Vista - Vista freezes with all installs

First of all, thanks for reading my post! I greatly appreciate any support you can provide.

I just did a clean install of Vista ultimate x64. I'm having a problem, though. It seems to be very unstable when I'm starting up - if I try to open programs while the OS is still loading all my run-at-startup programs, it'll just lock up. That's not the biggest problem, though. For some reason, if I try to install ANYTHING (i.e. quicktime, my video drivers, the windows updates), the computer will install it until it gets to about 20-25% of the install, and then just slow down to a complete stop. Like, at first the progress bar won't advance. After that, the desktop icons won't highlight when you mouse over them. Then you can't move windows (minimize, maximize, etc.), and finally, you can't move your mouse.

I just had vista ultimate x64 working on my computer a few days ago, and it was stable. I had to reinstall it because I downloaded window's updates, and there's one that (after some research) I found can cause some computers to not be able to boot. I suffered that problem.

My computer specs (if it helps, since it's custom):
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ processor
GeForce 8800 GT (dual) video cards
4 gb of gskill ddr2 RAM
Gigabyte GA-M57SLI-S4 mobo

The only drivers I was able to get installed were the drivers for the mobo. It led me to believe that they were the culprit, but even when I tried to install my video drivers and windows updates in safe mode, it still freezes.

Hello Kulahan,
What error messages are you receiving?
Have you checked in Event Viewer?
Did you try System Restore to a date prior to your current problem?

Unfortunately, I'm not receiving any error messages. The computer will just freeze in mid-use. It doesn't un-freeze, regardless of how long I let it sit for. Since it doesn't BSOD, all I can do is reset it manually.

I just reinstalled the OS, so I have no restore points to go back to. Everything was wiped from the drive.

I actually don't know how to check the event viewer. Can you refresh my memory? I've used it before, but I forget how to get there! :O

Thanks for your help!

Start > Search > Type in 'Event Vewer' > click Event Viewer.
You may be surprised at the wealth of info there.

Are you using a laptop?

Try these tools: An update is available to fix a Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) crash on a Windows Vista-based computer
and How do I reset Windows Update components?

if none of them help you ,follow to below steps

Run cmd.exe with administrative previlliges and type

sfc /scannow

when it will done create report

Run cmd.exe with administrative previlliges and type

findstr /c:"[SR]" %windir%\logs\cbs\cbs.log >%userprofile%\Desktop\sfcdetails.txt

on your desktop appear file sfcdetails.txt

next run CheckSur Description of the System Update Readiness Tool for Windows Vista, for Windows Server 2008, for Windows Server 2008 R2 Release Candidate, and for Windows 7 Release Candidate
even if this tool won't resolve problem automatically it create logs:

C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CheckSUR.log

System also create logs -there is log C:\Windows\WindowsUpdate.log but this log is mostly too big
So download FireGenUL Altair Technologies Ltd.
place this file in C:\Windows\System32 and restart computer
next run cmd.exe and type

firegenul

and then will create short *.htm report from WindowsUpdate.log placed in C:\Windows\System32 -report name FireGenUlReport.htm

All tree files:FiregenUlReport.htm,sfcdetails.txt and CheckSUR.log pack them and attache to post

While your system hangs, Open task manager and find how many windows installed process (ie:msiexec.exe) running in process tab and what are they?