Okay, I ran diagnostics, everything checked out with the system memory. I went and tried again to install Vista afterwards, but the runtime error message still came up.

I was trying to upgrade the official way. I'm not confident enough in my computer skills to try the clean install workaround. I had considered the possibility that I got a bad disc. I'm gonna go talk to them in a bit and see if I can get a replacement.

How are you upgrading this, are you doing it the official way or the "clean install workaround" guide posted on the internet?

 

Also consider replacing the DVD media, it's possible you got a bum DVD

Talked to the store where I bought the software. All software sales are final. From my description I gave them, they figured that another program (running in the background) was causing a conflict. They suggested calling Microsoft for help, which I refuse to do out of principle (they want to charge $60 just to talk to them! I can't afford that). Any other thoughts?

You currently have XP installed? Do a clean install of XP and then try the Vista upgrade.