When I switched on first there was a dialog box saying "updating and then reboot., which I did and got a completely blank screen, light blue, with only the message in the lower right corner
There's no way to reactivate. I can't get past the blank screen.
OK. I booted the x86 version again. I got the blank screen. I opened task manager via Ctrl Alt Delete and using "new tasks" key, I launched explorer.exe. I got the taskbar and my programs shortcuts. Some of the programs worked. However Control Panel wouldn't, giving me a "no such interface" and a string of numbers. Back in x64 now.
Came across this:
http://www.avforums.com/forums/windows-7/1139059-black-screen-death.html
I've scanned the disk and then moved my data and downloads to one of the RAID Arrays. I deleted the partition and created a new one.
I then started to install using the 32-bit disk but that hung after the windows starting screen before the language selection screen.
I remembered that I was trying to install to a laptop last week and I kept getting an invalid key message after the name and password screen.
I don't think setup checks online for the keys at that stage, maybe it does.
I'm thinking the .iso file was damaged on download or my dvd drive is dodgy. But I'm not sure how that would give the light blue thingy screen.
OK. I noticed I had a USB floppy drive plugged in. I removed that and boot again and the installation goes to the select language screen.
One problem solved.
I don't remember if I had the USB floppy drive plugged in when I got the light blue screen.
I'll try to replicate the light blue screen after I've re-installed Win 7 x86 by plugging in the USB floppy drive.