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Webcam not recognized
I have an inspiron 1720 with windows Vista 32 bit. Last night I used my webcam and it worked but the mic did not. Today the mic will work but the computer is not detecting the built in webcam. I have no idea which driver to install. I tried one but it did not work. On a toshiba laptop i also own the webcam worked last night, today it quit also. Dell.ca troubleshooting leads me to some ATG login. How do I register? I tried registering at atg.com but it still wont work for me. I was using msn messenger with my webcam. i never touched any settings or anything and today nothing works. Please help.
logan1080
10 Posts
0
January 18th, 2011 14:00
Thanks for the reply. How would I go about reversing updates?
logan1080
10 Posts
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January 18th, 2011 14:00
I just went to add/remove in control panel and there was a very recent dell driver update, I uninstalled it but no luck. I tried downloading a driver from dell.ca but they won't install. One of them said I am missing Dell webcam central. I cannot find a good download for this.
flirtalamode
9 Posts
0
January 18th, 2011 14:00
Hi there. I have the same machine and had the same problem, which is why this post caught my eye. (I don't even usually spend time on these forums, but I'm so upset with Dell's lack of service right now, I landed here and saw your post.)
My cam worked from November 2007 until sometime around August 2008. I never could figure out why it failed and I've spent HOURS searching the web for a solution. I finally found a post somewhere that indicated that Vista has a known issue with optical devices, and, lo and behold, when I tried to install a scanner direct (versus the one on my server), it didn't work either.
Fast forward to today: Over the weekend, my internal hard drive failed and I replaced it and did a clean install of Vista. Guess what? My cam is now working. Unsure about the scanner b/c I haven't gotten everything else re-installed, but if I were a betting person, I'd say it's going to work too. Best I can figure, it was a Vista update at some point that caused a conflict that I could never resolve. I say this based on the research I had previously done.
I'm telling you all this so you don't waste hours looking for solutions that don't exist. If you're able to roll back any of your Vista updates, you MAY get it working, since you noticed it quickly. In my case, I think the update was several weeks prior to the failure, and I was never able to figure out which update caused my problem.
Good luck!
Telson A
904 Posts
0
January 18th, 2011 15:00
Hi
Download Web cam central from the links below, hope it fixes your issue.
flirtalamode
9 Posts
0
January 18th, 2011 21:00
I previously tried the Dell links posted above, the manufacturer's driver update, and suggestions on many tech sites -- NOTHING got my cam to work again except for the fresh install of the OS. Again, note on my post that it hasn't worked since about August of 2008! I truly have spent a ton of time on this (every time I had a need for a cam, it was a few more hours wasted ...) over the past couple of years.
That said, I've been doing Vista and other updates to my machine all day trying to get to Service Pack 2. I checked my cam after each and every batch of updates to see if it still worked, and it did until one I just did about an hour ago. I went through every update that was labeled "Update for Windows Vista (KB#######)" and noticed one that mentioned hardware -- KB938194. I uninstalled it, rebooted, and now my cam is working again.
I have no clue if this particular update is your problem or not. MS shows it was released August 2007 - a full year before I started having problems. I would go through your updates looking not just for ones that mention drivers, but VISTA updates (not any Office product updates or security updates, in my opinion) that mention HARDWARE.
To uninstall an update, go to WINDOWS UPDATE, click VIEW UPDATE HISTORY on the left, click INSTALLED UPDATES at the top, find the one you want, and double-click it. It'll ask you to uninstall and will go through the process, advising if you need to restart after the removal.
Oddly, even though I've removed KB938194 and it's no longer listed in the INSTALLED updates, it IS still listed as "successful" in the update HISTORY list. Even stranger, My Computer properties isn't showing that I'm running SP2 and SP2 isn'tlisted in the HISTORY, but it IS listed in the INSTALLED updates.
I'll never figure Microsoft out. I need a Mac, bad.
P.S. There's an update showing as recommended for the Creative Technology, LTD. I unchecked it so that it wouldn't install -- I want to leave well enough alone, and right now my cam is up and running for the first time in more than 2 years. You might look for that one, too. I don't know the number for it; not sure why not.
logan1080
10 Posts
0
January 19th, 2011 05:00
systIf i do a system restore, I lose all of my information I have got on my computer, pics, music etc????
Telson A
904 Posts
0
January 19th, 2011 05:00
If you do a system restore, any changes done to the system registry after that particular date will be undone.
Your documents and files will not be affected.
However if you have installed any application after the mentioned date, you will have to reinstall it in order to get it working.
To sum up, System Restore does not affect your pics, music.