Yep, I’m installing Windows at home again… Fret not, it’s just for gaming. I mean, that’s what winders is for, right? I need some gaming fix and I need Windows in order to do it in a non-stressful fashion. So, here we go.

First XP CD I found produced a blue screen when trying to start the Windows GUI for installation. Not a good start. Though, I thought it an appropriate welcome back to the neighborhood.

The second CD I found installed just fine. But, look at this, no video driver, no ethernet, no SM Bus, no “PCI Device”, no “USB Device”, and no 3D video controller… So much for plug and play. But again, I imagine it would be much the same as returning to Korea after all these years and smelling the wonderful open sewer system again. Oh yes… I remember that…

Ok, now we’re in driver hell. Yes, folks, no matter what Billy-boy would have you believe you do need to fetch drivers for XP most of the time. Kinda sad that it didn’t have the network driver built in, however. That little bit of fun makes it particularly difficult. So, I use my trusty laptop to download the necessary drivers. I installed the video, network, and chipset drivers. I was installing the video drivers lastly and when it came time to be done it asked me as per usual, “Restart Now?”. To which I was going to say yes. But, no… USB had died. No PS2 ports for keyboards, or and don’t you love how there is no CLI (especially a remote CLI) to enable a graceful shutdown. Looks like this reboot will be medieval style.

Well, FINALLY all the drivers are good. Had to step back the nVidia driver because the newer one was borking up. Other than that, we’re good. Doing the Update - Reboot dance now. Rhys is begging me to install the Sims…. I can’t wait to install some Counter-Strike tho. ;)