The not very helpful message "Unspecified error" appears when I run Slideshow Assistant, select some photos, then click the Preview button.

That is followed by the equally (not very) helpful message "no permission - bad installation" when I select "Create file" then answer OK to the box stating that "The following codec must be activated before using the application: MPEG-2". Refer to topic 10647 for others with this problem.

Does anyone have an idea as to what unspecified part of the software or hardware I can start looking at to solve this problem?

It seems that at least one of your problems is that EMC9 has not been activated yet. Did it not give you a message to activate? Open MyDVD or Videowave a few times and add an mpeg file and see if you get the nag to activate. If so, make sure you can activate. When successful, try Slideshow Asst. again.

I attempted to run MyDVD & I got the message that "Your video card fails to meet minimum specifications; please upgrade".
From what I read on the ATI Technologies web site, I can't see that my Radeon 9550 doesn't meet the specs. Mind you, it is currently showing up in Device Manager with exclamation marks beside it, and despite repeated attempts at reinstalling the software, it eventually ends up in the same condition (ie, it's OK to start with, then fails!!).
I'm somewhat bemused by the fact that when I originally installed EMC9, the Preview option WORKED. However, with the MPEG problem I encountered, I decided to uninstall everything & start again (uninstalling remnant Sonic MyDVD & a few other bits and pieces, "just on case"). On reinstallation, the Preview option fails.
So ... I guess I first need to solve the graphics card problem. Any hints on that?

With ATI cards, you most definitely have to remove the existing drivers, reboot, then install the latest Catalyst drivers that the 9550 supports, which are the 6.9's.

Also, on the ATI site, there is an ATI Driver Cleaner. I would download that, and run it to make sure you got rid of all remnants of the old drivers. Install the new drivers after rebooting.

I have removed existing drivers many times, holding my mouth in different ways each time or crossing my fingers & toes different ways, but to no avail. The ATI Driver Cleaner doesn't seem to clean "everything", since I can browse through the registry & find references to ATI files. I deleted one additional reference & then found that the re-installation failed due to "file not found", so the registry entry seemed to be 'active'. Not only do I have the problem mentioned in this thread, but Roxio Drag-to-Disc fails when I drop more than x files to a CD (where x >~ 30). I get the BSOD, with the event log showing me "Error code 1000008e, parameter1 c0000005, parameter2 f6caa675, parameter3 b8764298, parameter4 00000000" and similar, which is also a driver related problem!
The option is to line up the problems, categorise, prioritise, & knock them off one by one. I've resigned myself to reinstalling XP. It sounds easier. My number one option was to check out http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloa...ppowertoys.mspx and download "CD Slide Show Generator" which means I can forget about Slideshow Assistant for the moment.