I've had 4 goes at this now... It takes 3 hrs to install, it gets up to 100% complete on stage 3 and gives me that very helpful message and another 3 hour wait, while it all uninstalls again.

I've checked the mem, the hard drive, run sfc, disabled any non windows services, all the av and firewalls etc.

I have checked the install logs and found the problem. Its a 0x80360006 problem..... (I should have guessed d'oh).

Does anybody know what that error code is ???
Thanks in advance..

( think it's Vistas' time for the recycle bin. Anybody know where I can get a beta copy of Windows 7...)

I think you are probably one of those negatively affected by the standalone update Rick. It's probably best for you to wait for the update via Windows Update.

Windows Update may possibly act the same way.

The issue is drivers related BTW, that is you have some drivers installed that are not compatible with the SP1.

Personally, if faced with this issue, I would clean install Vista, then install the SP1 immediately on first boot.

I'm getting the same error message with both the windows update and the stand alone service pack.

I do not think that a complete clean install is a good idea at this point without identifying the driver/drivers thats causing the problem. Apart from the time spent having to reload everything, there is no guarantee that SP1 will install even then as it could be the mobo or raid drivers causing the incompatability. Actually it might not even be a driver problem at all. Perhaps error code 0x80360006 just means SP1 isn't compatable with Office, Visual Studio Express, etc....

Here is a list of Vista SP1 problem drivers, that cause the WU to not work.

I would imagine they will give errors like you got too if using the stand alone update.

Check Method for Cause 5


http://support.microsoft.com/KB/948343

oo er, more wierdness, just got home from the pub and windows update is running riot (and i hid the sp2 popup too...)

About half a doz plus updates are loading and i noticed some office or visio stuff i think. Have tried to grab some screen shots and will try and post tomorrow.

kebab getting cold and eyeballs don't work no more ...laters

If you clean install Vista, none of the problem drivers will be installed -- and I would suggest that clean installing Windows and reinstalling your software is actually LESS work than search & destroy the problem drivers ;-)

I don't know if this is applicable to this scenario (cause I don't remember the error code) but I DO know that if you try install SP1 on an install of Windows Vista that has been modified by vLite, it refuses to work.

Although, it is possible to slipstream SP1 through vLite and then modify the contents.

r2rX

I give up!!! I disabled both the onboard sound card and the onboard LAN in bios, deleted the old partition and then let windows make a new one, so that it is a totally clean and virgin install.

This time when I try to install the service pack I get the same thing, it gets to stage 3 100%, thrashes around for ten minutes, gives me the same lame message and spends 3 hours reversing the install.

I am getting a different error message though. this time it's an 0x800f0826...Yummy...

I seem to remember that when I origionally installed Vista it clamed to increase productivity, I don't think my boss would agree as I have have spent a week off sick ( "flu" sounds like a good excuse...) trying to install the service pack.

It's proberbly a good thing that Microsoft don't make beer, it would take you 3 hours to get it out of the bottle, you will be bloated after just one pint, and you would have an 80% chance of turning blue and falling over dead. The label would look nice though

I'm sorry, Rick. There's no need to disable your LAN card or mess around with partitions.

I honestly can't think why this happening. I can only recommend to ensure that you disable System Protection (or rather, System Restore) and disable UAC and Windows Defender on a fresh install...not to mention setting a "power plan" in the Screen Saver tab. This is to find out if any of these factors were a reason for the installation screwing up. It probably sounds a bit a silly/pointless, but try anyway.

r2rX