Serious Software problems. (Sony MZ-N510) Need Urgent Help!

[Akuma]

I'm having some serious trouble with the software that's bundled with the Net-MD I bought.

The SonicStage software doesn't work... at all.

The second I purchased my SONY MZ-N510, I inserted the SonicStage CD in to my CD drive to install it - I immediatbly got an errormessage claiming that the software can't be installed on my computer on this OS.

I have windows 98, with all the latest updates, expansionpacks and bugfixes. And yes -it DOES match up with the system requirements (P400 Mhz, 510 MB ram)

So I went to the MiniDisc.org FAQ to see if there was any other software that could download music to my Net-MD, and there was this application called "Simple Burner".

The second I ran it after the install, the program crashes instantly.

General Exception Fault yadda-yadda-blah-bla.

So I set up my LapTop computer.

It's a 1.5 Ghz 512 MB ram laptop with Windows XP (Home Edition)

SonicStage DID install, but the second I start the program - the application crashes.

SonicStage DOES start, but the second I click on anything - ANY button on the software window, thge application crashes!

So I press CTRL + ALT + DELETE - and I go to the status window, and I notice that the program is eating 200 MB of RAM!

I kill the program by killing the process - restart it, and I get the same result.

But the problem doesn't end there.

SonicStage has automatically associated ALL my audio files with the program, so the second I double-click on an MP3 - SonicStage start - and SonicStage crashes.

I can't even insert an Audio-CD, because when I do that, SonicStage starts because it has been set to Auto-Start when an Audio-CD is inserted, and well... it crashes! (surprised, huh?)

There is no possible way for me - it seems - to download music for my Net-MD. SonicStage has to be the most inefficient unstable crap that has ever existed during my 10 years as experienced PC user.

And the annoying part - is that I've spent 200 dollars on a Net-MD that I can't use due to this software problem.

So my question is.

What the heck should I do?

Is there any other software that can download songs to my MD?

Are they as (un)stable as SonicStage?

Have I wasted 200 dollars in vain?

And no, I don't have any optical output on my stereo nor on my soundcard.

The Net-MD compability was the sole purpose why I bought it - to be used with the PC.

The ironic part is that I asked the retail personell where I bought the MD-Device if it didn't seem a bit risky to rely on one single bundled software to download MP3s on to the Net-MD.

The response I got was: "Nah, you shouldn't have any problem with that".

Any help is highly appreciated