BTV Crashes / "External Tune" Crashes in BTV Setup

My USB-UIRT device has worked flawlessly for me ... until last night. For some unknown reason BTV started crashing when either 1) entering "LIVE TV" mode; or 2) attempting to get to the "External Tuning Test" page in BTV Setup Wizard.
I've spent the last 8 hours trying everything I can think of. Uninstalled and re-installed BTV several times. Disabled and re-enabled USB-UIRT in XP's Device Manager. TRIED to de-install the drivers for USB-UIRT but I get a message saying there was an error and a file called "ftdiun2k.ini" could not be found.
If I select "Null Tuner" in BTV's Setup Wizard then BTV does not crash but, of course, the USB-UIRT device no longer works to change the channels on my DirecTV box.
I'm suspecting the USB-UIRT just simply "died" because nothing else I try works. Any one have any ideas of what else I could try other than to just get a different IR Blaster?
Thanks in advance.
I've spent the last 8 hours trying everything I can think of. Uninstalled and re-installed BTV several times. Disabled and re-enabled USB-UIRT in XP's Device Manager. TRIED to de-install the drivers for USB-UIRT but I get a message saying there was an error and a file called "ftdiun2k.ini" could not be found.
If I select "Null Tuner" in BTV's Setup Wizard then BTV does not crash but, of course, the USB-UIRT device no longer works to change the channels on my DirecTV box.
I'm suspecting the USB-UIRT just simply "died" because nothing else I try works. Any one have any ideas of what else I could try other than to just get a different IR Blaster?
Thanks in advance.