How to COMPLETELY remove a webcam driver, please?

Hi all,
I'm having a great deal of grief with a new 6730b and the one serious remaining problem I have is that the battery, even though plugged in on AC, displays as 'plugged in not charging'.

I've discovered - by endless hours of hard slog - that the webcam driver is actually the issue here. I've uninstalled the chicony software and, on the few occasions that I've succeeded in uninstalling the driver & kept it uninstalled for the next start-up, the battery recommences charging. But in recent days it's reverted to reinstalling the driver on start-up, and stopping the battery recharging.

I can't seem to permanently remove the driver, no matter how hard I try. And I really, really want to!
The driver uninstall or disable in Device Manager only gets rid of it until the next start up (and unless I can restart without it reinstalling, the battery doesn't get kicked into recharge).

I've even tried deleting the driver from Windows\System32\drivers - I changed all the permissions to enable me to delete and... deleted it! Even double checked that it had gone to the recycle bin. Yes, it's there.

But I restart after all this and the damn thing has magically put itself back in the same file.

Can somebody PLEASE advise me of how to exterminate this beast of a driver. Because until I can do so, I have a brick that won't work away from AC.

Thank you!

 

Just double checking, have you tried removing the webcam software thru programs and features in control panel? I had an issue before about my touchpad that I had to uninstall its driver first, however doing it thru device manager just prompts a reinstall after a reboot, so I did it thru programs and features, took out the touchpad software, and after the reboot, there is not automatic reinstall running, and I was able to proceed with what I was about to do.

 

Thanks for responding.

Yes, I'd first taken the software off through add/remove. The other thing I tried yesterday was removing the driver entry from the registry, hoping it wouldn't then search for it - and still it bounced back.

 

Okay i'll tell you a secret.

Uninstall the driver via normal means, then before you reboot, go into C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore and delete the driver files there. It's C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository for Windows 7. Btw, watch out what you delete there. You can remove the WHOLE FOLDER without breaking Windows, but next time you plug in a new device it'll be a lot of fun getting it recognized.

 

So wait, you are saying that the webcam driver is keeping your battery from charging???

What brought you to this conclusion???

 

I would just disable the device in the device manager, then it matters not if the driver is there in any way shape or form as the computer wont even see the device or try to use it.

 

Thank you for that! Have followed your directions. Now have a recharging battery - strange but true!

 

The truth is probably stranger than fiction. Apart from what's being reported on other forums, a reasonably logical process of exclusion. Interestingly, over on the HP business forum there are a number of dissgruntled 6730b owners who are attributing a large number of seemingly unrelated failures to the in-built webcam. A number have totally disabled the webcam and overcome the conflicts - it does seem like this one bit of kit is being pronounced guilty of a disproportionately large number of problems.

Anyway, I'm now back on track with a reassuring 'battery recharging' symbol after taking out the drivers. Thanks all.