renaissance poisson

security upgrades, a whole heap of them. i am good about these; i don't let them install themselves automatically because i like to know what's happening to my system, but i usually download them as soon as they become available. that's what i did this time. i am apprehensive about it these days because of the paramour's horrid experience with a security upgrade totally hosing the networking while zie was in hamilton, but there is really no choice.

system needs to reboot, of course. i mean, one can hardly install a font on windows without it needing to reboot. i reboot. comes back up, everything looks normal, until i use my trackball. that isn't working. at all. hm. usually it warns me long before it runs out of batteries. i put a new one in anyway (i have a cordless logitech trackman). that doesn't do anything. i unplug the transmitter and replug it. woops. unknown USB device. i switch ports. nope, doesn't like the device on any of my 3 port. hrm, maybe something wrong with the USB? i try my wacom tablet. that works on all 3 ports. fine. i turn the machine off. back on, no change.

*sigh*.

i ask the paramour to try the trackman on zir laptop. it doesn't work either. hmmmm. maybe it really is broken? but hey, security upgrades are installed there too, who knows. i connect it to my mac. it works perfectly.

ok. i let windows look for a new driver and install that. now the device is recognised. the transmitter does its thing, the dialog for connecting the trackman comes up, but it still doesn't move. i go through the help center's troubleshooting dialog even though i suspect it'll be useless. it is. i look for a new driver from logitech and download it. while waiting for the download to complete, i move the transmitter to another USB port and try again, just because. there it works. i move it back to the original port. now it works there too.

i hate microsoft.