Pavilion dv6000t (dv6137tx) problems with Vista [windows live messenger, webcam, battery check]

Hi everyone, I have an HP Pavilion dv6137tx notebook pc (T5500 CPU, 1GB RAM, 120GB HDD, nVidia GeForce 7400 GPU). It came with Windows XP Media Center Edition but I opted to upgrade to Windows Vista Home Premium Edition using HP's Express Upgrade kit.

I am facing the following problems:

1. Windows Live Messenger worked fine in Windows XP, but it doesn't work in Vista. I uninstalled it and reinstalled it. When I try to use it, it gives me the following error:

Needless to say, troubleshooting doesn't solve the problem. I am behind a firewall (which I cannot control as I am on a campus network). This cannot be the reason why Live Messenger isn't working, as I was able to use it in XP.

I can't figure out how to fix this. I really need to use Live Messenger, so please help

2. My webcam doesn't work in XP if I go back to XP. It just shows up as "USB Video Device". Elsewhere on this forum, I had posted a query regarding this problem. Anyway, in Vista the webcam does work, but in Scanners and Cameras, no camera is shown to be installed. Is this because my webcam is an inbuilt device? Or is there something wrong with it?

3. HP Battery Check keeps saying that the primary battery cannot be detected. Here is the screenshot: http://spinor.sitesled.com/scr-battery-check-vista.jpg. It also shows troubleshooting steps which I have tried, in vain. Any ideas?

Thanks.

 

Maverick - I am surprised that your webcam works in Vista and not in XP. I have my dv2000t setup as a dual-boot - and the webcam works fine in XP but not in Vista (because, as I learned from this forum, Vista does not have any functionality to start the webcam, unlike XP, so you have to use Quickplay or Messenger. Its probably too late to say this, but I bought a spare SATA HDD and imaged my MCE2005 build over to it. That enabled me to get around the no-SATA drivers on XP CD problem. I intend to try to use the dv2000 MCE image on my inbound dv6000t. OK, Sorry, now to your problem - does the webcam show up in Windows Explorer or just in device manager?

 

JellyGeo, I think this is because the first time I installed Vista, I had to manually install a firmware update (as instructed by HP) for the webcam to work in Vista. And I wonder why Microsoft has removed the webcam from My Computer (or Computer) in Vista. It was an easy and convenient way to use the camera...anyway.

The first time I used Vista, a lot of stuff didn't work. I spent about 2 months using it and recently I went back to XP using Full Recovery (my system shipped with XP Media Center Edition, so the recovery dvds were for XP) was surprised to find the webcam wouldn't work. It was being displayed as "USB Video Device" both in My Computer and in Device Manager and any attempt to use it generated the error quoted in my first post.

An HP customer service representative told me to try installing the Vista driver on XP. Indeed, the webcam worked! But it was still registered as USB Video Device in Device Manager (you can rename it in My Computer) and most of its properties were not available.

So on a first look I think its that firmware update which has rendered the camera inoperable in XP...the system recovery dvds don't bring the system BIOS or firmware back to factory settings.

[Its another matter that my HP Upgrade media won't upgrade to Vista unless I manually start the installer from within XP.]

 

Okay, I can get Live Messenger 8.5 beta to work. All you need to do is do a "regsvr32 softpub.dll".

The webcam works fine in Vista, but it doesn't show up in Scanners and Cameras, which is rather weird