.

I tried both updating my Windows XP installation (hangs when it first
reboots), and booting from the DVD (hangs right away).

I installed both Windows XP and Windows XP 64 on this box with no problems.

Not sure what to do now...

Not trying to take away any work from the MSVP's but having gone thru that
same problem - here's what I learned.

My problem was the Sata drive controller was not supported by Vista until
after the Vista updates were done - and then Vista saw my Sata drives.

During the install of Vista, the installer uses a "generic" driver that
works for the Sata controller. Then when it went to the 1st reboot - that's
when the Vista (image) software takes over and of course not having a x64
Sata Sil 3132 driver for 64 bit - it crashed and burned......

I have found a x64 driver for the controller and will be putting that on a
floppy so that driver can be loaded when the Vista installer asks for
additional drivers.

That gives you an idea of "why" it hangs. The installer is different
software from the Vista image that gets loaded and when it kicks it - if it
doesn't have what it needs, you get error messages or hangs or both.

If you do not know what is causing the install to crash and burn then:

1. Minimize the hardware connected to the system. Remove any additional
cards installed (NIC's, sound cards, TV Tuners, game cards, etc.). You need
a graphics card, a hard drive, floppy (maybe) and a DVD along with your
memory.

2. If it still hangs - you've narrowed down the problem considerably. Start
turning off features in the BIOS such as serial ports, parallel ports, USB,
Firewire and leave only those settings need to have a minimal system. This
is for troubleshooting purposes only - and will help narrow down what
driver(s) may be needed.

3. How is the hard drive formatted? If its FAT 32 you need to convert to
NTFS but I would think the installer would catch that real early - but then
again...

4. If you have a spare hard drive, remove the hdd that is now in the system
and hang a formatted spare drive on as a test. Boot from the DVD and do a
clean install as a test. Yes - you can do a clean install with the Upgrade
package. Install Vista the first time and do not enter the key. Once it
installs (if you get that far), then do an in-place upgrade from Vista.
Insert the DVD, run the set-up, select the option for doing an in-place
upgrade and this time when it asks - enter the product key and uncheck the
automatic activation - do it manually is what everyone is saying.

Bob S.



"PSollich" <PSollich@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:54350116-F5AA-41BF-8C55-940FE6A34119@microsoft.com...
> I'm trying to install Vista Ultimate (32-bit) and I get a hang when it
> tries
> to reboot the machine.
>
> Machine is a dual processor workstation (two AMD Opteron 285 processors),
> mainboard is a tyan thunder K8SE (S2892) with 8GB of RAM (box dual boots
> into
> Windows XP 64). Video card is Asus EN7600GS.
>
> I tried both updating my Windows XP installation (hangs when it first
> reboots), and booting from the DVD (hangs right away).
>
> I installed both Windows XP and Windows XP 64 on this box with no
> problems.
>
> Not sure what to do now...

Hi Bob,

Disconnecting the SATA drive did not help, however, *disconnecting* my PATA
drive made Vista boot from the DVD.

And it's installing right now - guess the moment of truth comes when it
tries to reboot...

Thanks for your advice!
Peter

"BobS" wrote:

> Not trying to take away any work from the MSVP's but having gone thru that
> same problem - here's what I learned.
>
> My problem was the Sata drive controller was not supported by Vista until
> after the Vista updates were done - and then Vista saw my Sata drives.
>
> During the install of Vista, the installer uses a "generic" driver that
> works for the Sata controller. Then when it went to the 1st reboot - that's
> when the Vista (image) software takes over and of course not having a x64
> Sata Sil 3132 driver for 64 bit - it crashed and burned......
>
> I have found a x64 driver for the controller and will be putting that on a
> floppy so that driver can be loaded when the Vista installer asks for
> additional drivers.
>
> That gives you an idea of "why" it hangs. The installer is different
> software from the Vista image that gets loaded and when it kicks it - if it
> doesn't have what it needs, you get error messages or hangs or both.
>
> If you do not know what is causing the install to crash and burn then:
>
> 1. Minimize the hardware connected to the system. Remove any additional
> cards installed (NIC's, sound cards, TV Tuners, game cards, etc.). You need
> a graphics card, a hard drive, floppy (maybe) and a DVD along with your
> memory.
>
> 2. If it still hangs - you've narrowed down the problem considerably. Start
> turning off features in the BIOS such as serial ports, parallel ports, USB,
> Firewire and leave only those settings need to have a minimal system. This
> is for troubleshooting purposes only - and will help narrow down what
> driver(s) may be needed.
>
> 3. How is the hard drive formatted? If its FAT 32 you need to convert to
> NTFS but I would think the installer would catch that real early - but then
> again...
>
> 4. If you have a spare hard drive, remove the hdd that is now in the system
> and hang a formatted spare drive on as a test. Boot from the DVD and do a
> clean install as a test. Yes - you can do a clean install with the Upgrade
> package. Install Vista the first time and do not enter the key. Once it
> installs (if you get that far), then do an in-place upgrade from Vista.
> Insert the DVD, run the set-up, select the option for doing an in-place
> upgrade and this time when it asks - enter the product key and uncheck the
> automatic activation - do it manually is what everyone is saying.
>
> Bob S.
>
>
>
> "PSollich" <PSollich@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:54350116-F5AA-41BF-8C55-940FE6A34119@microsoft.com...
> > I'm trying to install Vista Ultimate (32-bit) and I get a hang when it
> > tries
> > to reboot the machine.
> >
> > Machine is a dual processor workstation (two AMD Opteron 285 processors),
> > mainboard is a tyan thunder K8SE (S2892) with 8GB of RAM (box dual boots
> > into
> > Windows XP 64). Video card is Asus EN7600GS.
> >
> > I tried both updating my Windows XP installation (hangs when it first
> > reboots), and booting from the DVD (hangs right away).
> >
> > I installed both Windows XP and Windows XP 64 on this box with no
> > problems.
> >
> > Not sure what to do now...
>
>
>

Further update: when it tried to reboot, it complained about a missing NTLDR
(???), perhaps a remnant of the prior Windows XP install on the same drive. I
retried the install from DVD, tried the "repair" option that comes up early
on in the install, and then it went through.

It still doesn't want to boot with the IDE drive connected though, still
hangs... weird.

And it doesn't like my sound card (Create Soundblaster Extreme Fidelity),
and the Broadcom network chip. Fortunately the motherboard also has an Intel
network chip, so I switched to that which took care of the second problem.
Will investigate the sound card problem next. We'll see.

Thanks
Peter

"PSollich" wrote:

> Hi Bob,
>
> Disconnecting the SATA drive did not help, however, *disconnecting* my PATA
> drive made Vista boot from the DVD.
>
> And it's installing right now - guess the moment of truth comes when it
> tries to reboot...
>
> Thanks for your advice!
> Peter
>
> "BobS" wrote:
>
> > Not trying to take away any work from the MSVP's but having gone thru that
> > same problem - here's what I learned.
> >
> > My problem was the Sata drive controller was not supported by Vista until
> > after the Vista updates were done - and then Vista saw my Sata drives.
> >
> > During the install of Vista, the installer uses a "generic" driver that
> > works for the Sata controller. Then when it went to the 1st reboot - that's
> > when the Vista (image) software takes over and of course not having a x64
> > Sata Sil 3132 driver for 64 bit - it crashed and burned......
> >
> > I have found a x64 driver for the controller and will be putting that on a
> > floppy so that driver can be loaded when the Vista installer asks for
> > additional drivers.
> >
> > That gives you an idea of "why" it hangs. The installer is different
> > software from the Vista image that gets loaded and when it kicks it - if it
> > doesn't have what it needs, you get error messages or hangs or both.
> >
> > If you do not know what is causing the install to crash and burn then:
> >
> > 1. Minimize the hardware connected to the system. Remove any additional
> > cards installed (NIC's, sound cards, TV Tuners, game cards, etc.). You need
> > a graphics card, a hard drive, floppy (maybe) and a DVD along with your
> > memory.
> >
> > 2. If it still hangs - you've narrowed down the problem considerably. Start
> > turning off features in the BIOS such as serial ports, parallel ports, USB,
> > Firewire and leave only those settings need to have a minimal system. This
> > is for troubleshooting purposes only - and will help narrow down what
> > driver(s) may be needed.
> >
> > 3. How is the hard drive formatted? If its FAT 32 you need to convert to
> > NTFS but I would think the installer would catch that real early - but then
> > again...
> >
> > 4. If you have a spare hard drive, remove the hdd that is now in the system
> > and hang a formatted spare drive on as a test. Boot from the DVD and do a
> > clean install as a test. Yes - you can do a clean install with the Upgrade
> > package. Install Vista the first time and do not enter the key. Once it
> > installs (if you get that far), then do an in-place upgrade from Vista.
> > Insert the DVD, run the set-up, select the option for doing an in-place
> > upgrade and this time when it asks - enter the product key and uncheck the
> > automatic activation - do it manually is what everyone is saying.
> >
> > Bob S.
> >
> >
> >
> > "PSollich" <PSollich@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> > news:54350116-F5AA-41BF-8C55-940FE6A34119@microsoft.com...
> > > I'm trying to install Vista Ultimate (32-bit) and I get a hang when it
> > > tries
> > > to reboot the machine.
> > >
> > > Machine is a dual processor workstation (two AMD Opteron 285 processors),
> > > mainboard is a tyan thunder K8SE (S2892) with 8GB of RAM (box dual boots
> > > into
> > > Windows XP 64). Video card is Asus EN7600GS.
> > >
> > > I tried both updating my Windows XP installation (hangs when it first
> > > reboots), and booting from the DVD (hangs right away).
> > >
> > > I installed both Windows XP and Windows XP 64 on this box with no
> > > problems.
> > >
> > > Not sure what to do now...
> >
> >
> >

FYI
Tyan have just released a new BIOS v2.04 to solve PXI-X Vista problems.
This might help.