Does the laptop recognise that the camcorder is connected? and if it does try switched the camcorder off - pause - then back on again, this done whilst everything is still connected. Doesn't your laptop have a firewire socket? this also known as a DVi or IEEE1394 socket, if it does then use that to couple into the camcorder as results are nearly always guaranteed with that connection, no software being required except windows moviemaker as is normally already supplied in new PC's. As you haven't mentioned the model of your camcorder its difficult to advise but check to make sure that your software supplied with the camcorder is actually Vista compatible, as most software supplied wasn't designed for this.