I had Windows Media Center 2005 on my Sony Vaio VGC-RB38G machine. Tried to
upgrade with a Home Premium Upgrade Key that I purchased with my Upgrade
Version of Windows Vista Ultimate upgrade. The installation failed and
tried to roll back to my previous version of XP. When the computer
restarted - Windows XP would not boot and hung - the rollback was
unsuccessful. Now I have a computer that will not boot to anything except
the CD drive.

I then decided to just FORMAT my HD using the Windows VISTA CD and do a
CLEAN install. This installation got to about 99% then failed. I formatted
the HD again, and did a CLEAN install of VISTA on my PC. It worked.
Great - I now have a computer that was working again. However, I needed to
ACTIVATE windows, and since I had an UPGRADE KEY, that meant I had to
reinstall VISTA again from within VISTA (which a lot of people are doing) so
I can enter my product key (which I verified with Microsoft was valid) and
activate windows.

I have tried to reinstall Vista over Vista at least 7 times.....and it gets
to the COMPLETING UPGRADE portion and fails at about 75% every time. Says I
have a component that will not register and I must restart Windows and
rollback to my previous version of Windows.

I have spent at least 8 hours on the phone with Microsoft and they are
stumped as well. If it installed once OK on my PC, why is it having
troubles now?? We have unplugged all devices except mouse and keyboard.
Uninstalled printer, started Vista in SELECTIVE STARTUP mode etc...

Any other IDEAS on how to proceed??

The only device I have trouble with according to DEVICE MANAGER is a
Multimedia Video Controller listed under Other Devices - which I have
disabled - and does not appear to affect my computer at all. This device is
NOT my video card, as my video card is listed as a X300 ATI display
adapter - with updated drivers from ATI's website.

Windows Upgrade Advisor said I should have no conflicts with any devices for
upgrading to Vista. Only one program was listed as potential conflict, and
that was something called Sony Corporation Utilities...which I did download
the one file that Sony had on their website for a Vista upgrade ( a tuner
card program I believe).

Ideally, if Microsoft would just allow my purchased upgrade key to ACTIVATE
using the clean install - I would be done. As of right now, I have 28 days
left to fix the problem.

Maybe it was a FLUKE that allowed Vista to install one out of 7 times....but
it did, and it works just fine. Have spent at least 12 total hours working
on this.....maybe I should just go buy a Full Install Key and be done with
it...but I really intended for this to be an UPGRADE from my legitimate copy
of Windows XP until Vista corrupted that version and couldn't roll back.

Open to suggestions....

And no...I will not buy a MAC.

Thanks...

Chris Hagler