I have the same problem as taymarie22

[pinkie-pixie]

so I went to this site suggested by google and trusted it because it is partnered by Microsoft http://www.driverupdate.net/articles/download_theme/windows-8-driver-downloads.php?aps=win8textsplit_download

What a load of crap, it cost me nearly $50 to download for a technitian to activate it on my laptop and then to tell me my 6 month old Toshiba laptop is critical and I have to pay their technitians $200 to fix my laptop. WTF I spent a fortune on this laptop and then micro software and nortons and now I cant use the apps cos they have to be updated yet I cant do this cos the apps wont let me WTF has this world come to, neva had shit problems until the world turned technical...... and I mostly us my laptop for tafe, volunteering work, and research, rarely shop online unless its vistaprint or a site that is well known and used, but that is rarely.....so how does my laptop get critical in 6 months. now I cant use the App to view my car camrecorder, and up till today I had no problems using it.......

 

[Agam3mn0n]

Sorry, but can you detail the problem you are having and the make then model of your laptop. Computers don't go critical, they can have component failures and software related issues, but they are machines and like any machine they are only as reliable as the last time they are used. Additionally utilities like Driverupdate may be useful for finding rare and difficult to obtain software, but your laptop will have been supplied with all the device drivers required to allow it to function, drivers are generally released and distributed freely and if you know the component you can usually find the drivers for it.

 

[pinkie-pixie]

Sorry, but can you detail the problem you are having and the make then model of your laptop. Computers don't go critical, they can have component failures and software related issues, but they are machines and like any machine they are only as reliable as the last time they are used. Additionally utilities like Driverupdate may be useful for finding rare and difficult to obtain software, but your laptop will have been supplied with all the device drivers required to allow it to function, drivers are generally released and distributed freely and if you know the component you can usually find the drivers for it.

 

[pinkie-pixie]

thank you for your quick response my laptop is a Toshiba Satellite L850 windows 8 .... I was unable to view my camrecorder in video as it said to install update, this I did but it said it ran into a problem and after an hour of waiting for the update this did not happen. so I googled my question which brought me to this forum, in this forum there was a google add with the website I mentioned www.driverupdate.net so I went to it an , this site said it was in "Partnership with Microsoft" so I trusted it, they charged me $50 to download. Then it send me to support technician to activate it, which I did. She then did an assessment on my laptop saying there were many problems and my laptop was slow, she wanted me to pay $200 for their online technicians to fix my , I told her to ah heck off. (is this a scam??) anyway I got on my laptop early this morning and windows 8.1 popped up for me to install, this took 3 hrs to do. now I can use videos and other apps once again. but now have a bigger issue that I have not encountered before my laptop is running the slowest it has ever run and takes 10 min for a webpage to come up properly. I just got off phone to MS I insisted they do a check on this site using MS name as it will give them a bad name, he then tried to connect me to them and tried to contact them himself and then got straight back to me & said "I think its a fraud, contact your bank straight away" which I have (the transaction comes up as "SAFECART") . So now I have to some how uninstall their driver :-( hopefully my PC will speed up after that. If you have any hints or suggestions, would appreciate it. Thank you so much for your support, your a "Gem"

 

[Agam3mn0n]

Whats the make and model of the Camera you are trying to get video from? I understand the hassles with driverupdate, I am uncertain how they function as a business, but it's not a product that I have ever used. I'd also advise against trusting adverts even on Tomshardware. The reason is twofold... Let me explain...

Tomshardware is a fantastic website, one of the best when it comes to technology and PC related hardware. I highly recommend having a flick through some of its excellent articles, you will learn more from here than you could in just about any college course.

But the site is not free, it is paid for via advertising. Now like all web sites that are ad supported, Tomshardware has no control over the adverts that are displayed. Many of them may be sourced from google, some from various other advertising companies. The advertising can use your web browsing history to build a profile of you for better targeting of adverts, ones you are most likely to click on.

Now it is highly unusual for a laptop "to go critical" (a phrase that doesn't make much sense with computing devices) within the timeframe you have suggested. The situation you have described sounds VERY similar to a potential scam. I'm not sure if you recall but last year there was a period when people pretending to be from Microsoft were cold calling Australian, US and UK homes under the pretences that they had detected a problem with your computer. The problem with this is simple enough, firstly Microsoft do not cold call home users ever. Secondly Microsoft don't then guide you to a dodgy website to download a program that can then be used to create problems with your computer or even worse seize control of it for their own gain. That group of individuals were shut down but not before they scammed people out of millions of dollars. What happened after that group was shutdown? Another one took its place.

Generally speaking I don't trust anyone who makes claims like the one you encountered. It usually sends alarm bells ringing in my head. The problem with scammers is that the could be piggy-backing on legitimate businesses too. All the same, exercise caution with everything you are asked to do by a scammer, and that includes anything I ask you to do too! You have absolutely no way of knowing if I am an asshole trying to install a program on your computer to capture all your passwords and usernames.

To your issue!!

This is what I think has happened, you attempted to plug in a camera to your computer, your computer needed to download an update for the camera/device before you could access it, but it did not succeed.

Let me explain what Windows does and the possible reasons why it failed. When you plug a new device into a Windows Computer, Windows will try to use some of the generic software it has already got installed.

If the generic software does not work, Windows will then take some basic information about the device (usually an identifier or something like that) then send it to Windows Update, it will ask Windows Update if there is a piece of software (usually a driver) for the device you plugged in. If there is one available on Windows Update Windows will download and install it, if not the process will fail. This is probably what happened

There is a reason for this too, it is possible that the device is simply too old to be supported on new versions of Windows, this happens because features and functions change and improve, but this can leave older devices behind. But it could simply be the fact that there are literally millions of devices that have been released over the years for Windows and for various versions of Windows. It's just not physically possible for Microsoft to actually manage all of these itself, so it maintains a compatible list of good common generic software that works with most things.

This is how you can potentially solve problems like this, use the make and model of your camrecorder. It may be possible to find a Windows 8 driver for this device (or any other device) from the manufacturers web site. If you go to the manufacturer and search for the product in question. If it helps I actually have a Sony HD Digital Video camera too along with a Webcam as well. I do a little bit of hobbyist level video work. So I understand how much of a pain locating functioning drivers can be.

 

[Agam3mn0n]

Now the second problem. The performance issues with your machine, could have been created via the installation of dodgy software that ties up system resources. The problem with dodgy software is that it can be an absolute nightmare to get rid off. It is possible you may need a 'anti-malware' utility to clean your computer.

There are free ones available. but I think the best starting point is to go to the control panel of your computer and un-install the driverupdate program. There is no guarantee that this will correct the problem, or that it will even do anything, but it might work. do that first then see what happens.

Next stop is an anti-malware product. Then if your computer is still slow the next thing to try out will be to have a look at the task manager to see what is still consuming computer's resources (if anything). Taskmanager can be difficult to use and potentially misleading however if you don't know what to look for.

 

[pinkie-pixie]

Whats the make and model of the Camera you are trying to get video from? .

Once again thank you so much as you are very informative and obviously know what you are talking about my Dashcam is Response 1080P HD Care Event Recorder (model QV-3840). However I think it is ok now after windows 8.1 popped up and told me to update windows 8, this I did and now I am able to view the recordings once again.

As for the other stuff you are right and I will uninstall the software I downloaded, my bank is issuing me a new card and will help me recover the money, at least it was only a small amount even if Im on the pension. normally Im pretty savvy with scammers and in 10 years of being on the net this is the first time I let down my guard, however this is the first time I bought a new computer (laptop) and ever had the latest update in software so its pretty new to me, up until now I had those old big bulky cream computers and monitors and only dial up internet. now I finally have broadband for my volunteer work and TAFE thank you again Agam3mn0n