My webcam will not show up on my Inspirion Laptop

I've got a Kodak S100 webcam that works on my Desktop but i had bought it specifically for my Laptop. The box said its compatable with Winows XP and my laptop is a Windows XP home edition Dell inspirion laptop. However everytime i plug it in it says new hardware, or that it wont function with the system. And when i try to use the device for video it says their is no camera connected or available. I've uploaded what was on the CD the webcam came with and that didnt cause it to work either. Im becoming extremely frustrated because i dont think i should need to buy a new one if its supposed to be compatable. I dont know what i can download or what updates i can do to make this work. helpp?!