Youre in a bit of a pickle if you're using Windows XP or Vista (i.e.,
any Windows operating system that is less than 10 years old).
the Xirlink IBM Pro Max has been out of production for a few years. In fact, the manufacturer (Xirlink)
doesn't even have a site anymore. That's right, its older than Dakota Fanning, but we won't be deterred, will we?
Let's fix it so it can operate on XP/Vista:
- download the original driver for windows 98 by going here. NOTE: Make sure you save this on your desktop or somewhere that you can find it easily, I can not stress this enough.
- let's examine the driver status in Device Manager. You can get to
the device manager by right-clicking on My Computer, clicking on
Properties, clicking on the Hardware tab, and then clicking on the
Device Manager button. The Device Manager on my notebook computer
indicated a problem with a USB IMAGING DEVICE
- Double-clicking on the USB IMAGING DEVICE brings up the
Properties. It turned out that the driver for the IBM PC Camera is not
installed, as shown in picture below. To install the driver correctly,
click on the "Reinstall Driver..." button.
- The "Reinstall Driver..." button brings up the Hardware Update
Wizard, which will help guide you through installing the correct driver
for the IBM PC Camera. The first thing it asks you is whether you would
allow it to connect to Windows Update server to search for the software
driver. Pick "No, not this time". Click on the "Next >" button to
continue.
- The next screen asks whether you would like the Hardware Update
Wizard to install the software automatically or manually (see picture
below). Select "Install from a list or specific location." It will
prompt you to find the driver. Remember where I said to download it on
the desktop? If you did, it should be right there :)
- Because the driver isn't made for Windows XP, it would throw up a
warning box shown below. The warning box says that the driver "has not
passed Windows Logo testing to verify its compatibility with Windows
XP." This warning is really just Microsoft's way of getting you to buy
newer hardware. Click on "Continue Anyway"; the IBM PC Camera will work
just fine with Windows XP.
- Now, the Hardware Update Wizard has installed the driver for the camera, so you can click "Finish" to complete the process.
- After closing the Hardware Update Wizard, you will return to the
driver properties box. Noticed that the title of the box has changed
from "USB IMAGING DEVICE Properties" to "IBM PC Camera Properties". And
you will see that the driver and device are now working properly. Click
the "Close" button to close this dialog box.
- After closing the driver property box, you will see that the
Device Manger has been updated as well. It now shows the IBM PC Camera
device driver in a working state.
- Voila! We're done. Open up skype or whatever you wish to use to
show your pretty mug and grab a beer for all the hard effort. If you're
not 21, well, get some cider or something.
Hope this helped you!
TechJuli
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