If you are one of those people who jumped on board the video train with Cisco back in the day, you’ve probably got a Cisco Unified Video Advantage (CUVA) camera on your desk.  This device, which suspiciously resembles a Logitech 4000/5000 QuickCam (more on that later), was used back in the day in conjunction with 7900 series IP phones to provide the first video-enabled endpoint.  It was a little better than using the 7985 monstrosity, but was a little iffy sometimes to get it working properly.  I, for one, stashed my CUVA camera in a drawer and promptly forgot about it until I won a video-enabled 9971 at Cisco Live Las Vegas this year (Thanks again, Cisco Collaboration!).  I wanted to test how the video calls worked between endpoints in the office.  So I dug my CUVA camera out of the desk, video enabled a couple of phones, and set about installing the software so we could do cool Blade Runner-style video phone calls.  Except, most of the machines in the office are now running Windows 7 64-bit and the CUVA camera doesn’t work with that OS at all.  Cisco has never updated the drivers to support 64-bit, and based on the documentation has no plans to do it in the near future.  Woe is me…

So, after a few months of casual searching, I finally stumbled across a post on Cisco’s Community Support Forums that fixed me right up.  All credit goes to these guys for figuring out the solution, I’m just reposting it here in case anyone wants to try it for themselves.

1.  Download the latest version of the Logitech QuickCam software from here: http://www.logitech.com/en-us/435/243?WT.z_sp=Image.  I chose the Logitech QuickCam 5000, as that is all a CUVA camera is (just different branding).  Be sure in the drop-down box to select your operating system as Windows Vista 64-bit, as that is the highest 64-bit OS supported.

2.  After downloading the drivers, copy them to a non-Windows 7 device.  This could be a Windows XP system, Windows XP mode, Windows XP in a VM, or Windows XP running on a toaster in your kitchen that you have KVM and Remote Desktop access to.  The important thing is that you DON’T want to install it on Windows 7 or Vista.  We aren’t actually installing it, just getting the drivers.

3.  Start the installation program.  It should extract the drivers then fail due to incorrect OS type.  We don’t care.  Navigate to your temporary folder (Start -> Run -> %temp% -> Click OK) and find the folder that the installation program copied the files to.  It should be something like “QuickCam_<Version Number>”.  Copy this whole folder back to the Windows 7 machine from your XP system/VM/toaster.

4.  Navigate through the folder structure in the “\Drivers\x64\PRO464” folder.  Inside you’ll find a whole bunch of driver files.  Specifically, we want to edit the lPRO464v.inf file.  Open it in Notepad or the replacement text editor of your choice.

5.  Now, for the fun part.  We need to do a find-and-replace for the hardware ID in this text file.  I had the most luck searching for the string “08C5” and replacing it with “08C7”.  Depending on the age of your CUVA camera, you could also try searching for “08B2” and replacing it with “08B6”.  After the replacement option, save the file and exit.  What you are doing in this step is forcing the driver installation routine to identify your CUVA camera as a Logitech QuickCam 5000.  Because, that’s basically what it is.

6.  Plug in your CUVA camera.  It will successfully install all but one driver, leaving you with an unknown device in the Device Manager.  Go into the Device Manager, and update the driver.  When prompted to search for drivers or specify a location, choose to specify.  Point the installer at the location you just edited, which should be in <Location of QuickCam Folder>\\Drivers\x64\PRO464.  After you point the driver updater there, it should take right off and start working.  You’ll probably get a popup about the system not being able to verify the driver source.  This is because we changed the values in the INF file.  It’s a harmless warning in this case, so allow the driver installation to proceed.  After a few more seconds, you should have a brand spanking new Logitech QuickCam 5000 installed on your system.

There you go.  Hacking a CUVA camera back into the QuickCam 5000 it originally was in order to make it work with 64-bit drivers for a different OS that you are installing it on.  No one ever said voice would be easy.  But hey, you can get a little more mileage out of that camera.  At least while you work on your boss and convince him you need a 9971.  Or a personal Telepresence unit.  And if you figure out how to convince your boss on that last item, give me a call.  I’ve got someone you can go to work on for me.