Re: Vista SP1 has crippled my PC!

Yes, OEM products usually comes at a price not understood by most consumers.
The vendor's answer is almost always: Recovery. The data lost is not theirs
and they are not concerned about it. And, older drivers are not always
better, but vendor's drivers are almost always better than MS's generic
drivers, even if they are older.

So,
At this point, you have two directions to proceed:
1. Uninstall SP1. This may prove to be difficult, but well worth a shot and
if it restores your capabilities, you can save all your data and start
clean.
2. Download and install all the available drivers and updates from HP for
the 6720s. Each will create restore points and each can be rolled back if it
causes a problem. But, you will know that it has been "re-aligned" back to
HP's original configuration.

Other questions:
Does BIOS see the DVD drive?

Does this DVD drive use LightScribe?
If so, uninstall LightScribe. Reboot.
If Device Manager can now see the DVD drive, that should at least give
you some backup capabilities.
You can try re-installing LightScribe later.

Did your external USB drive come with an installation disk? Most likely not,
but some do.
Does a flash stick work? (Does it get assigned a drive letter?)

"Andy G" <georgi66@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%230l$74J$IHA.5336@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Thanks Mark, I really didn't want to hear that older drivers may be better
than new ones, but I can see where you are coming from. It's a 6720s.

I had already installed the BIOS update. Since my last post I also
installed some of the HP Vista update files. Guess I should have done
that
before trying SP1. (It's really not that obvious though to ordinary
people
who just want to use a computer..... All got much too complicated.)

But I now have my USB hub working and therefore I have a printer, and also
an external hard drive that shows in Device Manager, and Disk Management
but
without a drive letter, and so cannot be seen by Windows Explorer etc. I
guess it's progress.

Still no sign of a working DVD drive. It shows in Device Manager, but
says
driver could not be loaded. How do I force system to choose cdrom.sys as
the driver? It keeps trying to use one of the burning software drivers
instead.

Anyway, thanks for the previous suggestion about downloading drivers from
HP
website. It's got me moving anyway, although I despair about the DVD
drive.

Andy




"Mark H" <jmhonzell@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:uIvLIsI$IHA.5192@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The vendor's older drivers may be better than a generic up-to-date MS
driver.

I don't know exactly which model of 6720 you are using.
But, apparently there is a BIOS update 19Jun08 that may apply. I'd start
there.


"Andy G" <georgi66@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:uiCq3EI$IHA.3396@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Yeah, I did that, but I couldn't actually see a driver for the DVD
drive
hardware or for USB support. Any chance you could suggest which driver
I
need?

Also, the machine was only bought in February of this year, and a lot
of
the
drivers pre-date that so I'm assuming I already have them.

Thanks

Andy


"Mark H" <jmhonzell@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:OAfSemH$IHA.2056@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
You appear to have internet capability... did you go to the HP
website,
download the drivers specific to your laptop and re-install them? SP1
may
have installed generics crippling your specific hardware.

Make sure you get the right 6720 model.
Here's the linke to the 6720s:


http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/DriverDownload.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=3442833&taskId=135&prodTypeId=321957&prodSeriesId=3442832&lang=en&cc=us


"Andy G" <georgi66@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:Oohtq$7%23IHA.4772@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Going round and round in circles, all support sources useless so
far.
Any
help would be really appreciated.

3 Days ago I had a Compaq notebook (6720s) that was working OK,
although
USB
functionality was pretty random.

Then I tried to install Vista SP1 as offered by Windows Update. The
install
failed. 2 different System Restore points also fail.... Terrific.

System no longer shows DVD drive in My Computer or Computer
Management,
but
it shows in Device Manager as not working, no drivers. My printer
(USB),
no
longer works, nor my external hard drive, (USB), nor apparently
anything
on
a USB port. Everything else seems OK, apart from System Restore of
course.

I've tried the Filters fix that everyone seems to suggest. No good.

Microsoft will not give me their much-trumpeted free support on SP1
as
my
Windows (Home Basic), is OEM. Hewlett Packard just suggest doing a
system
restore using F11 on start up. Tried that, and guess what, no
restore
points shown....

Catch 22, 44, and 66 as far as I can see.

No idea where to go next. I've tried some other stuff, but if
anyone
can
give me a steer to at least try thinking about other directions.

Thanks in advance.

Andy









.

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