I reinstalled Windows XP Pro with SP3 (Dell Edition) on the first of four refurb Dimension 8300’s. Then I went to Windows update to apply the many megabytes of updates. I chose not to un-check IE 8 from among the 70+ initial updates. I also selected Windows Updates’ version of the driver for an ATI Radeon 7500 AGP card in the system. (Yes, the 7500 is not standard for Dell, but I wanted four systems all with ATI graphics.)
So the update churned away for a while then asked for a reboot, of course. Windows Updates always ask for reboots, whether needed or not.
I rebooted and was confronted by 16-color graphics, because the Radeon 7500 driver from the Microsoft Update site was obviously bad.
When I clicked to run IE8, either for the Windows Update site or otherwise, it gave me a nonsensical error message and terminated.
I uninstalled IE8, then installed the right version of ATI’s Catalyst driver to fix the video problem.
So…
1. As I have said many times before, do not trust the Microsoft Update site for hardware drivers. They may or may not work correctly. If they don’t work, you have to screw around to get working drivers again. Why waste the time?
2. If you install Windows XP from scratch, make sure you un-check IE 8 from the list of updates. Once all the updates are applied AND you’ve installed IE 7, you can then install IE 8 without any subsequent problems.
I did not make the same mistakes setting up the other three 8300s.
… Ben Myers
