So, I'm going to a conference ...

[wolf]

Why should this be in the technology forum, you wonder?

Because I've got a screwed up computer issue ...

The lovely hotel in which I will be staying has in room high speed connections.

Jolly good.

Except that for some reason which has never been clear, the built-in USB ports on this ancient hand-me-over laptop that I have (it's some kind of a pentium, and runs windows 98) have never worked properly.

So, in an attempt to get around said problem, I scoot over to CompUSA and acquire a PCM/CIA card with two lovely new USB ports on it.

I'm trying to follow the installation instructions, which had me install software from the CD first, then plug the beastie in ...

only thing is, every time I plug the beastie in, the bitch, ahem, laptop, decides it's time to reboot.

Okay, so I finally get things to the point where I have the card in, and the machine is nearly behaving properly, and it's time to search for the new driver in the plug and play install thingy ... and bam.

Every time it goes to seek the CD for the information (which it shouldn't be seeking anyway, if the install of the CD worked the first time, right?) the machine reboots.

Screw it. It's late, I have to go to bed. I might monkeyfuck with this tomorrow morning before work.

I leave on Tuesday.

I can't imagine what my mailboxes will be like if I go six days without reading them. It could get very, very ugly.

Yes, I know I could have immediately solved this problem by purchasing a new laptop.

Not an option at this time. I had $50 for the card, would rather not part with $1.5-$2K for a labtop at this time, especially one that I would not use a whole lot, outside of going to this conference. Which only occurs every other year.