Yes, Vista SP1 also killed my PC. Dell Dimension E520, running Vista Home
Premium. Contacted Dell and had to format to get windows to start.
Computer has worked flawlessly ever sense and I am afraid to try installing
SP1 again. My thing now is, if it ain't broke don't fix it.

"Frustrated" <Frustrated@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:68C1CF9C-D1CB-495B-8172-28E8372ACE01@microsoft.com...[color=blue]
> Hi,
>
> I just got a new Dell Inspiron 530 (Intel Core2 Duo processor E8200) on
> Friday, with Windows Vista Home Premium on it. I spent the weekend
> setting
> up the PC and exploring Vista (it's the first time I've used it).
> Everything
> was working fine until Tuesday morning, when the automatic updates applied
> SP1.
>
> I left the PC on when I went to work as it was installing update 1 of 3
> for
> SP1. When I got home, the PC said that Windows was unable to start as
> asked
> if I wanted it to try to repair itself. It tried that four times and said
> it
> could not repair the problem. One of the options it gave me was to
> restore
> to a previous point (pre SP1). I tried that option but Vista still won't
> start.
>
> I finally resorted to the last option it gave me, which was restoring to
> the
> factory setup as it was delivered to me (which reformats the hard drive).
> After completing this, Vista did start normally. However it immediately
> told
> me it had 14 updates to apply, after which I was back to the same problem
> of
> Vista not being able to start.
>
> I made three hardware changes to the PC. I installed a second SATA hard
> drive, I installed a firewire/USB port card, and I installed an old PCI
> modem. The only reason for the modem is that we have a security system,
> and
> you have to use the modem to connect to it to make any program changes.
> Vista accepted the second hard drive and firewire card fine. It did need
> to
> download drivers for the modem, but then said it installed fine.
>
> As a last ditch effort (before being on the phone for hours with Dell), I
> plan to disconnect the second hard drive and remove the firewire and modem
> cards. Basically restoring the hardware to the way it left the factory.
> Then I will try restoring the Dell factory image for Vista and seeing if
> the
> SP1 update works.
>
> I know I could disable automatic updates so that SP1 does not get applied,
> but I think that will cause all kinds of future headaches. If this last
> effort doesn't work, and Dell can't help me out, I'll probably roll back
> to
> XP. I really don't want to do that, but I'm not going to put up with an
> unstable OS either.
>
> Has anyone else had this kind of problem, or does anyone have any other
> suggestions that I could try? Thanks for the help!
>[/color]