I can't install Vista Service Pack 1

[Free4Life11]

And I am going to beat my head against the wall soon!

I have tried a good 5 times. Every single time it does it's thing, then when it restarts the computer, the screen goes black and these combinations of white numbers/letters show up on the screen. They appear to be "counting up" and then get stuck every time on some number (it changes).

Once I let it sit all night long and when I woke up it was still on the same number. Each time I have to do a system restore to get my computer back online....what a pain! I can't upgrade to Windows 7 unless I install Service Pack 1.

Has anyone experienced this problem? Any ideas? Yes I have Googled this but I just can't seem to find a solution.

 

[FireDancer]

The first thing I would think is that one of the files it is trying to overwrite is on a bad sector. I would boot to a dos disk and run chkdsk. You can find Dos boot disks here.

If that doesn't work I would install all the other patches and wait until you can get an upgrade version of Windows 7...it's almost here

 

[SueM in MN]

I am trying hard to resist, but I have to post this.........

if these numbers come up

4 8 15 16 23 42

do NOT buy a lottery ticket

 

[jsmith]

The other possiblitiy is that -if you have windows automatic updatres configured it is already installed -or it has downloaded sevice pack two-my 64 bit vista system at home and my goverment 64 bit vista system have both installed service pack two-and its just not letting you install service pack one over it. Or you have a corrupt or partial install of service pack one that is preventing a good installation. In addition to the check disk suggested above-or after you run check disk go first to my computer-right click and view properites-it will tell you what service pack you have installed-if it doesnt tell you that you have one, Go to features and programs-installed updates and remove anything that says it was installed on the date of the first time you tired to install service pack one. go to microsoft updates-follow the prompts and let it update itself-then restart and go back again-it wont pull all the updates the first time-do it til it stops pulling updates. The result of that should be that you get all the updates you need-includeing updateing you to IE 8 which is much better than 7. the other option is to do as fire dancer suggest and upgrade to windows 7. I wont be in a hurry to do that-spent 11 years as a software test engineer-and microsoft is know for letting the users beta test-ill upgrade in a year.
You could also punt window all together in favor of Fedora Core or Ubuntu

 

[Youarehere]

Had same problem with Service Pack 2. DBF spend two full days getting it to work. Have windows 7 now, but he is a professional computer tech and spent two full days on it. Not work days, whole days. Good luck.

 

[agnes!]

My opinion as to "Vista"?...ick. BIG-time. Almost everyone I know who's installed it has had problems of varying degrees. The systems analyst in my house says that Windows XP was really good, but Vista?...piece of junk. Yes, yes, I know it's coming for everyone who has a PC, I know everyone who's running a "Microsoft" machine is powerless to resist and that the PC'ers of the world should just submit.

agnes!

 

[Dan Murphy]

I have had Vista on this PC, a Dell XPS, since I purchased it, May 2007. There is one particular Windows update, Security Update for Windows Vista (KB942624), Download size: 205 KB, that I have never (I have tried every which way, probably 50 times) been able to successfully install. And when I try to install SP1, it says I need that update. If I try to do SP2, it says I need SP1 first. I suppose when 7 is out for six months or so, it will be about that time to get a new PC again. I sure do wish I could install that one update though.

 

[Topper]

I am trying hard to resist, but I have to post this.........

if these numbers come up

4 8 15 16 23 42

do NOT buy a lottery ticket