installation hangs before first setup screen appears

I'm trying to install Vista build 5308, booting from a DVD. I get to the screen with the little progress bar animating near the bottom, then a blank screen and no further activity.
This is a recent vintage machine: P4, 2.8Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 200Gb SATA hard drive, DVD & CD-ROM drives, nVidia 5600 FX video. All components are known-good (had Svr2k3 running previously).
Ideas? Suggestions?
I can dig up more details on chipsets, etc., if that'd help.
-cd

Try reburning the ISO image from either Connect/MSDN on a really slow burn, such as 2x speed. If that doesn't help, re-download the ISO and reburn at 2x speed.
If that fails, report back soldier! :oP
-- Zack Whittaker » ZackNET Enterprises: www.zacknet.co.uk » MSBlog on ResDev: www.msblog.org » Vista Knowledge Base: www.vistabase.co.uk » This mailing is provided "as is" with no warranties, and confers no rights. All opinions expressed are those of myself unless stated so, and not of my employer, best friend, Ghandi, my mother or my cat. Glad we cleared that up!
--: Original message follows :-- "Carl Daniel [VC++ MVP]" wrote in message

I'm trying to install Vista build 5308, booting from a DVD. I get to the screen with the little progress bar animating near the bottom, then a blank screen and no further activity.
This is a recent vintage machine: P4, 2.8Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 200Gb SATA hard drive, DVD & CD-ROM drives, nVidia 5600 FX video. All components are known-good (had Svr2k3 running previously).
Ideas? Suggestions?
I can dig up more details on chipsets, etc., if that'd help.
-cd

Zack Whittaker wrote:

Try reburning the ISO image from either Connect/MSDN on a really slow burn, such as 2x speed. If that doesn't help, re-download the ISO and reburn at 2x speed.
If that fails, report back soldier! :oP

Unfortunately, I don't have the ISO image anymore - I'll download another copy just to be sure, but it seems like an unlikely cause - I've never had an issue with downloaded file intregrity or readability of a burned DVD on this hardware.
-cd

Try burning the ISO also with a different brand media, or even reattempt the install, if you have not. I got a failed install on the first attemtp, second try it installed without a hitch. I use TDK or Verbatim DVD Blanks. -- -- Andre Windows Connected | http://www.windowsconnected.com Extended64 | http://www.extended64.com Blog | http://www.extended64.com/blogs/andre http://spaces.msn.com/members/adacosta
"Carl Daniel [VC++ MVP]" wrote in message

Zack Whittaker wrote: Try reburning the ISO image from either Connect/MSDN on a really slow burn, such as 2x speed. If that doesn't help, re-download the ISO and reburn at 2x speed.
If that fails, report back soldier! :oP
Unfortunately, I don't have the ISO image anymore - I'll download another copy just to be sure, but it seems like an unlikely cause - I've never had an issue with downloaded file intregrity or readability of a burned DVD on this hardware.
-cd

Andre Da Costa [Extended64] wrote:

Try burning the ISO also with a different brand media, or even reattempt the install, if you have not. I got a failed install on the first attemtp, second try it installed without a hitch. I use TDK or Verbatim DVD Blanks. --

I've tried several times with this disc with identical results - and there's no indication at all that reading from the DVD is in any way related. But just in case - I've downloaded a new ISO image, verified the SHA1 hash of that ISO and will burn a new DVD tomorrow and try again.
Any theories besides media issues? Is there anything resembling a comprehensive list of supported hardware for build 5308?
-cd

Try the install in Safe Mode. If it goes then start looking for the culprit (Hardware)
-- Peter
Please Reply to Newsgroup for the benefit of others Requests for assistance by email can not and will not be acknowledged.
"Carl Daniel [VC++ MVP]" wrote in message

Andre Da Costa [Extended64] wrote: Try burning the ISO also with a different brand media, or even reattempt the install, if you have not. I got a failed install on the first attemtp, second try it installed without a hitch. I use TDK or Verbatim DVD Blanks. --
I've tried several times with this disc with identical results - and there's no indication at all that reading from the DVD is in any way related. But just in case - I've downloaded a new ISO image, verified the SHA1 hash of that ISO and will burn a new DVD tomorrow and try again.
Any theories besides media issues? Is there anything resembling a comprehensive list of supported hardware for build 5308?
-cd

Peter Foldes wrote:

Try the install in Safe Mode. If it goes then start looking for the culprit (Hardware)

If I got to the point where the install gives me any option, that sounds like a fine idea - but it's hanging before the first opportunity to interact, at least as far as I can tell - unless there are secret silent options that can be invoked during the early part of the setup....?
-cd

I notice that the product key used can also cause failure, if you have access to another product key try that. As Peter mentioned, it could be a hardware issue, if you have external devices such as USB Printers, scanners or external drives connected, remove them and reattempt the setup. -- -- Andre Windows Connected | http://www.windowsconnected.com Extended64 | http://www.extended64.com Blog | http://www.extended64.com/blogs/andre http://spaces.msn.com/members/adacosta
"Carl Daniel [VC++ MVP]" wrote in message

Peter Foldes wrote: Try the install in Safe Mode. If it goes then start looking for the culprit (Hardware)
If I got to the point where the install gives me any option, that sounds like a fine idea - but it's hanging before the first opportunity to interact, at least as far as I can tell - unless there are secret silent options that can be invoked during the early part of the setup....?
-cd

Andre Da Costa [Extended64] wrote:

I notice that the product key used can also cause failure, if you have access to another product key try that. As Peter mentioned, it could be a hardware issue, if you have external devices such as USB Printers, scanners or external drives connected, remove them and reattempt the setup. --

It fails before getting anywhere near the point that I can enter a product key. There's no hardware connected other than what I listed in the original post.
-cd

Just a thought - are you, or have you tried, installing within XP?
"Carl Daniel [VC++ MVP]" wrote in message

Andre Da Costa [Extended64] wrote: I notice that the product key used can also cause failure, if you have access to another product key try that. As Peter mentioned, it could be a hardware issue, if you have external devices such as USB Printers, scanners or external drives connected, remove them and reattempt the setup. --
It fails before getting anywhere near the point that I can enter a product key. There's no hardware connected other than what I listed in the original post.
-cd

"AJR" wrote in message

Just a thought - are you, or have you tried, installing within XP?

No and No. The machine is currently not bootable (no OS) - but I could try installing XP on it and then installing Vista over that. Perhaps I'll try that if my newly made DVD fails like the first does.
-cd

Reason I asked is that it was the only way I could install Vista (but not "over" XP -on another drive- resulted in dual boot).
"Carl Daniel [VC++ MVP]" wrote in message

"AJR" wrote in message Just a thought - are you, or have you tried, installing within XP?
No and No. The machine is currently not bootable (no OS) - but I could try installing XP on it and then installing Vista over that. Perhaps I'll try that if my newly made DVD fails like the first does.
-cd

AJR wrote:

Reason I asked is that it was the only way I could install Vista (but not "over" XP -on another drive- resulted in dual boot).

That worked for me as well. A new, slowly burned, SHA-1 verified DVD made no difference, so I installed XP on the machine and then installed Vista from XP. It did take a awfully long time (~2 hours) to install, but in the end, it did work.
So far, I'm extremely unimpressed - the performance is beyond terrible and the OS is so buggy that it's not even funny - even for a pre-Beta 2 CTP it's bad.
-cd

Actually 5342 and above addresses the performance quite nicely :o) It even runs relatively well with Glass on my 256MB RAM machine ;o)
-- Zack Whittaker » ZackNET Enterprises: www.zacknet.co.uk » MSBlog on ResDev: www.msblog.org » Vista Knowledge Base: www.vistabase.co.uk » This mailing is provided "as is" with no warranties, and confers no rights. All opinions expressed are those of myself unless stated so, and not of my employer, best friend, Ghandi, my mother or my cat. Glad we cleared that up!
--: Original message follows :-- "Carl Daniel [VC++ MVP]" wrote in message

AJR wrote: Reason I asked is that it was the only way I could install Vista (but not "over" XP -on another drive- resulted in dual boot).
That worked for me as well. A new, slowly burned, SHA-1 verified DVD made no difference, so I installed XP on the machine and then installed Vista from XP. It did take a awfully long time (~2 hours) to install, but in the end, it did work.
So far, I'm extremely unimpressed - the performance is beyond terrible and the OS is so buggy that it's not even funny - even for a pre-Beta 2 CTP it's bad.
-cd

Zack Whittaker wrote:

Actually 5342 and above addresses the performance quite nicely :o) It even runs relatively well with Glass on my 256MB RAM machine ;o)

Cool. I'm downloading 5365 from the Connect site right now. Can I do WinFX development on that build? I was under the impression that the current WinFX/SDK bits were specific for 5308, which is why I installed that build.
Finally, should I expect a 5308 -> 5365 upgrade install to work, or am I looking at scraping the machine down to bare metal and starting over?
-cd

WinFX is installed by default, the WDK is available on Connect Page also. Clean install only, no upgrade from 5308 to 5365. -- -- Andre Windows Connected | http://www.windowsconnected.com Extended64 | http://www.extended64.com Blog | http://www.extended64.com/blogs/andre http://spaces.msn.com/members/adacosta
"Carl Daniel [VC++ MVP]" wrote in message

Zack Whittaker wrote: Actually 5342 and above addresses the performance quite nicely :o) It even runs relatively well with Glass on my 256MB RAM machine ;o)
Cool. I'm downloading 5365 from the Connect site right now. Can I do WinFX development on that build? I was under the impression that the current WinFX/SDK bits were specific for 5308, which is why I installed that build.
Finally, should I expect a 5308 -> 5365 upgrade install to work, or am I looking at scraping the machine down to bare metal and starting over?
-cd

Andre Da Costa [Extended64] wrote:

WinFX is installed by default, the WDK is available on Connect Page also. Clean install only, no upgrade from 5308 to 5365.

The WDK is for driver deveopment only - it's the Windows SDK and the Visual Studio Orcas CTP that I'm concerned about. I guess I'm just going to have to try it as 5308 is unusable.
I'll be burning a dvd of 5365 this afternoon - maybe this one will install right off the DVD without installing XP first.
-cd

The SDK is only synched with CTP releases, not interim releases, so you will have use 5308 if you want access to the latest SDK available to Vista. -- -- Andre Windows Connected | http://www.windowsconnected.com Extended64 | http://www.extended64.com Blog | http://www.extended64.com/blogs/andre http://spaces.msn.com/members/adacosta
"Carl Daniel [VC++ MVP]" wrote in message

Andre Da Costa [Extended64] wrote: WinFX is installed by default, the WDK is available on Connect Page also. Clean install only, no upgrade from 5308 to 5365.
The WDK is for driver deveopment only - it's the Windows SDK and the Visual Studio Orcas CTP that I'm concerned about. I guess I'm just going to have to try it as 5308 is unusable.
I'll be burning a dvd of 5365 this afternoon - maybe this one will install right off the DVD without installing XP first.
-cd

Andre Da Costa [Extended64] wrote:

The SDK is only synched with CTP releases, not interim releases, so you will have use 5308 if you want access to the latest SDK available to Vista. --

That's what I was afraid of. I may not actually need the SDK - as long as the WinFX bits are there and the Orcas CTP works. I think I'll give it a try - it's either that, or wait for the next sync'd release 'cause 5308 is unusable.
-cd

Carl Daniel [VC++ MVP] wrote:

Andre Da Costa [Extended64] wrote: The SDK is only synched with CTP releases, not interim releases, so you will have use 5308 if you want access to the latest SDK available to Vista. --
That's what I was afraid of. I may not actually need the SDK - as long as the WinFX bits are there and the Orcas CTP works. I think I'll give it a try - it's either that, or wait for the next sync'd release 'cause 5308 is unusable.

Well, I must say - 5365 is a gigantic improvement over 5308. Still rough in places, but getting there. Hopefully I can get enough dev bits to work on this build to make some progress on the project that started all this!
Thanks for the help, all who responded!
-cd

Glad everything is 'almost' in order. :) BETA 2 should not be too far away, so thats something to look forward to. -- -- Andre Windows Connected | http://www.windowsconnected.com Extended64 | http://www.extended64.com Blog | http://www.extended64.com/blogs/andre http://spaces.msn.com/members/adacosta
"Carl Daniel [VC++ MVP]" wrote in message

Carl Daniel [VC++ MVP] wrote: Andre Da Costa [Extended64] wrote: The SDK is only synched with CTP releases, not interim releases, so you will have use 5308 if you want access to the latest SDK available to Vista. --
That's what I was afraid of. I may not actually need the SDK - as long as the WinFX bits are there and the Orcas CTP works. I think I'll give it a try - it's either that, or wait for the next sync'd release 'cause 5308 is unusable.
Well, I must say - 5365 is a gigantic improvement over 5308. Still rough in places, but getting there. Hopefully I can get enough dev bits to work on this build to make some progress on the project that started all this!
Thanks for the help, all who responded!
-cd

I have somewhat the same issues. I have a dell c840 with vista 5365 that was upgraded from XP. The newer 5381 has the same upgrade symptom as some of the older builds. Starting from scratch all works as expected. Trying to upgrade from 5365 has it churning BEFORE the Key insertion screens. It's been going for 2 hours even after a second restart. I didn't try safe mode (will it even run under that mode?). I don't want to wipe the machine It's now got a lot of important stuff on it (yeah i know.....) anyway is there any way to know what's going on? there's no prompts\debug info here like on the rest of the install.
"Andre Da Costa [Extended64]" wrote:

Glad everything is 'almost' in order. :) BETA 2 should not be too far away, so thats something to look forward to. -- -- Andre Windows Connected | http://www.windowsconnected.com Extended64 | http://www.extended64.com Blog | http://www.extended64.com/blogs/andre http://spaces.msn.com/members/adacosta
"Carl Daniel [VC++ MVP]" <cpdaniel_remove_this_and_nospam@mvps.org.nospam wrote in message Carl Daniel [VC++ MVP] wrote: Andre Da Costa [Extended64] wrote: The SDK is only synched with CTP releases, not interim releases, so you will have use 5308 if you want access to the latest SDK available to Vista. --
That's what I was afraid of. I may not actually need the SDK - as long as the WinFX bits are there and the Orcas CTP works. I think I'll give it a try - it's either that, or wait for the next sync'd release 'cause 5308 is unusable.
Well, I must say - 5365 is a gigantic improvement over 5308. Still rough in places, but getting there. Hopefully I can get enough dev bits to work on this build to make some progress on the project that started all this!
Thanks for the help, all who responded!
-cd

I also have a Dell Latitude c840, I was running 5365, but I formatted the partition today to store the iso for 5381 x64 to install on another computer. Could you give me an idea of the specs, because the reason you might be having performance issues is the system specs. How much memory is in the machine? I had orginally installed 256 MBs of RAM and it was torture running Vista, I bumped it up to 768 and I am see great improvements when it comes to responsiveness and start up time.
I would recommend you do a clean install or try 5381 to see if there are any differences. -- -- Andre Windows Connected | http://www.windowsconnected.com Extended64 | http://www.extended64.com Blog | http://www.extended64.com/blogs/andre http://spaces.msn.com/members/adacosta
"amarrow" wrote in message

I have somewhat the same issues. I have a dell c840 with vista 5365 that was upgraded from XP. The newer 5381 has the same upgrade symptom as some of the older builds. Starting from scratch all works as expected. Trying to upgrade from 5365 has it churning BEFORE the Key insertion screens. It's been going for 2 hours even after a second restart. I didn't try safe mode (will it even run under that mode?). I don't want to wipe the machine It's now got a lot of important stuff on it (yeah i know.....) anyway is there any way to know what's going on? there's no prompts\debug info here like on the rest of the install.
"Andre Da Costa [Extended64]" wrote:
Glad everything is 'almost' in order. :) BETA 2 should not be too far away, so thats something to look forward to. -- -- Andre Windows Connected | http://www.windowsconnected.com Extended64 | http://www.extended64.com Blog | http://www.extended64.com/blogs/andre http://spaces.msn.com/members/adacosta
"Carl Daniel [VC++ MVP]" cpdaniel_remove_this_and_nospam@mvps.org.nospam wrote in message Carl Daniel [VC++ MVP] wrote: Andre Da Costa [Extended64] wrote: The SDK is only synched with CTP releases, not interim releases, so you will have use 5308 if you want access to the latest SDK available to Vista. --
That's what I was afraid of. I may not actually need the SDK - as long as the WinFX bits are there and the Orcas CTP works. I think I'll give it a try - it's either that, or wait for the next sync'd release 'cause 5308 is unusable.
Well, I must say - 5365 is a gigantic improvement over 5308. Still rough in places, but getting there. Hopefully I can get enough dev bits to work on this build to make some progress on the project that started all this!
Thanks for the help, all who responded!
-cd