JayWakefield.co.uk - Blog

This week I've finally taken the plunge and installed Vista on my desktop PC as the primary OS. Firstly however I bought an nVidia Geforce FX 5200 graphics card from the computer shop down Newland Avenue, near to the University. Once this was installed, I installed the drives for it under XP to check it was all okay. Once I was sure it was working, (and three lectures, and one episode of The Simpsons later) I set about butchering my pride and joy with the Windows Vista installation disk. I formatted the C drive (forgetting to transferr my ZoomText 9.0 license from my desktop PC, WHOOPS!). Afterwards, told Vista to go ahead and install itself to drive C.

A few short minutes later, it had almost installed; all I had to do was to set myself a user account up, after which it started displaying the usual bragging advertisements that are no stranger to Microsoft Windows Setup routines. After Windows had finished setting up, I was asked to log in, and when I did so, I was greeted by the new Windows desktop, complete with Aero Glass which looks really nice. That made a nice change from the Basic theme that I used to have thrown at me when I had used Vista with my ATI Radeon 9250 Graphics card.

I have had to do some work though to get Vista to work. I went to the 24 hour centre next to Larkin Building to download a fix for PowerDVD 6 so that I could watch Lee Evans at midnight. I have also had to replace my TV tuner to one that will work on Vista because my once faithful Pinnacle PCTV Stereo PCI card will not play with Vista. tt installs and tunes, and I get Sound, but no picture.

I went yesterday to buy a KWorld DVB-T 310-U USB2 Analogue/Digital TV tuner from Maplin Electronics in Hull Yesterday. I had bought one during the exams in January and had to take it back to maplins as it was faulty. The replacement I recieved worked at first but then developed the same fault as the first device had had, so I took it back and recieved a refund. Anyhoo I decided to be stupid and buy another one. I brought it home, and you'll never guess. Same Fault

"EMP Audio Device Cannot Start"

I took it back today and got a refund. I was going to go to PC World but didn't fancy paying for a taxi to Cluff Road (I don't really know the buses round here) so I decided to lookin Currys, as it was on the way to another shop I had to visit. There, I made the purchase of a Hauppauge WinTV PVR 900 USB Analog/Digital tuner. When I came home I unpacked it, plugged in and installed the software, and it worked straight away with Vista. I also installed it to my laptop, and I can now get Freeview but I haven't found Teachers' TV yet.


So far, I'm actually satisfied with Vista, especially as ZoomText 9.1 is in it's Beta stages.