vista install freezes setup desktop

Install x86 Beta 2 goes smoothly through Login and "wait while we setup your Desktop". Then I get a rather dark blue screen with a faint geometric pattern and a safe-mode sized cursor. The hard drive works for about 10-15 minutes and that's it. Nothing more happens. After waiting for another 20 minutes to 2 hours cntrl>alt>delete causes a reboot defaulting into "setup windows". (Boot into XP is available too) I allow this to proceed and end up at the same place.
Did this 4 times: With and without intnt connection, always with username and password, always without check for updates, without activate now, with default firewall (green) without firewall (red). with and without DVD in my NEC 3550 drive. Same result. Always starts from scratch and stalls after "wait while we setup your Desktop".
Incidentally: Andre, Thanks for your tips on DVD making. My download lasted 7.5 hours Wednesday night with continual disconnects and restarts from the server . Quite a grind for an old fellow..I'm 78 now and need my sleep. Complaining aside, I verified the download with Nero MD5, burned it in Nero 6 at 2.4x and verified it. I strongly doubt if the DVD is at fault. If you think it might be, I can wait for my wife's DVD to arrive. I aint gonna download that monster again! No sirree, sir! XP RC1 was great fun... This sucker: I'm not so sure.
Is there an F8 selection I should have used? I tried to boot into safe mode and it went to install windows instead.
My machine: Gigabyte GA-K8VT890-9 Athlon 64 3200+ Dual NEC 19" LCD monitors Pre-existing Sata HDD on Sata 0, Win XP Home SP2 on C:\ Installed a 40GB Pata drive on IDE0, Single Master. Formatted a 24.4 GB partition for Vista. Setup saw all 4 partitions and selected Part1 of Disk 0 on IDE 0. Just where I wanted it!
ATI x1300 video card 256 MB, 2x 1GB ram. All extraneous stuff removed. AVG anti-virus disabled before first try. Help... Art

(If setup becomes non-responsive), do a cold boot, Start the computer, when the Windows Boot Manager is displayed, select Microsoft Windows press F8 on your keyboard and finish the installation.. -- -- 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
"art76" wrote in message

Install x86 Beta 2 goes smoothly through Login and "wait while we setup your Desktop". Then I get a rather dark blue screen with a faint geometric pattern and a safe-mode sized cursor. The hard drive works for about 10-15 minutes and that's it. Nothing more happens. After waiting for another 20 minutes to 2 hours cntrl>alt>delete causes a reboot defaulting into "setup windows". (Boot into XP is available too) I allow this to proceed and end up at the same place.
Did this 4 times: With and without intnt connection, always with username and password, always without check for updates, without activate now, with default firewall (green) without firewall (red). with and without DVD in my NEC 3550 drive. Same result. Always starts from scratch and stalls after "wait while we setup your Desktop".
Incidentally: Andre, Thanks for your tips on DVD making. My download lasted 7.5 hours Wednesday night with continual disconnects and restarts from the server . Quite a grind for an old fellow..I'm 78 now and need my sleep. Complaining aside, I verified the download with Nero MD5, burned it in Nero 6 at 2.4x and verified it. I strongly doubt if the DVD is at fault. If you think it might be, I can wait for my wife's DVD to arrive. I aint gonna download that monster again! No sirree, sir! XP RC1 was great fun... This sucker: I'm not so sure.
Is there an F8 selection I should have used? I tried to boot into safe mode and it went to install windows instead.
My machine: Gigabyte GA-K8VT890-9 Athlon 64 3200+ Dual NEC 19" LCD monitors Pre-existing Sata HDD on Sata 0, Win XP Home SP2 on C:\ Installed a 40GB Pata drive on IDE0, Single Master. Formatted a 24.4 GB partition for Vista. Setup saw all 4 partitions and selected Part1 of Disk 0 on IDE 0. Just where I wanted it!
ATI x1300 video card 256 MB, 2x 1GB ram. All extraneous stuff removed. AVG anti-virus disabled before first try. Help... Art

Andre, I believe I did that 3 times. It just repeats the original try and quits at the same place each time. Perhaps I don't understand "cold boot". I used cntrl alt delete to restart the PC, it came up with start windows, which I allowed. A couple of times I used F8 and selected install windows. same thing again. Art
"Andre Da Costa [Extended64]" wrote:

(If setup becomes non-responsive), do a cold boot, Start the computer, when the Windows Boot Manager is displayed, select Microsoft Windows press F8 on your keyboard and finish the installation.. -- -- 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
"art76" wrote in message Install x86 Beta 2 goes smoothly through Login and "wait while we setup your Desktop". Then I get a rather dark blue screen with a faint geometric pattern and a safe-mode sized cursor. The hard drive works for about 10-15 minutes and that's it. Nothing more happens. After waiting for another 20 minutes to 2 hours cntrl>alt>delete causes a reboot defaulting into "setup windows". (Boot into XP is available too) I allow this to proceed and end up at the same place.
Did this 4 times: With and without intnt connection, always with username and password, always without check for updates, without activate now, with default firewall (green) without firewall (red). with and without DVD in my NEC 3550 drive. Same result. Always starts from scratch and stalls after "wait while we setup your Desktop".
Incidentally: Andre, Thanks for your tips on DVD making. My download lasted 7.5 hours Wednesday night with continual disconnects and restarts from the server . Quite a grind for an old fellow..I'm 78 now and need my sleep. Complaining aside, I verified the download with Nero MD5, burned it in Nero 6 at 2.4x and verified it. I strongly doubt if the DVD is at fault. If you think it might be, I can wait for my wife's DVD to arrive. I aint gonna download that monster again! No sirree, sir! XP RC1 was great fun... This sucker: I'm not so sure.
Is there an F8 selection I should have used? I tried to boot into safe mode and it went to install windows instead.
My machine: Gigabyte GA-K8VT890-9 Athlon 64 3200+ Dual NEC 19" LCD monitors Pre-existing Sata HDD on Sata 0, Win XP Home SP2 on C:\ Installed a 40GB Pata drive on IDE0, Single Master. Formatted a 24.4 GB partition for Vista. Setup saw all 4 partitions and selected Part1 of Disk 0 on IDE 0. Just where I wanted it!
ATI x1300 video card 256 MB, 2x 1GB ram. All extraneous stuff removed. AVG anti-virus disabled before first try. Help... Art

I have the same problem with the dark screen and geometric shapes. I have tried every install method I can think of - from upgrade to dual boot to clean install with a format. All goes great until it sets up the desktop. I am at a loss on what to do... I had an easier time with the beta of WinXP!
"art76" wrote:

Install x86 Beta 2 goes smoothly through Login and "wait while we setup your Desktop". Then I get a rather dark blue screen with a faint geometric pattern and a safe-mode sized cursor. The hard drive works for about 10-15 minutes and that's it. Nothing more happens. After waiting for another 20 minutes to 2 hours cntrl>alt>delete causes a reboot defaulting into "setup windows". (Boot into XP is available too) I allow this to proceed and end up at the same place.
Did this 4 times: With and without intnt connection, always with username and password, always without check for updates, without activate now, with default firewall (green) without firewall (red). with and without DVD in my NEC 3550 drive. Same result. Always starts from scratch and stalls after "wait while we setup your Desktop".
Incidentally: Andre, Thanks for your tips on DVD making. My download lasted 7.5 hours Wednesday night with continual disconnects and restarts from the server . Quite a grind for an old fellow..I'm 78 now and need my sleep. Complaining aside, I verified the download with Nero MD5, burned it in Nero 6 at 2.4x and verified it. I strongly doubt if the DVD is at fault. If you think it might be, I can wait for my wife's DVD to arrive. I aint gonna download that monster again! No sirree, sir! XP RC1 was great fun... This sucker: I'm not so sure.
Is there an F8 selection I should have used? I tried to boot into safe mode and it went to install windows instead.
My machine: Gigabyte GA-K8VT890-9 Athlon 64 3200+ Dual NEC 19" LCD monitors Pre-existing Sata HDD on Sata 0, Win XP Home SP2 on C:\ Installed a 40GB Pata drive on IDE0, Single Master. Formatted a 24.4 GB partition for Vista. Setup saw all 4 partitions and selected Part1 of Disk 0 on IDE 0. Just where I wanted it!
ATI x1300 video card 256 MB, 2x 1GB ram. All extraneous stuff removed. AVG anti-virus disabled before first try. Help... Art

I have the same problem with the dark screen and geometric shapes. I have tried every install method I can think of - from upgrade to dual boot to clean install with a format. All goes great until it sets up the desktop. I am at a loss on what to do... I had an easier time with the beta of WinXP!
"art76" wrote:

Install x86 Beta 2 goes smoothly through Login and "wait while we setup your Desktop". Then I get a rather dark blue screen with a faint geometric pattern and a safe-mode sized cursor. The hard drive works for about 10-15 minutes and that's it. Nothing more happens. After waiting for another 20 minutes to 2 hours cntrl>alt>delete causes a reboot defaulting into "setup windows". (Boot into XP is available too) I allow this to proceed and end up at the same place.
Did this 4 times: With and without intnt connection, always with username and password, always without check for updates, without activate now, with default firewall (green) without firewall (red). with and without DVD in my NEC 3550 drive. Same result. Always starts from scratch and stalls after "wait while we setup your Desktop".
Incidentally: Andre, Thanks for your tips on DVD making. My download lasted 7.5 hours Wednesday night with continual disconnects and restarts from the server . Quite a grind for an old fellow..I'm 78 now and need my sleep. Complaining aside, I verified the download with Nero MD5, burned it in Nero 6 at 2.4x and verified it. I strongly doubt if the DVD is at fault. If you think it might be, I can wait for my wife's DVD to arrive. I aint gonna download that monster again! No sirree, sir! XP RC1 was great fun... This sucker: I'm not so sure.
Is there an F8 selection I should have used? I tried to boot into safe mode and it went to install windows instead.
My machine: Gigabyte GA-K8VT890-9 Athlon 64 3200+ Dual NEC 19" LCD monitors Pre-existing Sata HDD on Sata 0, Win XP Home SP2 on C:\ Installed a 40GB Pata drive on IDE0, Single Master. Formatted a 24.4 GB partition for Vista. Setup saw all 4 partitions and selected Part1 of Disk 0 on IDE 0. Just where I wanted it!
ATI x1300 video card 256 MB, 2x 1GB ram. All extraneous stuff removed. AVG anti-virus disabled before first try. Help... Art

I have the same problem with the dark screen and geometric shapes. I have tried every install method I can think of - from upgrade to dual boot to clean install with a format. All goes great until it sets up the desktop. I am at a loss on what to do... I had an easier time with the beta of WinXP!
"art76" wrote:

Install x86 Beta 2 goes smoothly through Login and "wait while we setup your Desktop". Then I get a rather dark blue screen with a faint geometric pattern and a safe-mode sized cursor. The hard drive works for about 10-15 minutes and that's it. Nothing more happens. After waiting for another 20 minutes to 2 hours cntrl>alt>delete causes a reboot defaulting into "setup windows". (Boot into XP is available too) I allow this to proceed and end up at the same place.
Did this 4 times: With and without intnt connection, always with username and password, always without check for updates, without activate now, with default firewall (green) without firewall (red). with and without DVD in my NEC 3550 drive. Same result. Always starts from scratch and stalls after "wait while we setup your Desktop".
Incidentally: Andre, Thanks for your tips on DVD making. My download lasted 7.5 hours Wednesday night with continual disconnects and restarts from the server . Quite a grind for an old fellow..I'm 78 now and need my sleep. Complaining aside, I verified the download with Nero MD5, burned it in Nero 6 at 2.4x and verified it. I strongly doubt if the DVD is at fault. If you think it might be, I can wait for my wife's DVD to arrive. I aint gonna download that monster again! No sirree, sir! XP RC1 was great fun... This sucker: I'm not so sure.
Is there an F8 selection I should have used? I tried to boot into safe mode and it went to install windows instead.
My machine: Gigabyte GA-K8VT890-9 Athlon 64 3200+ Dual NEC 19" LCD monitors Pre-existing Sata HDD on Sata 0, Win XP Home SP2 on C:\ Installed a 40GB Pata drive on IDE0, Single Master. Formatted a 24.4 GB partition for Vista. Setup saw all 4 partitions and selected Part1 of Disk 0 on IDE 0. Just where I wanted it!
ATI x1300 video card 256 MB, 2x 1GB ram. All extraneous stuff removed. AVG anti-virus disabled before first try. Help... Art

sorry for posting my question three times. I had an error message on the first two posts saying they failed.
"art76" wrote:

Install x86 Beta 2 goes smoothly through Login and "wait while we setup your Desktop". Then I get a rather dark blue screen with a faint geometric pattern and a safe-mode sized cursor. The hard drive works for about 10-15 minutes and that's it. Nothing more happens. After waiting for another 20 minutes to 2 hours cntrl>alt>delete causes a reboot defaulting into "setup windows". (Boot into XP is available too) I allow this to proceed and end up at the same place.
Did this 4 times: With and without intnt connection, always with username and password, always without check for updates, without activate now, with default firewall (green) without firewall (red). with and without DVD in my NEC 3550 drive. Same result. Always starts from scratch and stalls after "wait while we setup your Desktop".
Incidentally: Andre, Thanks for your tips on DVD making. My download lasted 7.5 hours Wednesday night with continual disconnects and restarts from the server . Quite a grind for an old fellow..I'm 78 now and need my sleep. Complaining aside, I verified the download with Nero MD5, burned it in Nero 6 at 2.4x and verified it. I strongly doubt if the DVD is at fault. If you think it might be, I can wait for my wife's DVD to arrive. I aint gonna download that monster again! No sirree, sir! XP RC1 was great fun... This sucker: I'm not so sure.
Is there an F8 selection I should have used? I tried to boot into safe mode and it went to install windows instead.
My machine: Gigabyte GA-K8VT890-9 Athlon 64 3200+ Dual NEC 19" LCD monitors Pre-existing Sata HDD on Sata 0, Win XP Home SP2 on C:\ Installed a 40GB Pata drive on IDE0, Single Master. Formatted a 24.4 GB partition for Vista. Setup saw all 4 partitions and selected Part1 of Disk 0 on IDE 0. Just where I wanted it!
ATI x1300 video card 256 MB, 2x 1GB ram. All extraneous stuff removed. AVG anti-virus disabled before first try. Help... Art

I noticed other people having the same problem and also using the ATI x1300 video card. I pulled mine out and went back to my ATI x300 and it booted up just fine. Try it - it may work for you too.
"art76" wrote:

Install x86 Beta 2 goes smoothly through Login and "wait while we setup your Desktop". Then I get a rather dark blue screen with a faint geometric pattern and a safe-mode sized cursor. The hard drive works for about 10-15 minutes and that's it. Nothing more happens. After waiting for another 20 minutes to 2 hours cntrl>alt>delete causes a reboot defaulting into "setup windows". (Boot into XP is available too) I allow this to proceed and end up at the same place.
Did this 4 times: With and without intnt connection, always with username and password, always without check for updates, without activate now, with default firewall (green) without firewall (red). with and without DVD in my NEC 3550 drive. Same result. Always starts from scratch and stalls after "wait while we setup your Desktop".
Incidentally: Andre, Thanks for your tips on DVD making. My download lasted 7.5 hours Wednesday night with continual disconnects and restarts from the server . Quite a grind for an old fellow..I'm 78 now and need my sleep. Complaining aside, I verified the download with Nero MD5, burned it in Nero 6 at 2.4x and verified it. I strongly doubt if the DVD is at fault. If you think it might be, I can wait for my wife's DVD to arrive. I aint gonna download that monster again! No sirree, sir! XP RC1 was great fun... This sucker: I'm not so sure.
Is there an F8 selection I should have used? I tried to boot into safe mode and it went to install windows instead.
My machine: Gigabyte GA-K8VT890-9 Athlon 64 3200+ Dual NEC 19" LCD monitors Pre-existing Sata HDD on Sata 0, Win XP Home SP2 on C:\ Installed a 40GB Pata drive on IDE0, Single Master. Formatted a 24.4 GB partition for Vista. Setup saw all 4 partitions and selected Part1 of Disk 0 on IDE 0. Just where I wanted it!
ATI x1300 video card 256 MB, 2x 1GB ram. All extraneous stuff removed. AVG anti-virus disabled before first try. Help... Art

Thanks Rusty. I too, found a workaround, though perhaps a bit more draconian than yours. Thinking that the problem might be that the previous XP drivers were not properly deleted, I abandoned my dual boot machine for now; assembled a completely new PC with a preformatted 40 GB PATA drive, ATI X700 Athlon 64 3000+ ASUS A8VE board that was completely uncontaminated by anything Microsoft. Install went smoothly til I tried to name the PC ASUS VISTA where it stalled with the next button greyed out. I changed the name to ASUSVISTA (one word) and it finished the install , no more problems. Thanks again. Art
"Rusty" wrote:

I noticed other people having the same problem and also using the ATI x1300 video card. I pulled mine out and went back to my ATI x300 and it booted up just fine. Try it - it may work for you too.
"art76" wrote:
Install x86 Beta 2 goes smoothly through Login and "wait while we setup your Desktop". Then I get a rather dark blue screen with a faint geometric pattern and a safe-mode sized cursor. The hard drive works for about 10-15 minutes and that's it. Nothing more happens. After waiting for another 20 minutes to 2 hours cntrl>alt>delete causes a reboot defaulting into "setup windows". (Boot into XP is available too) I allow this to proceed and end up at the same place.
Did this 4 times: With and without intnt connection, always with username and password, always without check for updates, without activate now, with default firewall (green) without firewall (red). with and without DVD in my NEC 3550 drive. Same result. Always starts from scratch and stalls after "wait while we setup your Desktop".
Incidentally: Andre, Thanks for your tips on DVD making. My download lasted 7.5 hours Wednesday night with continual disconnects and restarts from the server . Quite a grind for an old fellow..I'm 78 now and need my sleep. Complaining aside, I verified the download with Nero MD5, burned it in Nero 6 at 2.4x and verified it. I strongly doubt if the DVD is at fault. If you think it might be, I can wait for my wife's DVD to arrive. I aint gonna download that monster again! No sirree, sir! XP RC1 was great fun... This sucker: I'm not so sure.
Is there an F8 selection I should have used? I tried to boot into safe mode and it went to install windows instead.
My machine: Gigabyte GA-K8VT890-9 Athlon 64 3200+ Dual NEC 19" LCD monitors Pre-existing Sata HDD on Sata 0, Win XP Home SP2 on C:\ Installed a 40GB Pata drive on IDE0, Single Master. Formatted a 24.4 GB partition for Vista. Setup saw all 4 partitions and selected Part1 of Disk 0 on IDE 0. Just where I wanted it!
ATI x1300 video card 256 MB, 2x 1GB ram. All extraneous stuff removed. AVG anti-virus disabled before first try. Help... Art