Hi,
I am new to this forum, but have made a rigorous search of the site/forums and did 
not find anything that addressed my issue. I used annoyances.org a lot for XP, but 
I am stuck in Vista installation.

I am trying to install Vista (Home Premium) on a custom built PC. When I boot from 
the DVD, it shows the "Windows is loading files..." progress bar. The I get the Vista 
loading screen with the little progress bar flashing across the bottom of the screen. 
 Then, the installation continues and it loads the drivers for USB keyboard/mouse 
and the screen turns into the green gradient background that starts just before selecting 
whether I want to upgrade or fresh installation. (The drive is empty and there is 
only one drive: WD 120G IDE Hard Disk drive.)

Before the installation type dialog comes up, I get an error message: "Unknown software 
exception" with the error code 0xe0000100.

I have tried several times, and it always gets stuck here. I tried a friend's disc 
as well to see if it was the media, and I used several different DVD drives with 
no luck.

If anyone has any suggestions of what I can try, it would be greatly appreciated.

Here are my specs:
Intel Core 2 Duo
Western Digital IDE drive.
LG Lightscribe SuperDrive
P4MAM2 Motherboard with onboard Nvidia video card.
IBM USB media keyboard and Logitech USB scrollmouse
1G Corsair RAM

Please let me know if there is any other info I can provide that would help you help 
me.

Help me forum members, you're my only hope.

TIA

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Do you have access to a machine that you can re-configure the partition on you install 
drive or software that you can partition it before you try the Vista disk. For some 
reason Vista ha a problem with some partitions. If just re-partitioning to max doesn't 
work make it just a sector or two smaller then try that should fix you up.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Also you might try plugging you drive into another port on the M/B (If I remember 
right that is a SATA). If you have a floppy with Jmicon drivers follow the instructions 
to install that with the F6 option, just so you can get full advantage of AHCI later 
on if you wish. Do a full format, not a quick format. And a caution the last I heard 
Norton disk management wasn't Vista friendly. Symatech has taken a very uncoperative 
position with Vista. And finally if you can beg, buy or borrow another stick of the 
same type of memory, even if it's just for the install operation. You are running 
on the minimum.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Did some research and I guess I was wrong, they did make an 120g in an IDE format. 
I thought they used a different designator.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Thanks so much for your suggestions. I did try the ones that seemed applicable for my setup, but alas, the problem remains. I even hooked the drive up to another working machine to format it, but it didn't work. I am gonna try a different hard drive to determine if it is the drive or maybe the IDE connectors on the board. Thanks again!


On Tuesday, May 13, 2008 at 6:45 am, Charlie Hadden wrote:
>
>Did some research and I guess I was wrong, they did make an 120g in an IDE format.
>I thought they used a different designator.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Take a quick trip over to:
http://www.vistahelp.ca
The moderator there is a MS MVP and can handle the tougher problems. I still think 
it has something to do with the partition!

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Thanks so much for putting in so much effort I to helping me with this problem. I 
will check out the site you referenced. I have been busy at work these past few days, 
so I still haven't tried another drive. You may still be right!

Thanks again. 






On Wednesday, May 14, 2008 at 12:36 pm, Charlie Hadden wrote:

>

>Take a quick trip over to:

>http://www.vistahelp.ca

>The moderator there is a MS MVP and can handle the tougher problems. I still think 

>it has something to do with the partition! 

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

• Search this forum
• Start a new thread on a different subject

• Report abuse of the forum