XP on 5920: Mic/Webcam problems

I've been having issues with Vista on this machine, so yesterday I decided to scrap Vista and all the Acer software and install XP Pro. Now I have XP Pro SP3 installed.

I Googled and downloaded the XP drivers needed for audio (RealTek), webcam (Suyin), etc, and while they work, I'm having problems. The webcam worked great before the switch to XP.

1. The webcam video quality is very poor, like an old tv that needs to be thrown out.

2. The audio pick-up of the built in microphone is extremely low. I've gone through all the adjustments I can find with no luck. This has actually gotten worse as I've tried to upgrade drivers and what-not. Before the audio quality was poor but it worked, now the audio is barely there at all.

Long story short, I have been trying to upgrade drivers both from the Acer website and from other sources, but I'm not making any progress. I installed the drivers before upgrading to SP3 (which I had read was the way to go), but now that I have installed SP3 and am reinstalling drivers, it seems like things have gotten worse. Any ideas?

 

Ok, I found the mic boost option in the RealTek software, and that helps with the volume, although the quality isn't as good as it used to be.

And I uninstalled everything to do with the webcam and reinstalled just the Suyin drivers I've found online for 5920/XP installation, and the video is still crap compared with how it was under Vista. Has anyone else had these sorts of video problems??

 

Upon further review, the mic boost sucks. Out of nowhere I started getting brutal feedback when I wasn't even using the mic!? This was only fixed by turned off boost, which brings me back to square one: barely audible audio, and really crappy video.