Dell Inspiron 17R N7110

I received delivery of my custom-ordered my laptop in March 2012.  It has a factory-installed webcam but I have never tried to use it until today.  I have installed Skype and it runs an initial setup diagnostic; the audio is ok but the video portion reads "No webcam found."  I've checked the manual for the laptop, but there's no reference to enable the webcam.  I have another laptop (msi) and there's a couple of function keys that can enable or disable the webcam that's built into that machine.

I;ve researched through the Microsoft Community, and the problem is reported as "Webcam not detected because USB "Unknown Device" isn't working.  Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems (Code 43)"  Among the suggested solutions is to contact the hardware manufacturer (i.e. Dell) and run a hardware diagnostics.

I'm at the end of my computer savvy so I'm looking for help, please & thanks.