Thanks to Windows Vista screwing something up on the install, every time I plugged a USB (or firewire) device into my computer, it would decide it couldn’t find any drivers for it, and asked me to tell it to manually search for the drivers (after which point they did eventually install)… So after installing about 3-5 drivers for a simple USB flash drive, it would work.

However a friend of mine let me borrow his Experts-Exchange account in our Design Workshop lecture today at Uni to search their database, and I found someone with the same problem as I had:

The solution is to copy the C:\Windows\inf folder from another fully working Vista installation over the top of the original*.

I’ve tried two other USB flash drives, and both worked within seconds of me plugging them in.

Yet another Microsoft product declared “finished” before it’s ready… Anyone else have/had this problem?

- Fr3d

* I actually renamed the original, and then copied the other computer’s inf folder, as Vista wouldn’t let me overwrite the folder

Apple have opened a new store in the Bentall Centre in Kingston, very close to where I live and where I go to University

I went to the opening today at 9AM (Getting up at 8AM on a Saturday is a very early start for me!), as they were giving out free T-shirts

The store will apparently operate just like their other stores, running various help sessions and such - click here to view a list of all the UK stores; you can select one to view the current timetable of events.

Since it’s so close to Uni, I know where my friends and I will be spending most of our spare time for the next week

Snow

In England

That… like… never… happens! (At least not in London) :P

I took some photos and put them on my Flickr page

–

Edit: It snowed again next Thursday, and I got the day off University as a result

–

Well this was a good excuse of a post… I’ll have to post something longer next time

- Fr3d

When I got home from University this afternoon, I found that (what appeared to be) my new laptop had arrived. However, it looked like it had been opened before, so I visited Comet’s website to see what their damage/returns policies were. Just as I was giving up on Comet’s website, which refused to give me the information I wanted, the doorbell went again, with another courier and what looked like another laptop

I checked the serial number on the outside of the first parcel, and discovered that it was the laptop I had sent back a week or two ago to Acer for repair! The second parcel was 100% new, factory sealed, and had several flyers from Comet in the parcel too, so I could tell where it was from. So I contacted LaptopShop who are now going to arrange a collection for the old laptop, which should happen in the next few days

I’ve now done the same thing I did with the first laptop - boot, setup, burn Acer’s recovery DVD, and format it with my own XP Pro (from my University’s MSDN). I had great fun spending another 10 minutes on the phone to Microsoft, typing the product ID numbers into their automated system, only for it to fail and forward me to an operator. I eventually got it activated for the third time after explaining that “Yes, it’s only installed on one PC” in about five different ways.

I haven’t installed Fedora Core 6 yet though, as I’m not sure how often I’d actually use it - I might prefer just to have the extra disk space.

And it hasn’t blown up (yet)!

Well it’s been a while since my new laptop broke. I contacted LaptopShop and requested a refund - the money arrived in my bank account today, so I’ve now ordered the same laptop from Comet

It should be delivered on Tuesday next week - hopefully it won’t die within 12 hours of me opening it like the last one did!