Unable to re-install Vista

Hi,

My laptop crashed with the blue screen of death. I then attempted to run in safe mode, which failed. I then tried to recover Vista which also failed. Next I tried to re-install Vista from fresh but unfortunately the installation continues for a couple of minutes before stopping on a blank black screen after some of the drivers have loaded. I get the same problem when trying to install windows xp. I am also unable to boot knoppix or Barts PE.

I have run memtest 98 which was error free. The hard drive has been switched for a new one which didn't help and the cd drive seems to works as it at least starts the reinstall process with vista and xp and also successfully boots memtest 98 from CD.

Is this a motherboard issue and if so how can I be sure before forking out for a new mother board. What tests can I run? What else could it be?

Your help on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks