Thanks for all the help. I started to format and reinstall....and of course forgot that Vista will NOT install when an ATI Radeon X1650 card is installed because the DVD has the driver that ATI actually recalled from release because every x1650 user world-wide blue-screened (7.3 or 7.4 - can't quite remember now). Here we go again - same old, same old. I have to physically swap the blasted video card just so that stupid, supposedly state of the art, Microsoft installer will actually work.
So I'll go Vista-less overnight, because I really am too tired to even think about messing around in the PC's innards.