"Uninstalling" a plug & play device

[Alien18]

Hi All,

Hope I'm posting this in the right place. Apologies if not.

I keep this back story short - A while ago I purchased a Sony Handycam HC37E. Installed the software provided and successfully transfered video to my PC via Firewire. That was on XP, I recently upgraded to Vista, reinstalled the Sony software and upgraded it vis the Sony website to be Vista compatible.

The thing is I connected my camcorder before I reinstalled the software. And now after installing the software and update, I can't seem to get it all to work properly. I seem to have a few problems occuring. One is that when I connect my Camcorder up and switch it on, Vista plays the "connected" sound, barely displays to list of programs that could be used to "capture" the video then plays the "disconnected" sound. OR the other thing that happens is it plays the connected sound and displays the list of programs but none of the programs recognise it.

Only one or twice have I managed to get the camcorder recognised and have it start "importing" but after about 10-20 secs (maybe less) it just seems to freeze/crash.

Anyway my current idea was to uninstall everything related to the camcorder and start fresh. I've uninstalled the Sony software, but what I can't recall how to do it uninstall the camcorder. I'm sure there is something somewhere I need to do, because the first time it was connected it showed the bubble saying "New device detected" then after a few minutes it says it's ready to use.

Basically, I want ot get it back to the state where it thinks it's a new device again.

Can anyone help me in my plight, I was really looking forward to making my home video of my trip to Dublin!

If anyone has any ideas, I'd be very grateful.

Many thanks in advance,
Alien

 

[DanGrover]

I can't think of anything immediately, except maybe Right Clicking on My Computer > Properties > Hardware > Device Manager > Find it > Right Click > Properties...

And the PC i'm on now, I don't have enough privaledges to see what actually pops up next, but i'm sure there's some kind of uninstall option?

That'd be my first guess, anyway.

 

[Alien18]

I did look in the Device Manager window but couldn't seem to find it. I'm also on a machine with restricted privelages at the moment so I can't double check.

It's so annoying knowing that everything was working before and now it's such a random strange error.

I'd wonder if it were the firewire PCI card I was using but it has worked fine in the past and Window Vista is happy that I'm using the latest drivers for it!

I'm sure that in the past in XP I've found somewhere that you could "remove" USB devices so that the next time I plug it in it thinks it's new and starts installing it again. Perhaps it's jsut not so obvious in Vista?

 

[Alien18]

Having done some more googling. I think that it should appear in the Device Manager. I'll have another look later when I get home. Do you know if the camcorder would need to be switched on to appear in the device manager list?

 

[DanGrover]

I don't believe it would even need to be plugged in - If that were the case, then removing it from the list probably wouldn't solve your problem anyway!

I think that list is just all the drivers that Windows has installed. If you plug in a USB disk for the first time, it'll install the drivers from... wherever it keeps the drivers, and then they'll just be on there (until you choose to remove them). I would think the same applies for camcorders.

 

[Alien18]

Thanks for your help. I'll have another look when I get home and hope.

I remember it recognised it as a Sony device in the bubble that appeared the first time I connected it. But there definitely wasn't anything "Sony" in the device manager, what do you think it might appear as/under?

 

[DanGrover]

It'll probably just be DSC-something. My Sony camera comes up with simply DSC-R1 (well, it did - I just use a card slot now).

In the list, I would think it'll be under the camera-y bit, but it could just be under USB - or hell, that thing's a mess, it could be anywhere!

 

[Alien18]

Hi,

Well, I tried uninstalling everything I could last night. The Camcorder isn't in the Device manager list. I followed a guide with tips of how to completely remove a program from the system, so even removed every Sony reference from the registry!

Then reinstalled everything in the correct order and still it didn't work. Exactly the same problem as before!

The only thing I think is left to try it to "remove" the camcorder completely, so that it detects it as a new device when I plug it in. But I can't find out how to do that since it doesn't appear in the Device Manager List.

If anyone has any helpful tips at all, I would very much appreciate them.

*Gets down on his knees and begs*

 

[Alien18]

Well,

I popped out on my Lunch today to get a 6pin - 4pin firewire adapter in the hop that it will work when i connect it to my laptop.

I'll let you know how I get on.

 

[ns400r]

On the laptop, just connect the camera with the new cable and DON'T install any software at all. Let Window (XP I hope) find and install the camera with whatever drivers it already has.

Then, once turned on, Windows should ask what you want to do with the data from the camera. Windows Movie MAker might be the only option at that point. Test with that.

 

[Alien18]

Hi,

Got round to testing the camcorder on the XP laptop. No software installed, just connected the camcorder, let XP find it etc. It gave me the movie maker option but the same thing happened.

Well, similar. It played the connect sound again but didn't play the disconnect sound until I turned off the camcorder. But it seemed that it detected the camcorder for a moment, then it simply doesn't work.

Is it possible it's a camcorder issue? It's still well under a year old, is it worth popping back to the shop and trying to get them to exchange it?

Many thanks for you help,
Alien

 

[Alien18]

Hi,

Just thought I'd write up a quick reply.

After trying my camcorder on a Vista PC, XP laptop and a Mac with no luck (all with two different Firewire cables). I went back to Jessops with it all boxed up an explained the the chap what I'd tried, etc.

He connected it up to one of their PCs with my firewire cable and it worked first time, flawlessly!! But because he was in a "good mood" he changed the camcorder anyway.

I went home and it recognised it as a new camcorder, but didn't work (I nearly cried). I shut everything down and restarted it all and it works all nice and happy now.

A very odd problem indeed, while it bothers me that I never concluded what was wrong, I'm happy it works now.

Alien

 

[Amnesia]

i remember having a similar problem, camcorder worked the first time but failed to every other time after that. cant remember how i sorted it but it did have to do with uninstalling something, think it was hardware under device manager. btw if u need windows to detect something as a new device i think u would need to remove all traces of its drivers, im going by driver cleaner pro and video cards.

 

[Alien18]

Don't say that, I haven't tried it again yet. Haven't had any more footage to transfer. Will try it when I get home, if it doesn't work second time round, I'm blaming you, lol.

 

[Alien18]

Hi,

Not long got home and tested it - you are right it's worked first time but now it's not working!!

Can you remember what you did? Did you ever get it working properly?

Many thanks for any help.

 

[Alien18]

Hi All,

I've tried tonnes of stuff to get this working and will soon be going crazy! Nothing I try is working. Shouldn't this stuff be idiot proof! lol. If anyone has any tips/help at all I'd be very grateful.

Alien

 

[jon86]

When I had a dodgy driver install for a wireless dongle on Vista, I removed all the drivers for the device using Device Manager. You have to 'unhide' the devices that aren't connected and select uninstall all drivers from Properties. There is plenty of information available via Google. Just have a look.

 

[Alien18]

Aha, It's the unhide bit I didn't know existed. It is something I've googled but perhaps I wasn't googling the right thing!

Many thanks, I'll give this a go when I get home.

 

[jon86]

Take a look here. My Google search was unhide disconnected devices "device manager" "vista".

 

[Alien18]

That's great cheers. Looking forward to getting home and trying this out. Many thanks for your help. I'll let you know how I get on.