You might have noticed that there were lapses in my postings this month. I have been having problems with my PC (specifically the Windows Vista that came with the eye movement-controlled PC that my wife Gi got for me).

To be honest the PC had been trouble free for a long while. But as more patches (Microsoft calls them fixes) were released and applied, the system gets slower and less stable. It began to get real flaky in the past 5 months. Random hand-ups, missing devices, failure during boot-up, software configuration errors were increasingly frequent. Then came the Service Pack 2 in mid October. My experience with the earlier  Service Pack 1 was less than positive, so I wasn’t looking forward to it. After putting it off for a week, I finally went ahead with it on the 22nd. After some 25 minutes, Windows Update reported that “Update successfully applied” and urged a system reboot. So I rebooted. After 50 minutes and 6 spontaneous reboots, the system ended in ‘safe mode’ with a 640×480 screen  resolution and most devices turned incognito. As none of devices worked, I was reduced to watching Gi sieving through numerous CDs to find the required software drivers (as the Ethernet adapter doesn’t work. we can’, search online). We gave up after some 2~3 hours and attempted a System Restore. Thank heaven THAT worked and I was back on square one after 6 hours. Needless to say we were not in the slightest bit impressed.

Then the November patches comes along and are applied without a hitch. So the outstanding SP2 began to bother me. I began to entertain the notion of having another go at it. Having learned the lesson of outdated drivers, I shifted through the internet for the latest software drivers and firmware for ALL devices I had on my PC (it’s a Dell Inspiron 530). It was a brutal 4 days before a scan shows that all are at the latest level. So on the 15th evening, when Windows Update prompted for the outstanding SP2, I let it rip, thinking that this time around thing should turn out fine. Boy was I wrong.

As before, Windows Update reported that “Update successfully applied” after some 25 minutes, and urged a system reboot. Again I rebooted. That took another 40 or so minutes and 2 spontaneous reboots, after which the system came up at 1680×1050 resolution without the mouse pointer. It seemed the system doesn’t recognize the LCD monitor and the USB mouse. Without the on-screen mouse  pointer interface I am not able to operate the system on my own. So at almost 1 am I called for Gi’s help. We toiled in vain for hours to reinstall the drivers, so as before, we rolled back the SP2 with a System Restore. But this time, even that didn’t bring back the mouse. At 3:40 am we throw in the towel.

The next day Gi kept at it until noon, whereupon I decided that I will probably need to reinstall Windows. Gi suggested we try a System Repair with the Reinstallation CD. That brought back the mouse pointer, and restored control to me.

The 2 disastrous attempts to apply Vista SP2 had brought me up against the ultimate question: do I stay on Vista (unlikely due to the current unsatisfactory state), downgrade to XP Pro (a proven OS which I like, but support will soon cease) or move to Win7 (expensive and not sure my eye-control will still work) ? It’s a conundrum I have to grapple with in the weeks ahead.