3Com HomeConnect USB Camera Installation for Windows 7-32 bit
Last update: 25-Sept-2011: This 1998-vintage USB Camera, now long unsupported by the
manufacturer, can in fact be installed successfully under Windows 7-32
(and Vista and XP) using the download available on this
site. The modified driver is provided as a public service
only.
Windows 7-64 installation of the 32 bit driver is not possible, and a 64-bit driver will never be developed.
Some manual operations may be required if you have attempted to load the ViCAM6858 drivers from the Vista Imaging Inc website.
The techniques described below require use of the Registry Editor (REGEDIT.EXE) and the Device Manager.
Let's assume that you have run the ViCAM6858.exe installer. This does complete under Windows 7, and creates a set of files in C:\Program Files\ViCAM.
When the camera is plugged in, you may or may not get a message that the driver is not functioning. In any case, the ViCAM utilities (such as VidCap.exe) will report that the capture device is not detected.
Start the Device Manager.
You will likely see the 3Com HomeConnect entry in the Other devices class. Alternatively, you may see the 3Com HomeConnect entry in the USB controllers class. This is the problem that has to be corrected.
For Windows 7-32 ONLY...Download the new Driver Installer and run it.
Please note this is a critical first step, and has to be done. If you miss this step the and try just the Driver Update described below, the camera won't work.
These files install to C:\Program Files\ViCAM\drivers
Still in the Device Manager ...
right click the 3Com HomeConnect entry and select Update Driver.
Click Browse my computer for driver software. This window below should appear. If required click the browse button to locate the directory as shown.
Click Next ...you should see the window below.
This Windows 7 message appears because the driver software is not signed, and never will be.
Click Install this driver software anyway , and the updated driver is installed. This takes 10-15 seconds.
If you get this error ...
The following should have occurred during the installation, but Windows 7 may have prevented it.
Copy Bwcc32.dll
vicam_32.dll vicamreg.dll
to the C:\Windows
directory
and
vicamusb.sys to C:\Windows\system32\drivers
This .sys
file also required C:\Windows\system32\drivers\usbd.sys which is part
of Windows, and should be present.
then use the Device
Manager to reload the driver, as above.
The Device Manager window should update and look like this.
The camera is now installed in the correct Imaging devices class, and appears as a PiXCL 10 USB (3ComHC) Camera.
You can run the VidCap.exe utility, select the camera as the video input device and you should see the video stream from the camera.
There may be other issues that occur that require manual file and/or Registry entry removal.
Cleaning out old driver files
When drivers are loaded, Windows makes a copy of the driver INF file and uses this copy to load the driver when the device is plugged in again. When a driver installation fails or the uninstallation process fails for some reason, Windows does not delete the copy or copies. What is necessary is to find and remove these files.
Here's the procedure.
Using the Explorer Search functions, look in the C:\Windows\inf directory for any oem*.inf files containing "PiXCL". You will probably find multiple copies of these, named (say) oem25.inf, oem26.inf and so forth.
You will likely also find related files oem25.pnf, oem26.pnf and so forth. Delete all the oem*.inf | .pnf files located by your search.
DO NOT DELETE ANY OTHER .INF OR .PNF FILES or your system will probably not reboot correctly.
Now, remove the 3Com HC, reboot Windows, and try to install the driver again.
If you stll have problems, email for Technical Support.
Since you are here, please have a look around the rest of our Website.
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