In the /boot/grub/menu.lst file, what does your entry for vista look like?

rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

Should look something like above as vista is on the first partition of the first drive.

thanks I'll have a look

Can you post the content of the /boot/grub/menu.lst file?

title Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-11-generic
uuid 6d7a02b8-ea56-4e69-ac8c-26a5c3d4abc5
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-11-generic root=UUID=6d7a02b8-ea56-4e69-ac8c-26a5c3d4abc5 ro quiet vga=769 splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-11-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-11-generic (recovery mode)
uuid 6d7a02b8-ea56-4e69-ac8c-26a5c3d4abc5
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-11-generic root=UUID=6d7a02b8-ea56-4e69-ac8c-26a5c3d4abc5 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-11-generic

title Ubuntu 9.04, memtest86+
uuid 6d7a02b8-ea56-4e69-ac8c-26a5c3d4abc5
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda1
title Windows Vista (loader)
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
savedefault
chainloader +1

This is what my boot/grub/menu.lst looks like

Does your menu.lst file have a default entry near the top, like:

default 0

is the number after default 3?

fixed it guys, thanks for all your help, ended up reinstalling vista - easiest thing