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desperate for help with Morgan Philips SPC880 (sorry i know its old ground)

chesty

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chesty

chesty

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sorry for same topic guys but i am desperate for some help, i bought a morgans philips spc880 after reading about the bargain here although a total newbie to my scope/astronomy thought i would take advantage of a bargain, anyways downloaded driver from morgans link plugged in cam and it worked, laptop is old xp full of junk etc (thanks kids) so i thought i would reinstall pc to make better use of it for my hobby reinstalled windows etc then downloaded driver link again plugged in cam and NOTHING doesnt recognise it its like it hasnt even got a driver dont know what i have done wrong this time any help would be appreciated.:o

ps i havent flashed cam i was just going to buy adapter and use as is

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CGolder

CGolder

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you need to manually select the driver file, go device manager, find the device with a question mark next to it, right click and update driver, then specify a location and click have disk, then select the file you downloaded... this is off the top of my head so the details might be wrong. i don;t have a xp machine any more

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Merlin999

Merlin999

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This may be a complete red herring, but I had a similar problem with XP last year where it would not recognize devices even if I had the driver sitting right there and even if I pointed it to the directory with the driver in it. A big search on the web found this is not uncommon and there are loads of recommendations from editing the REGISTRY directly to completely reinstalling XP.

The solution that worked for me was:

Plug in the device

When it offers you the option to search for new drivers or for you to say which directory to search, you click on the option to nominate a directory. Then you type in C:\WINDOWS\INF

and let it run. That solved my problem completely and now I am able to install anything to XP.

Another solution which has worked for some people is to disconnect the PC completely form power for a few minutes and then turn it back on. Didn't work for me, but you never know.

Hope you get it to work.

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Merlin66

Merlin66

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The other issue to watch is plugging it into different USB ports...

If you use a different port to the one originally used to install the camera it will go out looking for new drivers etc again...this will happen EVERYTIME you change the port.

I have a label on each port reminding me which one for which camera.

Ken

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Merlin999

Merlin999

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Can I just check chesty, after you reinstalled everything, you said you put the driver back on the PC? So the problem is not that you don't have the driver installed, it is that your PC is not recognizing the camera even with the driver installed? Have I got that right?

That was the situation I was in while trying to install my camera. The driver was installed but for some reason my PC simply couldn't find it. You could try to nominate the directory where the driver is as Colin (CGolder) has recommended or nominating C:\WINDOWS\INF as I said. Also as Merlin66 noted it is worthwhile looking at which USB port you are using. It is often said it is better to use USB ports at the back of the PC rather than at the front.

Good luck with it. I know how frustrating it is to have devices not recognised: drives you crazy!!

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Merlin66

Merlin66

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Chesty,

I'm assuming after your re-install of XP that you included the additional service pack updates -the latest being sp3.

If everything appears to be working on the machine - go back to basics - reboot the machine and start again.

The SPC880.inf file provided by Morgans is a batch file which will load the necessary drivers etc on your machine.

This file can be placed anywhere.

Once the file is on your machine plug in the camera...XP should recognise "new hardware" and when asked use the auto search for the drivers...takes a little time but it should find the .inf file.

If this isn't working for you then there's probably a problem with your XP installation an the device drivers....

Ken

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gfletcher

gfletcher

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Chesty

Try creating a new folder on your desktop (name it say 880).

Copy the Inf. file into this folder.

When you are then asked for the directory to look for the Inf. file, browse and click on the new folder that you have produced.

Graham

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chesty

chesty

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i think you are on the right lines merlin i am just trying system restore to before i put on the service pk 3 etc if that doesnt work will try comlete re-install, bearing in mind when it did work before i re-installed i was running on spk 2

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chesty

chesty

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right i restored to earliest point, plugged in cam this time it atually recognised i had plugged something in usb it searched for drivers and couldnt find them so i pointed it to c:/windows/inf and it said couldnt find software then bubble poppedup at bottom hardware not installed properly then another popped up found new hardware usb audio device totaly confused now

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Freff

Freff

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I flashed my SPC880 on an XP laptop as suggested in another thread. Everything went fine and I started using it uprated on a Win7 laptop for which it was intended.

After reading this thread I tried it again on my XP laptop as a now SPC900, and it fails to be recognised. I have also tried what has been suggest here to no avail............puzzled. :o

Tony

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Merlin66

Merlin66

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Chesty,

Well sounds like you are getting there - albeit slowly!

If the machine recognises that the camera has been plugged in; that's a good first step! XP obviously is having problems with the necessary 880nc.inf file (the one from Morgan's).

When the camera does install it happens in two bites - the first is the Video and the second the Audio.

You need somehow to get the 880 inf file to be "seen" by XP.

Are you 100% sure this file is in the c:\windows\inf folder?

Put a copy in say c:\ (the root directory) and then point the installation to the file on c:\

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chesty

chesty

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:)cracked it i didnt realise the inf file was a file with others in i thought the driver downloaded from morgans was the inf file so i just put it into inf file and it recognised it straight away installed and working :oseems like it only takes snapshots though so i guess my questions now are

1 do i need to flash it (am going to be using it on xp laptop)

2 what software do i need.

and btw thanks for all your help so far guys, sorry to be a pain :o

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Freff

Freff

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Tony,

Did the second XP machine have the Philips SPC900nc drivers installed??

The XP machine was the only used to flash the hardware, the Win7 was to run the SPC900nc. When I went back to the XP to try and run the now flashed cam it wouldn't work. It did work originally on the XP as the SPC880.

Hope that makes sense.:o

Tony

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Merlin66

Merlin66

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Tony,

Yes that makes sense...

The 880.inf file is all that the computer needed to "see" the original 880 camera...after you flashed it to 900 level the old drivers are no good; it needs the Philips 900nc drivers to function. Sounds like the XP machine didn't have the 900nc drivers installed whereas the Win7 did.

Ken

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Freff

Freff

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Tony,

Yes that makes sense...

The 880.inf file is all that the computer needed to "see" the original 880 camera...after you flashed it to 900 level the old drivers are no good; it needs the Philips 900nc drivers to function. Sounds like the XP machine didn't have the 900nc drivers installed whereas the Win7 did.

Ken

Ken, spot on. It did need to "see" the original driver for the 880. That's great because it means I can use my netbook rather than the very large Vaio for capture. Thanks.

Tony

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