Vista - Dell E1705 BSOD on 1st boot

Hi all,
I'm on my second try to upgrade my xp pro install to Vista business
(free from the MS 'together' promo) on my Dell Inspiron E1705. When the
install gets to the (I presume) last reboot and tries to 'start for the
first time' I get an immediate BSOD and reboot after the Vista load
screen. The BSOD is much too fast to read the stop code as the machine
reboots instantly. 'A quick flash of blue'.
I'm currently running 'startup repair' from the DVD, but it's been
running for 16 hours already. There is still HD activity going on,
albeit slowly. I chose to upgrade because I thought it would be easier
that re-installing all my apps. I do have a full backup image on a USB
hard drive.
SO: Does anyone know how long Startup Repair takes to finish, or how
long I should wait beforre giving up?
Dell has Vista upgrades on their site and I did upgrade the Bios to A06
that is for Vista compatibility, but some (the chipset and video drivers
in particular) won't install unless you're already running Vista. A
classic catch 22.
So, here I sit, watching the blue bar of startup repair cross the screen
of my laptop.
Any suggestions at all (beside the obvious 'do a clean install') to get
this to complete would be greatly apprecieated.
Thanks for reading.

ADDED:
It's now been about 25 hours that Startup Repair has been running.
My version of Vista is a full install, not an upgrade, but I was hoping
to upgrade in place because of around 80 GB of installed apps, some of
which were upgrades requiring the disks of the previous versions. Who
knows where all those disks are, cuz I don't. (at least quickly)

ADDED again:

OK, I stopped the startup repair. Read the log. No error codes except
the event list did not finish processing. After 30 hours, it was never
going to.
I went into bios and disabled a lot of stuff, and tried to start it in
safe mode with minimal (VGA) resolution. This caused the BSOD to stay on
the screen long enough to read the error code: 0x18 'reference by
pointer'. There is no KB article that I can find that refers to this
error code.
I'm very close to doing a clean install, but I'm stubborn.
I'm in a dos window now and I can see my C: drive and the Dell directory
that has the Vista drivers. (Note to self: next time I extract driver
files, give the folder a meaningful name. R142930 just doesn't cut it. )
So I have to go to the dell vista drivers and downloads site and look at
the drivers to decode what the numbers mean.
BUT!!! If I am successful in loading the vista drivers and they actually
install from a dos prompt, It would be next to impossible to roll back
to XP should the installation still fail.

Is there anything I can do to make this work from the DOS prompt??

A clean install just might be the only answer and spending 2 or 3 days
finding and installing apps might be my fate.

Tony
Dell E1705, T2500, NV 7800 Go, 100GB Sata 5400, 1GB ram, wireles ABG
card and bluetooth.

OK, tried to install the chipset drivers (includes SATA support) from the
dos prompt. Apparently this is not possible as I get 'there is not enough
free space available' error message from the installer.
Is there a time earlier in the install that I can install the drivers like
the raid install in XP? I didn't see an option to install drivers during the
Vista install.

Tony
Dell E1705, T2500, NV 7800 Go, 100GB Sata 5400, 1GB ram, wireles ABG
card and bluetooth.

I'm have the same problems you are having, with my Gateway MX6447
notebook,and I did everything you have done, with no joy, is your Vista a
Retail or a OEM, I have an OEM that I cannot return once it's opened, now I
have a $225 worthless COASTER, what a waste of MONEY this has been: Here's
my Notebook specs:

Gateway MX6447 * AMD Turion 64 Mobile 2GHz * ATI Xpress 1150 * HITACHI
Travelstar 7K100 80GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache * 2GB * 533MHz* DDR2 Memory*Creative
Audigy 2Z PCMCIA Sound Card * XP PRO w/ SP2 Still Awaiting Express Upgrade to
Vista Home Premium Version

"TonyT" wrote:

> OK, tried to install the chipset drivers (includes SATA support) from the
> dos prompt. Apparently this is not possible as I get 'there is not enough
> free space available' error message from the installer.
> Is there a time earlier in the install that I can install the drivers like
> the raid install in XP? I didn't see an option to install drivers during the
> Vista install.
>
> Tony
> Dell E1705, T2500, NV 7800 Go, 100GB Sata 5400, 1GB ram, wireles ABG
> card and bluetooth.
>

I just received an E1705 this week and I was able to do a clean install of
Vista Utimate in about 45 mins which is about 15 mins. longer than it took to
install Vista Premium on a desktop system. After the program was installed I
installed all the drivers and the system is running fine. The clean install
maybe the easiest option for you.

Note: If you use ZA Pro do not install it because I did and ended up doing
another clean install of Vista.

"Tony Tait" wrote:

> Hi all,
> I'm on my second try to upgrade my xp pro install to Vista business
> (free from the MS 'together' promo) on my Dell Inspiron E1705. When the
> install gets to the (I presume) last reboot and tries to 'start for the
> first time' I get an immediate BSOD and reboot after the Vista load
> screen. The BSOD is much too fast to read the stop code as the machine
> reboots instantly. 'A quick flash of blue'.
> I'm currently running 'startup repair' from the DVD, but it's been
> running for 16 hours already. There is still HD activity going on,
> albeit slowly. I chose to upgrade because I thought it would be easier
> that re-installing all my apps. I do have a full backup image on a USB
> hard drive.
> SO: Does anyone know how long Startup Repair takes to finish, or how
> long I should wait beforre giving up?
> Dell has Vista upgrades on their site and I did upgrade the Bios to A06
> that is for Vista compatibility, but some (the chipset and video drivers
> in particular) won't install unless you're already running Vista. A
> classic catch 22.
> So, here I sit, watching the blue bar of startup repair cross the screen
> of my laptop.
> Any suggestions at all (beside the obvious 'do a clean install') to get
> this to complete would be greatly apprecieated.
> Thanks for reading.
>
> ADDED:
> It's now been about 25 hours that Startup Repair has been running.
> My version of Vista is a full install, not an upgrade, but I was hoping
> to upgrade in place because of around 80 GB of installed apps, some of
> which were upgrades requiring the disks of the previous versions. Who
> knows where all those disks are, cuz I don't. (at least quickly)
>
> ADDED again:
>
> OK, I stopped the startup repair. Read the log. No error codes except
> the event list did not finish processing. After 30 hours, it was never
> going to.
> I went into bios and disabled a lot of stuff, and tried to start it in
> safe mode with minimal (VGA) resolution. This caused the BSOD to stay on
> the screen long enough to read the error code: 0x18 'reference by
> pointer'. There is no KB article that I can find that refers to this
> error code.
> I'm very close to doing a clean install, but I'm stubborn.
> I'm in a dos window now and I can see my C: drive and the Dell directory
> that has the Vista drivers. (Note to self: next time I extract driver
> files, give the folder a meaningful name. R142930 just doesn't cut it. )
> So I have to go to the dell vista drivers and downloads site and look at
> the drivers to decode what the numbers mean.
> BUT!!! If I am successful in loading the vista drivers and they actually
> install from a dos prompt, It would be next to impossible to roll back
> to XP should the installation still fail.
>
> Is there anything I can do to make this work from the DOS prompt??
>
> A clean install just might be the only answer and spending 2 or 3 days
> finding and installing apps might be my fate.
>
> Tony
> Dell E1705, T2500, NV 7800 Go, 100GB Sata 5400, 1GB ram, wireles ABG
> card and bluetooth.
>