no I haven't tried running it in safe mode, if that gets the drivers installed fair enough but i can't use safe mode to run it as in any case the usb ports probably do not work in safe mode.
I could use a virtual machine i suppose, with 8 GB of ram and a quad core processor thats not an issue but at the end of a day a company that cannot make software for vista is not worth their salt ! its not a case of "if i have to use vista", xp will not be supported soon and with a 64 bit processor and 8 GB of ram (not sure on the over 2 core but) I have no choice, XP is fast becoming a thing of the past because micro$oft have made it so. I'd go windows 7 as soon as possible but thats going to have the same issues