OK, so my shiny new PC has /finally/ been set up in my bedroom, rather 
than on the kitchen table. That means that at last I can plug in all my 
stuff.

Trying to set up my printer was necessarily difficult. You would /think/ 
I could just go to the HP website and download the necessary driver 
software. And you would be wrong. HP insists "you do not need a driver 
for this device; Windows already has one". So I have to manually run the 
printer wizard, and hunt through a list of several thousand printers, 
only to confirm that no, my printer is /not/ in the list. So then I have 
to click the Windows Update button, and wait 35 minutes for Windows to 
download a complete list of every printer ever manufactured by any 
company rich enough to pay Microsoft to host their driver. And /then/ I 
have to hunt through an even bigger driver list to find my printer. 
(Even though Windows has successfully detected the make and model of the 
printer already.)

...or HP could have just given me the right ****ing driver. :-P

On top of that, once I've managed to guess which "port" the printer is 
on, and configured it, now the printer shows up twice. The new printer I 
just configured shows up as working, but the original "unknown device" 
still shows up. In the end, I had to delete the printer I just created, 
unplug the USB cable, and plug it back in again. Because the 
corresponding driver is now installed, the printer is auto-configured. 
Sheesh! God knows how I'd have managed to get all that to work if I 
didn't know anything about computers...

But that's nothing compared to what happened when I tried to get my 
expensive outboard sound card to work. Because you know what? It turns 
out that this premium-grade pro-audio device DOES NOT HAVE 64BIT DRIVERS 
AVAILABLE. Yes, you read that correctly. It's 2012, the device is still 
in production, and the makers haven't bothered to write the necessary 
drivers yet. There isn't even any indication that they /intend/ to write 
such drivers. WTF?

After hours of Google searching, it appears that 80% of posters just 
/never/ got their device to work in any way, shape, or form, and another 
20% claim that the 32-bit drivers work perfectly. On my system, I've 
tried installing every version of the drivers that I can find, and under 
no circumstances can I make the device function.

If you buy some cheapo laptop USB soundcard, you could maybe understand 
the no-name manufacturers not bothering to provide modern drivers. But 
we're talking about a supposedly "pro audio" device from a big-name 
brand. You would think that for the exorbitant price I paid, it would 
damn well work. But, apparently, you would be wrong...

I am really quite shocked that in the 21st century, running a 64bit OS 
is all it takes to completely disable a piece of hardware. WTF?

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