Vista installation frustration

Decided to reformat and reinstall after a host of what seemed to be OS-related issues: corrupt .exes, program crashes, etc. I'm using my original, fully legit Vista Home Premium DVD, in the same DVD drive I used to install it the first time and with all of the same hardware; however, it can't seem to complete a non-corrupt installation. The first time I tried it, it failed to install at all, saying it couldn't access install.wim (this is after a full format/deletion of the old partition). By the way, the DVD, as far as I can tell, is immaculate: it's sat in a cold/hot garage for about a year, but has only been removed from its plastic case twice.

I made no changes, just decided to try it again. On the next attempt it installed smoothly with no install.wim error. It appeared to complete the installation, and rebooted from the DVD, prompting again for an install. I rebooted from the HDD; a message displayed saying "Preparing Windows..." etc., and then it moved to a black screen with a cursor, where it hung for 15 seconds or so and then rebooted. It gave the old "Windows failed to start, select an option" screen; the start-normally option had no effect, so I formatted/reinstalled again. This time it gave an error saying (iirc) the NTFS driver was corrupted. I put the CD back in and attempted to repair the installation: it said it couldn't automatically repair it, and gave an error code that mentioned "external device or media" or somesuch. (Nothing is plugged in except the monitor, power, and wireless mouse/keyboard hub, and there are no PCI(e) devices besides the video card. Only one HDD and DVDRW). I reinstalled yet again, and the loading screen-black screen-reboot cycle happened again. I've tried reseating all SATA and power cables from the DVDRW drive and the HDD, to no effect. When I attempt to start in safe mode, it runs through a long list of files, stops, goes to a black screen and reboots. I'm incredibly frustrated.

I should note that the computer had been plagued by hardware-related problems before; the PSU went up in smoke, and after getting a new one it soon decided it didn't want to POST. After several days and some switching of RAM sticks and DIMM slots it returned to working order, except for the aforementioned corrupt .exes and constant program crashes (all media players, including iTunes, VLC, and WMP would crash whenever I attempted to play any file, for example). An explanation for both sets of problems would satisfy my curiosity greatly, but right now I really just need to be able to install Windows again ><

Well, I'm not sure it damaged the RAM...I think I was unclear in my earlier post: I "switched" the RAM sticks in the sense that I took them out and replaced them in different slots, but I didn't actually replace either one. And in fact I ran an overnight Memtest before I attempted the reinstall and it didn't find anything. There certainly was/is something grievously wrong with at least one piece of hardware; I guess I'm hoping it's just something related to the DVD or hard drive, rather than minor but crippling damage to the RAM and/or mobo. I will do a BIOS flash, and I also plan to try an XP install, possibly using Killdisk first. But does it really make sense that the mobo could be juuust damaged enough to not allow a working OS install, but function well enough to POST, access and modify the BIOS, and even run an already-installed OS?

Boards with bad capacitors will exhibit the symptoms you are experiencing... you might want to check for that issue as well. If the board is brand new, then that's not likely the issue... but if it's a couple of years old, then it's worth checking into. Bad capacitors either leak or bulge on the top... though sometimes they do leak from the bottom as well. Look for a brown crusty substance around the capacitor.