I have the same problem as taymarie22

Whats the make and model of the Camera you are trying to get video from? I understand the hassles with driverupdate, I am uncertain how they function as a business, but it's not a product that I have ever used. I'd also advise against trusting adverts even on Tomshardware. The reason is twofold... Let me explain...

Tomshardware is a fantastic website, one of the best when it comes to technology and PC related hardware. I highly recommend having a flick through some of its excellent articles, you will learn more from here than you could in just about any college course.

But the site is not free, it is paid for via advertising. Now like all web sites that are ad supported, Tomshardware has no control over the adverts that are displayed. Many of them may be sourced from google, some from various other advertising companies. The advertising can use your web browsing history to build a profile of you for better targeting of adverts, ones you are most likely to click on.

Now it is highly unusual for a laptop "to go critical" (a phrase that doesn't make much sense with computing devices) within the timeframe you have suggested. The situation you have described sounds VERY similar to a potential scam. I'm not sure if you recall but last year there was a period when people pretending to be from Microsoft were cold calling Australian, US and UK homes under the pretences that they had detected a problem with your computer. The problem with this is simple enough, firstly Microsoft do not cold call home users ever. Secondly Microsoft don't then guide you to a dodgy website to download a program that can then be used to create problems with your computer or even worse seize control of it for their own gain. That group of individuals were shut down but not before they scammed people out of millions of dollars. What happened after that group was shutdown? Another one took its place.

Generally speaking I don't trust anyone who makes claims like the one you encountered. It usually sends alarm bells ringing in my head. The problem with scammers is that the could be piggy-backing on legitimate businesses too. All the same, exercise caution with everything you are asked to do by a scammer, and that includes anything I ask you to do too! You have absolutely no way of knowing if I am an asshole trying to install a program on your computer to capture all your passwords and usernames.

To your issue!!

This is what I think has happened, you attempted to plug in a camera to your computer, your computer needed to download an update for the camera/device before you could access it, but it did not succeed.

Let me explain what Windows does and the possible reasons why it failed. When you plug a new device into a Windows Computer, Windows will try to use some of the generic software it has already got installed.

If the generic software does not work, Windows will then take some basic information about the device (usually an identifier or something like that) then send it to Windows Update, it will ask Windows Update if there is a piece of software (usually a driver) for the device you plugged in. If there is one available on Windows Update Windows will download and install it, if not the process will fail. This is probably what happened

There is a reason for this too, it is possible that the device is simply too old to be supported on new versions of Windows, this happens because features and functions change and improve, but this can leave older devices behind. But it could simply be the fact that there are literally millions of devices that have been released over the years for Windows and for various versions of Windows. It's just not physically possible for Microsoft to actually manage all of these itself, so it maintains a compatible list of good common generic software that works with most things.

This is how you can potentially solve problems like this, use the make and model of your camrecorder. It may be possible to find a Windows 8 driver for this device (or any other device) from the manufacturers web site. If you go to the manufacturer and search for the product in question. If it helps I actually have a Sony HD Digital Video camera too along with a Webcam as well. I do a little bit of hobbyist level video work. So I understand how much of a pain locating functioning drivers can be.