(no subject)

[dmsalem00.livejournal.com]

Bring me the head of whoever pushed the newest Nvidia drivers out the door.

I go to update my PCI XFX GeForce4 MX440 (64MB) video card's drivers. I check Nvidia's website. Glorious day, kaloo, kalay, there are update drivers. I love updated drivers. No, you don't get it, I _really_ love updated drivers. So I download them. I install them. I go to play the demo for Microsoft's Crimson Skies.

BRILLIANT BLUE RANDOM WINDOWS ME INDECIPHERABLE ERROR SCREEN.

Hit escape, try again. Same thing. Reboot.

WINDOWS PROTECTION ERROR. YOU NEED TO RESTART YOUR COMPUTER.

SYSTEM HALTED.

This continues. Every reboot. I try to reformat/reinstall and put everything back on(including the new driver). I blame Microsoft. I blame a virus. I blame the RAM. The hard drive. The pirated software(you didn't hear that). I blame Hewlett Packard. I blame Dell(who not, everyone else does).

Until I remember what I installed before this happened. The Nvidia drivers. So I dig through the registry. the Windows ME registry. Boy that's fun. Anyone ever tried that? It's like pulling teeth. literally. I finally uninstall all the new driver's crap, and rollback one version to the previous ones. Everything's working just fine now. I still feel like distributing copies of Windows XP to third world children, even though it's not MS's fault. Wonder what I can do to bite Nvidia in the butt for this lovely cock-up.

Comments

[tsutton.livejournal.com]

WinME us so unstable! Move to Win2k or XP.

I had no problem with the new drivers on XP.

And I thought ME has restore feature where you can roll back? Unless you turned it off... ?

[torkell]

Yeah, XP should work fine because it's the current (and if M$ have their way, the only) OS. I had fun with nVidia drivers recently under Win2k - the latest version (probably now latest-but-two-or-three) locked whenever a game went fullscreen. Locked as in it stopped responding but appeared fine otherwise. 'course, it could have just been my dual-monitor setup with TwinView or whatever it is that lets Windows control the multi-monitor setup.

[dmsalem00.livejournal.com]

I know there's an ongoing issue with OpenGL and Nvidia drivers. Something with their OpenGL emulation being downright awful or words to that effect. That wouldn't be the problem though, unless you were playing Quake1 almost exclusively, though, I'd imagine..

[omicron32.livejournal.com]

There's nothing wrong with OpenGL support on Linux. I've never had any problems with the Linux drivers.

[dmsalem00.livejournal.com]

Perhaps i should have specified. The WinXP drivers are still having trouble with OpenGL. Linux/BSD/9x seem to be doing ok with that.

[dmsalem00.livejournal.com]

ME does have system restore. and I did turn it off. It hogs up too much hard drive space. But, after one of my recover/repair installs, I left it turned on, and created a system restore point. After it blue-screened again, I tried system restore, nogo. I place little to no faith in system restore.

And I resent that. My copy of ME usually runs VERY smoothly, except for when someone pushes bum drivers through the door. You've got to keep in mind that the drivers for Win9x and Win2k/XP are two completely different beasts...

[jacobine.livejournal.com]

Oddly, I had two computers running ME once. One was an old Aptiva I'd been handed and it ran ME without a hitch. Perfectly, in fact, and I liked it. My homebuilt PC that I still use? Absolute terror on ME. Three days uptime = 768 K of ram free out of 256MB. I couldn't get XP onto it fast enough.

[dmsalem00.livejournal.com]

That's why I'm beginning to think that Windows ME should have been a strictly OEM OS. It seems to only function flawlessly on pre-built systems like HP's, Aptivas, etc. Well, except Gateways and Dells. It hates those as much as it hates DIY systems.

[opoth.livejournal.com]

People still use Windows Might Explode?

[dmsalem00.livejournal.com]

All Windows might explode. It's a proven fact. I use ME b/c on THIS machine, I don't have enough specs to justify putting that RAMhog of XP on there.

[thecrazyfinn.livejournal.com]

Upgrade to 98SE then. Me is a problem in middle of happening.

[dmsalem00.livejournal.com]

I'm actually rather fond of ME. It's like a retarded puppy that runs into your walls and pees on the carpet. It's a nuisance, but it's just so damn cute you can't just get rid of it.

besides
ME = 32MB of SDRAM to run, 64 to run smoothly.
XP = 128MB of DDR SDRAM to run, 512 to run smoothly.
My computer = 256MB of PC100 SDRAM. Can you see why I haven't "upgraded"?

[thecrazyfinn.livejournal.com]

That's why I suggested 98SE rather than XP, 98SE is an upgrade over Me as well.

[dmsalem00.livejournal.com]

I prefer the challenge of raising what amounts to the software equivalent of an autistic child...I get that rewarding warm and fuzzy feeling every night that I go to bed and my computer hasn't killed itself from OS Envy...

[jordy.livejournal.com]

I'd recommend 2000 SP4. It can run easily with 256MB ram. XP will still run reasonably well with 256 (or 384), but don't expect to open a shitload of programs simultaneously.
I've got XP here with 512 PC133, and it runs perfectly. Actually, it's not had such a long uptime in quite a while (a brand new seagate 80 gig hard drive does these things). I can't imagine how well it'd run under 2000 SP4.

[dmsalem00.livejournal.com]

Besides which, the problem was with Nvidia's drivers, not ME. I rarely have problems with ME. Yes, I really just said that.

[jahbulon.livejournal.com]

Win98se was better than Win ME ffs..

Its like you installed a new shiny kickstand on a Suzuka and then dinged it, and you just walked into a biker bar asking for assistance.. Are you out of your mind?

[dmsalem00.livejournal.com]

I'm not asking for assistance. I fixed the problem. I'm bitching about tech-related issues.

You know...as I usually do.

[jahbulon.livejournal.com]

YOUR MIND???

[dogsolitude.livejournal.com]

It's funny, I read this and I thought to myself 'Someone in techsupport is running ME? In The Name Of All That Is Holy, WHY? And then I click on the thread and see that I'm way, way late on that sentiment...

[dmsalem00.livejournal.com]

I'm also running it on a Hewlett Packard. With AOL 9.0 in the background. And ZoneAlarm. And Kazaa.

This is my project computer. As in "how many things with bad reputations can I run at one time without the computer exploding" project.

So far, I've proven myself quite good at this..