Vista Ultimate 64bit freezes during install

I just decided to take the move to Vista Ultimate 64-bit, so I bought another 2gb of matching ram and a copy of vista.

I updated to the latest bios for my Asus P5B motherboard and then I enabled the 'Memory Remap' feature and ran MemTest86 for about an hour with zero problems.

Then I booted into my original install of XP and things worked just fine (though not registering the full 4gb of ram, of course)

Feeling good about everything, I formatted the harddrive and began installing Vista (brand new pressed DVD fresh from the case) and it kept freezing during the process of 'expanding files.'

I changed the ram around in the slots, and even tried installing with only the original two sticks of ram in my machine. I've also cleaned the disc and re-tried at least 20 times this evening.

Any help is appreciated.

 

if you happen to have another hard drive, load windows 2000 or XP onto it, then open a command line (start -> run -> cmd) type "chkdsk e: /f /x /r" where 'e' would be the drive in question. at the end of the test about an hour later, see if it found bad sectors. if you have bad sectors then the drive needs tossed and replaced.

you can also run chkdsk from various bootable CDs. I use BartPE.

 

Actually, I have already tried installing on another HDD -same result.

 

You have eliminated everything but the dvd drive which can also be an issue here. Can you try another one with the different hard drive? I am also wondering about the Asus board as I have had no luck with anything they make for the last 2 years.