I thought that getting a laptop with a Windows Vista operating system would be a good idea. Wouldn't I be ahead of the changeovers that would be happening in the next few years? Even if Vista is not really a leap forward from XP, aren't I being smart?
In the midst of moving, I had not tried out my webcam on the new laptop. When I finally tested it the other day, it refused to work. Thinking it was broken, I called the manufacturor (DYNEX). After half an hour of troubleshooting with the rep, he determined that my camera was broken. He was also fully aware that I had Windows Vista.
Next step, I found my credit card statement showing that I had indeed purchased the camera within the time limit for the warranty. Best Buy didn't want to do the exchange, but I got on the phone with the manufacturer and after another half an hour, I had a new camera. When doing the exchange, I asked the store employee if the camera really worked with Vista. "I don't know," he said.
When I came home the camera didn't work - in the same manner that my first camera hadn't worked. So when I called the manufacturer asking if their cameras worked with Windows Vista, the answer was "no." I feel like an idiot, because I should have known that having Vista this early would cause all sorts of problems, and I should have spotted the problem yesterday morning, not yesterday evening after hours of telephone conversations and a trip to Best Buy.
Dynex won't tell me approximate dates for the release of the driver (one week? six months?), there is no telephone number to call to find out, and there is not even an email address to write to. All I got is an address to write to in Minnesota. BestBuy also can't tell me when the driver will be available, and they also can't identify even one webcam that works with Vista.
I feel like I'm having deja vu, and that this is what happens when me and hardware come together.
I like these comments
But seeing as how Creative is not releasing its Vista drivers until the end of 2007, so I am selling this Dynex camera.
1 comment:
II was able to get the Dynex WebCam 100 and 101 series to work on my Vista systems. This is what I did, some of the steps might be required if the files required already exist.:
1. Installing the latest driver download from Dynex. Let it fail.
2. Vista will ask if you want to try again - do it. (on the 101 I had to do this twice to get through it with no errors)
3. In the device manager, right-click and select update driver.
4. Select the Browse My Computer option.
5. Select the Let Me Pick... option.
6. You should see a VGA USB Camera - select it and complete the operation.
Hope it works for others.
Post a Comment