Question

I have recently bought a new laptop with Windows 7, and I want to upload digital movie footage from my old Sony Handycam DCR-TRV140E PAL. When I plugged it in to the USB port, Windows couldn't find the driver for it.

How can I resolve this or where should I look for a driver suitable?

I have been on the internet and found plenty of Driver scanners but these do not pick up that there is no driver for the camcorder.

Answer 1

If you still have the original disk, I would look at downloading a virtualisation solution such as:

• Virtual PC/XP Mode (free)

• Sun Virtual Box (free)

• VMware Workstation (not free, but best!)

Then, set up USB on the guest and you should be able to install and use your cam corder as if it is on an older system. I do this all the time for some of my really old gadgets.

Answer 2

From Microsoft Support Site

To work around this problem, manually start Windows Movie Maker. You can then import video from the video camera. To start Windows Movie Maker, click Start Start button , click All Programs, and then click Windows Movie Maker.

For more information about how to import video from a videotape in Windows Movie Maker, visit the following Microsoft Web site: http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/3e615a40-6f59-45fd-b1ee-8849f74acac11033.mspx

If you can, please follow up on this. We been getting a lot of these here lately I would like to know that we have solved it.

Answer 3

Sony driver page for this camcorder says for Vista and Win7:

The drivers needed to connect your Sony camcorder to a computer and transfer files are already included in the operating system.

If that's not the case, is your Windows 7 64-bits? This could explain the problem.
You might try to see if the camcorder is recognized in XP Mode.

Answer 4

Just found this page on the Sony Asia site.

Says something about running in 32-bit compatibility mode when running under a 64 bit OS.