Problem solved. I had two other symptoms going on in XP. 1) Windows Defender
was hanging on getting updates (cpu 0% though) and 2) Windows Update was
hanging after clicking Install Updates (also cpu 0%). Canceling windows
update seemed to hang as well but eventually went to the failed update
screen. Clicking on the X? icon led to some error codes which led to BITS not
running. I manually started BITS but that failed; some error codes later led
to some Registry tweaking--I was missing two entries in "Backup". BITS was
then able to start. Windows Update and Defender ran fine and the Vista
Upgrade progressed past the product key screen. I didn't do the upgrade since
I decide to do a dual boot clean install.
The update log file was full of the BITS not running error codes. The vista
installer/upgrader should be handling this problem better for the
non-technical user.
I seemed to have caused this problem myselfas I have to repeatedly the
svchost.exe (BITS is defined as "svchost.exe -k netsvcs") because it hogs the
CPU at 100% soon after start up. This seems to be a relatively recent
phenomena as it was not happening immediately after installing SR2.
Sorry no details on the error codes or registry entries I added; I did this
sometime last week and lost the references. Google'ing the error codes,
rather than using the search on the microsoft.com website, should get you
there.
--
--William
"Frankster" wrote:
> The "in-place" upgrade is not available from any OEM disk. XP and Vista
> included. For you, it's gonna have to be a clean install with all programs
> reloaded.
>
> http://www.microsoft.com/windows/pro...radepaths.mspx
>
> -Frank
>
> "William Biesty" <WilliamBiesty@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:74705EC4-4F39-473A-8D64-00EAC9A4BA53@microsoft.com...
> > When I attempt to upgrade from Windows XP Pro SR2 to Windows Vista
> > Business
> > OEM from within windows xp, I get as far as the product key entry screen.
> > When I click next, the install seems to hang. Checking with task manager,
> > there is a "setup.exe" running at 99% cpu. there are two other
> > "SETUP.EXE"s
> > running as well. I've let it run for 2 hours and finally "End Task"ed to
> > get
> > to this forum.
> >
> > Is this normal? How long should I let it run?
> > I have 1.5 GB RAM, 1.5+MHz CPU (AMDAthlon), fast IDE hard drives and16x
> > DVD
> > drive. The drives don't seem to be accessed while CPU is at max.
> >
> > The upgrade is not available from booting the DVD. When I did so, I got as
> > far as screen telling me it was not available. (Entered license key, chose
> > keyboard/language/etc.)
> > --
> > --William
>
>