Hi Jim,

How about you do the most simply install of XP you can think of. Once done,
start the upgrade to Vista, but this time taking notice of the clean install
option within the upgrade. What that option does is it does a clean install
just like the one that works for you, except it takes the old Windows XP and
moves it to Windows.old. That ought to resolve it for you mostly.

Best,

Alex


"Jim" <Jim@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:0633BBB4-C5D9-4B6B-8585-ED6C3D3F74EB@microsoft.com...[color=blue]
> Two weeks ago I upgraded my Windows Media Edition to Vista Home Premium.
> Then went through two weeks of nothing but problems. Today I performed a
> Clean Install with the same Vista DVD that I used two weeks ago.
> Everything
> works great, except that I am unable to activate it. After spending 3 1/2
> hours talking to Microsoft Tech Support they tell me to reinstall XP and
> perform the upgrade again.
>
> Does this sound logical?
>
>[/color]