Adding camcorder hardware/new hardware wizard

My computer crashed a while back and we had to have it formatted and had to get Windows XP re-installed. Ever since then, every time I try to add new hardware to it instead of just automatically loading it to the system, the "add hardware wizard" pops up and tries to search for the drivers and then gives me an error saying they weren't found. I know we never had to manually load any drivers on before the computer went down for our camcorder, digital cameras, printer, etc. Why would we have to now? We don't have the original software for all of these things since several of them are quite old. I checked the "plug and play" option in the admin tools and it is enabled. Are there any other settings that could have been changed on the re-install that would cause Windows XP to not automatically find the drivers it needs and install them? I tried a few of the devices on our laptop and they all automatically loaded without any "hardware wizard" prompts so I know it's not the devices themselves. I looked for drivers online for our camcorder and there weren't any available since it's 8 years old. Any help would be appreciated.
 
First, make sure you have installed all XP updates up to and including Service Pack 3. Select and install all updates including any hardware updates. When you look for camcorder, printer or other add-on peripheral devices, you have to look on the manufacturers support website. Because the "add new hardware wizard" pops up, this tells me that you are missing motherboard device drivers in the Device Manager. If you see any yellow exclamation points in the device manager, these will have to be corrected. The person that re-loaded XP for you should have taken care of these "missing" devices
 
It's a 'must' now to have service pack 3 with XP, then other relevant updates will follow from 'Microsoft updates' service; (Start, All programs, Windows update).
As mentioned above, the 'third party' drivers can only come from the manufacturer of that equipment.
A useful driver scanner that is free to use, is; www.driveridentifier.com
This will show up what is missing from your system, and can find and install drivers if you require.
 
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