Barry Fox

I don't like loose ends. It's why I don't get on very well with some of the IT companies. I spend far more time than is sensible trying to nail the facts, and sometimes the companies still win.

I wrote recently that Nokia had changed the connection block for every single cellphone in the company's range so that no new phone will work with existing accessories or the hands-free car kits that owners or companies paid at least £200 to have fitted.

I received a stack of readers' correspondence. Even Nokia's own Customer Careline was telling customers that old-style solid business phones such as the 6310 were still available. "With regards to your email about the Nokia 6310i and your car kit, we have not discontinued this handset," wrote Nokia's Careline.

"The information given to you by our hotline is unfortunately not correct," Nokia then admitted. I pressed Nokia for a written comment, from a high-level manager, on why the company couldn't keep at least one solid business phone in the range to work with existing accessories and car kits, or sell adapters to let new phones fit old kit.

After much nagging, I got my comment. "Users certainly have no desire to install a new car kit every time they change mobile phones," wrote Waldemar Sakalus, director of Nokia Smart Traffic Products. He went on to extol the virtues of new Bluetooth phones and car kits, ignoring what I had asked him about satisfying existing customers. OK, Nokia, you win.

There is a clear split on Windows XP Service Pack 2 emerging between owners of 'clean' PCs, with little third-party hardware and software hanging off them, and 'power user' PCs, with a lot of third-party bolt-ons. The clean machines emerge from the SP2 upgrade experience largely unscathed, while the owners of power PCs find problem surprises popping up like toadstools.

"SP2 is causing massive problems with USB devices from many manufacturers," Hauppauge told me. Omnikey said: "Three of our serial smart card readers do not work any more after installing Windows XP SP2."

AOL has sent users a warning message with "important information for AOL members using Windows XP", saying: "AOL has identified a number of issues regarding how Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 interacts with AOL software."

So users are "strongly recommended to download a small update" because "failure to download this is likely to lead to intermittent connectivity problems".

Microsoft's website is awash with lengthy notes that will read like Martian to many users. One note concerns Driver Protection, which stops programs running by "preventing the operating system from loading drivers that are known to cause stability problems".

Another confirms that some Bluetooth radio devices need a bewildering "workaround". Another tells how the Firewall can stop programs working. Pop-up blocking also blocks some downloads.

For a while, another note listed programs, including AOL, Norton, Encyclopaedia Britannica and Wordperfect, that "experience lack of functionality". But this now seems to have disappeared.

"Driver Protection is not intended to be disabled by end users," the support pages advise. Microsoft reminds us that Driver Protection is not new to SP2, it has just been extended to cover new problem drivers, and Microsoft consults "with the vendors who produce and distribute these drivers".

I felt I was drowning in information, so I asked Microsoft some questions. Why can't users turn Driver Protection off, at their own risk, to troubleshoot problems that arise after the SP2 upgrade? "Driver Protection is not recommended to be disabled," was the reply.

This implies that a user can turn it off at their own risk to troubleshoot post-SP2 problems. "The behaviour of applications that depend on blocked drivers varies depending on the implementation of the application," added Microsoft. "Some applications, such as antivirus programs, install drivers in order to provide their core functionality. For these applications, Driver Protection may cause the application not to work at all. Other applications, such as CD-burning programs, use drivers for portions of their feature set. For these applications, only those features that do not depend on the driver may work."

So how can we switch off Driver Protection to troubleshoot? "Users cannot directly disable Driver Protection," Microsoft said. The only option is to block the download of new DP updates by disabling Windows Update, which is a heavy sledgehammer to crack the nut.

So SP2 makes changes that can upset previous smooth working, and this may be due to Driver Protection, which cannot be turned off. If drivers are added to the protection list "in consultation with the vendors", why does SP2 not scan the PC when starting the upgrade, and flag a warning to the user with the option to abort? This is what happens when a PC is upgraded from Windows 98 or ME, to XP.

I never did get an answer to this most basic question. OK Microsoft, you win too.

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