Maximum PC

Okay, so here is my problem, if anyone has any ideas. I do a lot of video editing sometimes & use the firewire port on my Toshiba Satellite U305-S5107 running Windows Vista & Sony Vegas. I recently installed the Google talk plugin - it seemed like a good idea at the time - for an extra option to video chat with a few friends of mine. Normally when I go to Video Capture I have two choices - the webcam and Microsoft DV Camera & VCR. After installing Google talk Microsoft was removed & replaced with Google Camera Adapter 0 & Google Camera Adapter 1, neither of which work or do anything.

I have read on the web that several other people have had similar problems so I uninstalled Google Talk Plugin but still no luck. Anyone have an idea how to get Microsoft Camera DV back & regain access to my firewire port? Microsoft said I needed to contact Toshiba, and Toshiba said I needed to talk to Microsoft. Google had nothing. Not sure where everything is, but the cameras are still located in the registry, just can't access them.

If worse comes to worse, I do make it a habit to back up my computer every year onto an external HD, but I'd rather not have to resort to that, especially over something that seems so stupid & simple. I would assume either I need to re-install a driver (that neither Microsoft or Toshiba seem to have) or make a simple edit in the Registry but I'm not sure where. Any ideas would be welcome. Also, I could use XUBUNTU but it has never recognized my firewire port so any ideas on getting it to work in my linux distro would be helpful too. Thank you & have a great day!

- Peter