Webcam Help

Cel982

Can anyone help? I bought a new webcam (Microsoft LifeCam HD-5000) and installed it on a PC running Windows Vista. Installed with no problems and worked perfectly initially, tested sound and video for Skype and all went well. After leaving the room for half an hour I came back to it - now the computer no longer recognised the webcam was connected. I tried un- and re-installing the software several times; tried plugging the camera into different USB ports on the PC, but none worked; and checked the port itself wasn't the problem by plugging a USB key into it (works fine). I've since tried using the webcam on my Mac laptop and it works perfectly there, so the problem is with the PC, but I've no idea what to try next...

Any advice would be really appreciated, I've spent the whole afternoon at this and am slowly going mad...

PapaSierra

Maybe try this:
1. Uninstall driver
2. Reboot computer
3. Download and install newest drivers from MS website
4. Plug in the webcam

Cel982

Thanks - I have tried this, but no joy.

Something I read on another forum suggested that the computer might not be recognising the webcam USB for what it is, but interpreting it as a flash drive, and that I need to reassign a different drive letter to it - I'll try this tonight...

PapaSierra

I never heard about that but assigning drive letter to a webcam sounds a bit odd but why not try it...

Also take a look at Device Manager (Start->Run->"mmc devmgmt.msc"->enter) find your camera driver and tell me is it saying that "device is working properly" or is there some problem with it.

Cel982

The webcam doesn't appear in Device Manager at all, which is the problem...