I had an AIW 9600 for a while, and never did find a configuration that seemed like it would work well for 50/50 usage as an HTPC core vs. standalone system viewed on a computer monitor.
Not much help here, but some sympathy anyway:
I got so sick of the damn AIW 9600 that I sent it back last week and have given up on the idea of HTPC, at least for the next year or two (somehow you still find me hanging out in this forum, though).
At least you don't seem to have the nasty crashing problems I did, even on a clean XP installation. And apparently the software user interface doesn't bother you quite as much as it did me.
Not much help here, but some sympathy anyway:
I got so sick of the damn AIW 9600 that I sent it back last week and have given up on the idea of HTPC, at least for the next year or two (somehow you still find me hanging out in this forum, though).
At least you don't seem to have the nasty crashing problems I did, even on a clean XP installation. And apparently the software user interface doesn't bother you quite as much as it did me.