I’ve noticed a few people finding this blog through the 0×0000007E error that I posted about a while back. Just thought I’d update you all on that little situation. Turns out that Vista x64 does not like to be installed on some systems when running 4GB (or more) of RAM. If you are running 4GB and get this error while installing, just pop a stick of RAM out whilst it installs and either apply service pack 1 or update KB929777.

Unfortunately, the offline update feature of Vista isnt working yet so you can’t sliptream SP1 into your Vista build nice and easily (although you can use the “old” XP command line method), so the only way around this problem is to take a stick of RAM out of the machine and then install Vista. Bit of a pain I know, but its the only way at the moment.

Still, after you’ve installed SP1 and you’re sure you’re going to be sticking with it, delete the temp files left behind from the SP1 install. To do this open a command prompt and type vsp1cln.exe. This will remove all those files that were changed in SP1 so you don’t have them hanging around on the system anymore.