I don't understand your remark:
"The only way you can download the software to run it is through Microsoft..."
You really shouldn't be too quick to blame Logitech for your problem,
because I work in IT and have seen many cases where WINDOWS goes
haywire as far as detecting and "seeing" USB devices is concerned. For
example, if you then plug in any USB flashdrive, etc it would just
flatout ignore the device... the only way to usually fix that problem
is to reinstall Windows completely.
Sometimes it might also be a problem with the physical USB ports and
controller handling the ports. This could have been caused by a power
surge when you plugged in some USB peripheral (e.g. an external hard
drive or something).
Have you tried the Chillstream on another computer? That is normally
the best & easiest way to troubleshoot PC hardware.
All I'm saying is - this might *not* be Logitech's fault