# Webcam video won't show, connect, play, anything



## Eyetym (Dec 15, 2008)

Hi all,

I originally had a JL550A Toy Camera that worked, then one day it stopped. Whenever I opened it in MSN Messenger, ArcSoft Video MVP, or the computer's Camera/Scanner application there would be no streaming video.

I thought the 5 year old webcam just ran it's course so I bought a new one. It was a Logitech QuickCam Express. Whenever I turned it on, it would play for about three seconds and then I would get a blue screen error. I figured another faulty camera, so I returned it.

This time I bought a GE MiniCam Pro (either a 98067 or a 98667). Same problem as the first camera I had. No video, no nothing. I installed the driver from the website and the cd. Nothing. A little "MiniCam Pro: Connected" button is on my toolbar. When I plug it in to the USB, the "found new hardware" balloons go through and says its ready for use. No dice. When I pressed the button to take a snapshot I got "Error During Capture, Error Code=00000000." I checked the device manager and nothing is out of line. I've gone in safe mode and installed, and when I went back into the regular mode I got "This Graph Cannot Preview," and other than the button on my toolbar that says the cam is connected, no other devices recognize it anymore, let alone stream video.

I'm at the end of my rope and will convert to any religion the prayers of which will fix this darn webcam. Any help is greatly appreciated! I have Windows XP Home Service Pack 3. Thanks!


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## Terrister (Apr 18, 2005)

Did you uninstall the other web cams before loading the last one? 

Sounds like a driver conflict.


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## Eyetym (Dec 15, 2008)

Yup all were uninstalled. I don't think it can be a driver conflict because when i wiped my hard drive and reinstalled my camera that's when it didnt work and it had a clean slate to work with.


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## Terrister (Apr 18, 2005)

I am stumped on this one. I'll ask the other team members to see if they can help.


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

did you install the software before plugging in the camera


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## Done_Fishin (Oct 10, 2006)

Hi there .. do you by any chance have any driver problems showing in Control Panel, System, hardware manager

Have you tried checking out the camera on more than one USB port and do they all have the same response.

Is it possible that you have updated or upgraded your video drivers or graphics card before this problem occurred. Possible upgrade or update on Audio too?


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## Eyetym (Dec 15, 2008)

Let's see...
I've tried it in all USB ports, same result.
I've tried installing it before plugging it in, and then even plugging it in first and installing, still didn't work.
I'm not seeing any errors in device manager.
I suppose it's possible I need a video/graphics driver upgrade. Would I just get those from the driver page on my computer's (HP Compaq) website? Thanks again everyone.


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

uninstall the device from the device manager
disconnect the camera
reboot into safe mode
install your drivers
reboot
turn the computer off 
attach the camera
restart the computer

what video card do you have


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## Eyetym (Dec 15, 2008)

I'm afraid that method didn't work either. I'm seeing the same problems.

I have an ATI Mobility Radeon 9600, according to the device manager. I checked the internet for updates but didn't see any.

Let me say again that cameras stopped working when I wiped the hard drive and reinstalled all the drivers again. Everything else works perfectly just as it had before, though.


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## Done_Fishin (Oct 10, 2006)

are you using the Microsoft Driver for this card or the latest downloaded driver from ATI?

sometimes when we think that we have installed the Manufacturers driver .. Microsoft doesn't let us.. 

Download the latest driver for your card .. take care sometimes we think we have the right one and it sort of works in spite of it being wrong .

uninstall the Video card from device manager so that you are forced to use the generic graphics card driver .. this is probably done best in safe mode 
reboot into safe mode so that there are no traces of the previous driver 
install the latest driver from ATI for your card whilst in safe mode .. hopefully this will overide the tendency for microsoft driver to install in place of the driver you want to use

drivers will be found here
http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx?p=xp/radeonx-xp

for NON 64 bit XP Home/Pro


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## Eyetym (Dec 15, 2008)

OK I went into safe mode and uninstalled the ATI card from the device manager. I rebooted and went back into safe mode. When it loaded up, I got one of those "found new device" buttons that said it found my ATI driver. It quickly loaded it and prompted for me to restart my computer.

I did and went to the driver site that Done_Fishin gave me. I started to load the application there and when it got to the installation menu it told me I had to install .Net 2 for it to continue. So I found it on the microsoft website and went to install it again. This time I got an error message saying there was no compatible driver for the application and it was going to exit. Then it exited.
Quite confusing business.


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## Done_Fishin (Oct 10, 2006)

There were two sets of drivers .. basic functions (option 2) and Full Functions (option 1)
and they should have been downloaded before you started .. you give the impression that you did it afterwards 

also in safe mode it doesn't normally (unless I'm losing it in my old age :grin load drivers or ask to install them .. you have to tell it what you want to install .. so should it be a question of trying to load a new driver then I am sorry I should have told you to cancel and run one of the two options given above .. if the main option 1 didn't help then do it all over again and try option 2 .. 

I agree .. it's a pain in the neck when something suddenly stops working .. or you just can't get it to work ..


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## Eyetym (Dec 15, 2008)

Alrighty so I went back into safe mode and uninstalled the driver. I also found what folder it was located in on the hard drive and deleted it. I went to the site and tried to download option 1, but it said it did not find a driver compatible with the operating system. So I rebooted back in to safe mode, and there the "found new hardware" for my ATI card came back up. It didn't give me a change to say yes or no to the download, it just did it. I rebooted back into regular and plugged in the camera, didn't work. So I downloaded the driver again from my comp's website, cam didnt work, then tried the site you gave me, and again, didn't find a compatible driver.

Haha yeah well thank goodness we have you guys to help us out.


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## imatechie2 (Feb 25, 2009)

I'm kind of wondering if it is a SP3 issue, I had a few clients that lost some working stuff when the upgraded to SP3, going back to SP2 resolved the problem.

Personally, I won't allow SP3 on my computers, in fact, I won't even allow my system to auto update itself until I manually check out what each and every update does. I do have autoupdates turned on but set to notify only.

Jeff


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