If you've been keeping windows updated via auto update then just uninstall SP1 it's not really needed as it is basically just a rollup of all the previously released security/update fixes
my partner and I used to get that quite often if we booted up at the same time to fix it all I did was enter the router config page and made our IP's static to our nics Physical Address and now we don't have that problem
Your correct in your thinking Mike personally if it doesn't come from a big name store or OEM or MS then it's most likely to be Illegally pirated keys and or copies of Windows
Re: Downloading service pack 1, think I'll wait a week to install it! LOL pretty much as long as size and md5 match to whats in post 1 then all should be good with install I haven't read of anything else going toes up from installing it yet
OH yeah I'm a big fan of Opera and I can't wait till 11 goes gold... I've found on the odd occasion the latest flash will make Opera crash every now and then but other than that 10.63 runs sweet as a nut
have you been into the opera 11 beta forums seems there's a ton of complaints about stuff being either broken or not usable like not being able to turn off mouse gestures fully
seems to have an problem allowing multiplier increase with black edition cpu's mine stuck at 15x which is the default value and no other xx values are above that
It could be that when you uninstalled the sound device windows has set it to default to another device like ATI HDMI Output in which case it would be as simple as selecting the IDT device and making it the default