Anyone? Bueller?

I know you can't manage SCS clients with SEPM....

the client isnt installing for some reason... what does it say in your event log?

In addition, do you have SEP_INST.LOG in C:\WINDOWS\TEMP ? 

Thanks Paul. Couldn't find anything (that I know to look for) on the client side in Event Viewer that points to the trouble, but I sure do have a giant sep_inst.log. Where should I put it? Posts here max at 20k characters, so it's not letting me paste it in here.

if you open the file and search for "return value 3" then take the previous 10 rows and post them here I can probably tell you whats wrong.

There may be several instances throughout the log, please post them all 

There are several hits for "Return value 1." but no "3"s..

Use the SEPM to create an install package and try running it on the local system and see what it says.

You mean

1. try to install it on the server running SEPM? (Although I thought you had to do that separately from the SEPM console)

or

2. try to install it on the same client Vista box as before?  Maybe the 3rd time's the charm....

Ok, attempting #2 again.. installing the SEP package on the Vista client box from the VM 2008 server SEPM. I use

- Migration and Deployment Wizard

- select "deploy the client" (I presume 'migrate from SAV' is for the console migration?)

- "select an existing client install package to deploy" - finish

- Push Deployment Wizard - specify the folder containing the client - I pick the client package

- Select computer on which to install - I pick the Vista client box that already has SCS on it, which as I said seemed to complete the install the 1st attempt, but on the second attempt just halted in the Deployment Wizard... now for the 3rd time....

weird. This time the deployment manager appeared to succeed like the 1st attempt.  

The deployment log 'clientremote.txt' says

clientremote.exe

Deployment Finished for: genericpc

Which you would think means the thing was deployed, buut...

I did not receive a notice on the client pc of any kind, regarding reboot. SAV is still running in the systray. The SEP_INST.log now has been rewritten for today; looks similar to the previous one. No sign of a 'Return value 3' anywhere, but still several 'Return Value 1's upon search.

Am I doing this incorrectly, procedure wise? 

it sounds like the client is being pushed to the workstation.

If you browse the workstation in question, go to C:\Temp\Clt-Inst

in there, double click setup.exe, what happens?

How did you configure the installation to run?  You should note that Vista requires a silent installation, as per our documentation. 

Found it. Running the setup in there says "another program is being installed. Please wait until that program is finished being installed and try again."

After the intial attempt, I left the machine on for at least 4, maybe 5 hours, and the system did not reboot nor prompt for one (which is the one I believe I picked). Then, tried rebooting the system 3 times manually, and this did not result in a client upgrade. Everything on it still seems to work as it was before the client install attempt; the only difference I can tell is the log you pointed me to and the c:\temp\Clt-Inst folder.

well that would seem to be your problem.. but I have no idea how to fix it...

All I can suggest is this KB, since its similar, but not the same:  http://service1.symantec.com/support/ent-security.nsf/854fa02b4f5013678825731a007d06af/7c4ff72c487d2816652574a6006e9b71?OpenDocument