Alden Bates' Weblog

For various reasons, one of these being Windows 98 was becoming increasingly unstable (e.g. halting the system when I attempted to create directories (or Folders, if you were introduced to computers after about 1995 (but I digress))) I went about installing Windows XP on Saturday. This went OK, and before long I had most of my software reloaded.

Unfortunately, after that, it all went a bit pear shaped.

This morning I attempted to install the drivers for my WinFast TV capture card. This had worked fine under Windows 98 and I didn't anticipate any problems. Unfortunately Murphy's Law kicked in around this point and, partway through installing the drivers, my computer abruptly reset.

After Windows restarted, I discovered that the CD-ROM drives had magically disappeared. Then it attempted to load the drivers again (by itself) and promptly crashed again.

I attempted to use System Restore. This reported it couldn't restore to a point before the drivers had installed, because they hadn't been installed (duh!). I stuck the setup disk in and attempted to do a repair. This worked up until the point where the "Welcome" screen comes up whereapon it screeched to a halt. The screen remained a fetching shade of blue with a mouse pointer I could move about. My computer now had the approximate usage value of a brick.

I then gave up and reinstalled the OS from scratch.

The WinFast PCI card is now lying on top of a green frisbee on the other side of the room from my PC. My system is running happily without it. Nyah

Additional Windows Installation thoughts:

Unreal Tournament 2004 saves the CD Key in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Unreal Technology\Installed Apps\UT2004, so if you export this key before reinstalling Windows, you can simply reimport it and not have to reinstall all 5 or 6 CDs of game.

I also notice that FireFox appears to now save all its bookmarks and so on in a directory where it's installed - I didn't have to restore any settings. Good stuff!

Windows XP appears to have detected my HP scanner nicely, so I am now about to test it and see if it works...