Upgrade results in weird screen and failed upgrade

I'm attempting to upgrade from 32-bit Vista Home Premium to Windows 7. I used the 32-bit disk to avoid having to do a full clean install, but every time (4 tries so far) that I've done it, it will get to the last portion of the upgrade where it transfers over all the old documents and programs. At that point the screen turns into a weird pattern of diagonal lines. Sometimes they are white and blue lines 1 inch thick, other times they are really thin lines.

Any thoughts on what may be causing this? The machine is fairly new and high-end for a Vista machine, so the graphics card should be perfectly. I've run the Upgrade Advisor and it only mentions a couple software issues such as iTunes which I can't see as prohibiting the upgrade.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

From Windows Vista to Windows 7
Microsoft will only allow the following upgrade paths to Vista users. For example, users who purchase an upgrade copy of Windows 7 Professional and have Vista Home Premium will only be able to perform a clean install. Here's the migration list:

• Windows Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 Home Premium
• Windows Vista Business to Windows 7 Professional
• Windows Vista Ultimate to Windows 7 Ultimate

If you are performing an upgrade installation from Windows Vista, the base language must match the target Windows 7 language, you must have about 9GB of free space for the installation, and the installation can only occur on the same partition that holds Windows Vista. Existing applications and user data will be automatically migrated to the new Windows 7 installation.
Clean installs will require about 16GB for the installation process. Unless the user chooses to repartition or format the current partition, Vista's files from C:\WINDOWS will be preserved under C:\WINDOWS.OLD, just as when upgrading from XP to Vista. Clean installs will also have to be performed when upgrading from a 32-bit version to a 64-bit version.
Windows Anytime Upgrade (WAU)
Once you have some edition of Windows 7 on your system, whether you purchased it via an OEM or just upgraded from Windows XP or Windows Vista, you will be able to upgrade to a "more premium" version of Windows 7 by purchasing an upgrade key to unlock additional features, just as in with Vista. For example, you could start off with Windows Vista Home Premium, upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium, and then later choose to upgrade to Windows 7 Professional.
As with Vista, the same DVD includes the various editions. Unlike with Vista, every edition of Windows 7 is a superset of the previous edition, so you will not lose any features when upgrading.

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In your case Just remove the graphics card and try reinstalling

I am seeing exactly the same problem.
Upgrading Windows Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 Home Premium on a Compaq presario F700 notebook.
Upgrade Advisor has a few notes which I have addressed.
The upgrade starts. About 40 mins in it changes to a weird screen of diagonal lines (twice in a row now).
When I reboot, it comes backnormally into Vista.
Any suggestions gratefully received.
cheers

To: jasonamazon, stplsTech

Make sure all drivers are the latest ones from vendors website. There are some know instances in which a BIOS update is needed before 7 can be installed. Have a look on the vendors forum for any such issues. There are, in some cases where the upgrade can't be preformed so the actual clean installation has to be done.

Thanks for the input. I shall try that.
One thought; if I do the clean installation, will that handle all the driver issues for me? In other words, it may be easier to do a clean and take the hit of re-installing some apps, than to take the hit of upgrading drivers. A trade off for the least time consuming solution :-)

Hi

Yes it is likely that you wouldn't have this issue if you are doing a full install.
Windows will detect and load all the necessary drivers for your video card etc. during the process.

I would try updating your video drivers and try the upgrade again before doing that though, as Bassfisher6522 suggested.

If you don't have a lot of stuff to reinstall it is probably the better way to go anyway, you will have some time involved setting everything up again but it will all be fresh.

If you decide to do this you should make sure that you back up everything you don't want to lose.
A lot of stuff will still be saved in a folder names Windows Old but you can't count on it.

If you have a second hard drive you could move everything to it, otherwise I'd use an external drive and just save everything there.

Mike