I ordered a Dell laptop last week and it’s here. It’s running smoothly but only after a considerable amount of drama. Note to self: do not install software that is not labeled as XP compatible on a computer running XP. One would think that as a former MIS major with a fair amount of experience with Windows and whatnot, that I’d be able to avoid installing incompatible pieces of software. Alas, no dice. My college education has proven overrated.
I installed my Win 2000-friendly Logitech mouse software and got an equally friendly blue screen upon restarting. Yes folks, I had the computer for two hours and already hit the jackpot with a blue screen. I’m that good. So I called Dell Tech Support and futzed around with removing programs and restarting until the tech decided I was an imbecile and ought to just perform a ‘system restore’. Three cheers for system restores, however Dell got them to work. I restored the computer back to its original state and downloaded a fresh mouse driver from the Logitech website.
Stats are as follows: Inspiron 1100, 2GHz Celeron, 30 GB, 265 MB, CD-RW/DVD combo, 15" screen, XP Home, no floppy, no MS office, and none of that useless (*ahem*) extended warranty stuff. Perhaps it might have been a good idea to opt for a three-year plan. Oh well, I suppose the thrifty one-year plan will motivate me to learn more about the ins and outs my spiffy new laptop.
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I'm new to XP so this whole unsigned driver thing is new to me also. sounds like you and i had the same deal with driver problems. that blue screen was not a welcoming sight having dropped a decent amount of cash on a laptop. but the Tech was helpful and we got it resolved. the problem i was having was the the mouse was installed and plugged in, but we didn't know that it was the culprit until the Tech did an msdn search on the file name the blue screen was giving me (kbdclass.sys). he found that others had the same issue and that it was due to older mouse drivers. i tried uninstalling the driver but to no avail, so the only other option was a restore.
Posted by pm | February 10, 2007 8:15 PM
Posted on February 10, 2007 20:15
URL: http://www.cleverhack.com/blog
"unsigned" drivers unfortunately corrupt WinXP. Not too long I had a similar problem with a webcam driver that Kodak said was for XP, but according to MSFT the software was "unsigned" and I ended up with the blue screen, system restore, blah blah. But anyway, in your case, I was just wondering why you didn't just plug the mouse in and reboot? Even a wireless mouse should be recognized off the bat...
Posted by joy | February 10, 2007 8:15 PM
Posted on February 10, 2007 20:15