The Microsoft site at
www.windowsupdate.com is a little pushy. There is a really good chance that you also installed something that you did not intend to install. With certain selections, other selections are made, likely 'for your convenience.' You really have to check out every screen and read all of the options.
I'm not sure it's a driver issue. There
is a drivers section there, but I rarely find anything out there. The other two sections are Windows XP Recommended, and Critical Updates. The Recommended section has a few networking items:
- Advanced Networking Package
- WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access)
but these are not chosen by default. The networking package is just some small stuff anyway, but I suppose could stir up some dust.
To answer your Q: just be really careful with your windowsupdate selections. As for drivers, you'll need to figure out just what drivers are nto working correctly. Hit Start, right click My Computer, select Properties. Click Hardware, and Device Manager. Anything with a crapped-up driver will have a yellow ! icon next to it. That's a good place to start. Click the item and check it's own properties. XP allows you to "Roll Back" drivers, so if you believe this is the problem, go ahead and rool it back. Just remember to perform changes
one at a time. Otherwise you'll likely create more havok!
Good luck!