It turned out there was one bit of software that hadn’t made it’s way onto Micca, the CD/DVD burning software. So, I go into the big folder of driver disks, pull out the disk TDK gave us and install the version of Roxio Easy DVD Creator they gave us. Standard stuff, reboot, etc.

Blue Screen Of Death.

During boot up.

Oh good, reset, hit F8, Safe Mode. BSOD. Sigh.

A bit of research tells me the particular error usually happens randomly during operation, and is caused by a driver conflict (really?, gee…), and the recommended activity is to disconnect everything possible from the computer while you repair the problem.

Well, that isn’t necessary here. Open case, yank the DVD power cable, power on. Boots fine.

So… an update maybe? Roxio of course, is much more interested in selling me version 8 than helping with 6. But it isn’t too hard to get through their site to the downloads. Where I find you must register their product in order to get their patches.

Say what? Unlike almost everyone else in the world, the fact that I want to patch a program isn’t good enough to say that I may already have it?

During this, I also decided to turn off the junk they have auto-loading into the system and see if that gets me down to the occasional BSOD instead of doing it on boot. So, shutdown…

Micca immediately restarts.

Oh, really? This is a problem I’d never isolated on Desert Rose. You tell Windows to Shut Down, and she immediately reboots at the point the power should shut off. So that’s why….

Easy CD Creator gets summarily yanked from the system. We’re now on a 15-day trial with some other software that’ll cost us… $25 if we like it. You’ll probably hear more about it if we do.

Edit: I’ve verified on Desert Rose and Micca that uninstalling Roxio does not solve reboot from power off issue. >.< I figure they’ve changed a registry entry somewhere. Anyone know how to fix this?