Hi,

Thanks for your email -

To clarify, once installed things work. But only once the follow has
happennd (and this happens to everything)

1. Windows detects that there is new hardware (woohoo, at least it does
that!)
2. It then does its "automatic" searching stuff - like in xp i would add.
3. It then phafs about and fails. It then says somthing like have you got a
disk, or asks for manual location.
4. Well, for mass storage devices and USB keys, i know Windows Vista (and xp
and others for that matter) have it all in the box.
5. I therefore direct Windows driver search thingy to Windows/System32
director. It then has a whirl, and accepts it, and installs the device
without futhre problme.

Thing is, this is just not normal!! It didnt do this initally when i
upgraded from XP (ouch, may be should have done clean install...), but now
it does. Who knows what i've done to make this happen!

I have the disks (I have the cd's not the dvd) of Windows Vista Business
(full install)). How do i "repair" windows? I mean, i am sure it's just a
matter of fixing the windows installation. there must be some currupt file,
no? With XP you used to bung in the disk, and see this option "repair". I
really really do not want to re-install everything from scratch. Everything
else is working really well - and i'm a relaitvely happy customer with
everything else!


I am sorry you have so many issues with your hardware. I dont see why the
manufactures couldnt get thier act togher. My digital camera ( a cheap
thing) is an olympu. It just sees the device as external storage aparently ,
according to the manual. Also, there is a list on thier website (the
japensese one i think) with a list of Vista compatible devices. I had an old
olympus C300-zoom. Never offically worked on XP, but a change to an inf file
did the trick (some legal problme or other lead microsoft to disable it).
Olympus havnt been great in my history. As for your HP and Canon stuff -
well, that's just rubbish!! Why why why cant they sort it? i supsect its all
about getting us to pay for more kit! :-(

William






"C. Britton" <CBritton@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:5D34B5A5-66F7-4C13-B62A-659745716A81@microsoft.com...[color=blue]
> Hi William,
> After reading your message it is unclear whether you are adding new
> hardware
> items and Vista doesn't find drivers for them or whether you are saying
> that
> drivers for previously installed items have become inacessible. If you
> are
> trying to install something new like an external hard drive and the
> drivers
> aren't found it probably is because you don't have the drivers on the
> computer.
>
> Frankly you are the only person I have heard say they were impressed with
> driver support. Like you, I tested the Beta versions and I had the same
> problems I now have with the retail version of Ultimate. I don't have
> drivers for my HP printer, my Western Digital Dual Option external drive,
> my
> Canon Scanner, my Asus A8N-SLI-Deluxe motherboard and its Nvidia chipset
> or
> my Olympus digital camera.
>
> If you are saying that hardware that previously operated correctly has
> stopped because of a driver problem then my suggestion would be to boot
> from
> the Vista DVD and restore the drivers from the DVD. That should fix the
> problems.
>
> If the problem hardware is something new that has never worked with Vista
> then the only solution is to keep looking for the drivers at the
> manufacturer's website. This has become a daily routine for me as I keep
> hoping for them to issue new drivers.
>
> Good luck!
>
> "William Dowell" wrote:
>[color=green]
>> Hello,
>>
>> Firstly, i apologise if this is the "wrong" news thread - i have tried a
>> few, but to no avail. If this is the incorrect one, please please don't
>> just
>> say it is the wrong one, but point me to the right one!
>>
>> Now, my problem:
>> (I'm using RTM version of Windows Vista - business).
>>
>> It all worked fine for about a week or so, detecting all devices plugged
>> in
>> (and i have to say, was mightily impressed with driver support..)
>>
>> Until.. these last few days...
>>
>> Whenever I add a hardware device - from basic things of External HDD,
>> camera
>> or USB keys etc, the driver search fails, and asks for a manual
>> location..
>> Same goes for hubs. All items. Now, I KNOW Vista has all of this
>> built in - because you just tell it, each time, to go to System 32
>> folder,
>> and it
>> finds the mass-storage / or other driver, no problem.
>>
>> However EVERYTIME i add something new it does this. This didn't happen
>> when
>> i
>> first installed Vista, and its a horrible experience. I want it back
>> automatically installing!
>>
>> I was a tester for Windows Vista for I can't even remember how long - and
>> never seen this before..
>>
>> Is there a fix for this / Re-set something in the registry? It's driving
>> me
>> insane! And, everyone who sees my lovely Vista laptop goes "wow" and then
>> plugs in their USB Key, and goes "ohhh... oh yes, they said on the news
>> it
>> was full of problems"!!! - I don't like that, as its not fair to
>> Microsoft,
>> so... any solution, please... and I can assure you it will get my
>> friends /
>> colleagues in the shops for a start!
>>
>> Kind regards, and thanks in advance to the genius who can sort this out
>> for
>> me :-)
>>
>> William
>>[/color][/color]