Install Problem on Intel D945GNT mb

I'm having problems installing Vista Ultimate and I'm stumped as to what to
try next. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I'm trying to do a clean install. The computer is one I put together myself
last summer. It has an Intel D945GNT motherboard, which Intel's website
says is Vista Premium Ready. The computer has a 3.0 GHz Pentium D
processor, 2 gig RAM, and a 320 gig SATA drive. I haven't installed
anything extra into the computer. In other words graphics, audio, network,
etc is all running off the motherboard's onboard components. I have updated
the BIOS to most current version. I've been running Windows Server 2003 on
this box and I've installed XP SP2 with no issues.

The install gets pretty far along before it crashes. The "Installing
Windows..." screen opens and it goes through the Copying Windows Files,
Expanding Files, Installing Features, and Installing Updates. Then it
starts on the Completing Installation phase. It restarts (reboots) and
comes back with a message that says Please wait while Windows prepares to
start for the first time. Then it goes back to the "Installing Windows..."
screen and after about 45 seconds the screen goes blank, a blue screen pops
up for about a second, and then the machine reboots. The blue screen isn't
up long enough for me to read. I tried taking a picture of it with my
digital camera but I haven't been quick enough yet.

I tried going through the recovery environment and looking on the drive
after the crash to see if I could find a setup file or error file that maybe
could tell me what happened but I haven't been able to find anything that is
showing much of a problem. I did find a setupact file in
window.~bt\sources\panther\setupinfo that said "setup completed phase 2" in
case that is meaningful to anyone.

I've tried going into BIOS and disabling the onboard audio, lan, and 1394
options but that hasn't made a difference.

I'm not sure what to try next. Memory? Sata Drive? Graphics card? Intel
says the onboard graphics will run Areo so I assume that shouldn't be
causing a problem but who knows. What could Vista not be liking?

Does anyone know Vista's install process well enough to know what it is
trying to do at that point in the install?

I downloaded Vista from my MSDN subscription and the checksums for the .iso
matched. I've already installed Vista on two laptops with this DVD so it
should be good but I suppose I could download and burn another.

Any ideas at this point would be appreciated.

Thanks
Terry

I have the same MOBO and have had not trouble with any of prerelease
versions of VISTA and with the latest BIOS. Do check to see in the BIOS and
make sure you have up to 128MB of main memory available to be allocated to
the graphics chip and that it is set as your primary graphics chip if you
want to run Aero,
"Terry" <terry@newsgroup.nospam> wrote in message
news:uAZQRatRHHA.5032@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> I'm having problems installing Vista Ultimate and I'm stumped as to what
> to try next. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
>
> I'm trying to do a clean install. The computer is one I put together
> myself last summer. It has an Intel D945GNT motherboard, which Intel's
> website says is Vista Premium Ready. The computer has a 3.0 GHz Pentium D
> processor, 2 gig RAM, and a 320 gig SATA drive. I haven't installed
> anything extra into the computer. In other words graphics, audio,
> network, etc is all running off the motherboard's onboard components. I
> have updated the BIOS to most current version. I've been running Windows
> Server 2003 on this box and I've installed XP SP2 with no issues.
>
> The install gets pretty far along before it crashes. The "Installing
> Windows..." screen opens and it goes through the Copying Windows Files,
> Expanding Files, Installing Features, and Installing Updates. Then it
> starts on the Completing Installation phase. It restarts (reboots) and
> comes back with a message that says Please wait while Windows prepares to
> start for the first time. Then it goes back to the "Installing
> Windows..." screen and after about 45 seconds the screen goes blank, a
> blue screen pops up for about a second, and then the machine reboots. The
> blue screen isn't up long enough for me to read. I tried taking a picture
> of it with my digital camera but I haven't been quick enough yet.
>
> I tried going through the recovery environment and looking on the drive
> after the crash to see if I could find a setup file or error file that
> maybe could tell me what happened but I haven't been able to find anything
> that is showing much of a problem. I did find a setupact file in
> window.~bt\sources\panther\setupinfo that said "setup completed phase 2"
> in case that is meaningful to anyone.
>
> I've tried going into BIOS and disabling the onboard audio, lan, and 1394
> options but that hasn't made a difference.
>
> I'm not sure what to try next. Memory? Sata Drive? Graphics card?
> Intel says the onboard graphics will run Areo so I assume that shouldn't
> be causing a problem but who knows. What could Vista not be liking?
>
> Does anyone know Vista's install process well enough to know what it is
> trying to do at that point in the install?
>
> I downloaded Vista from my MSDN subscription and the checksums for the
> .iso matched. I've already installed Vista on two laptops with this DVD
> so it should be good but I suppose I could download and burn another.
>
> Any ideas at this point would be appreciated.
>
> Thanks
> Terry
>