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Hyi guys and gals, dumb blonde 44 year old novice here at the Internet and all things computerized!
A friend bought me a ‘view-cam’ (2 for £25) from Argos. I inserted the disk, did everything it told me to and although it’s working on it’s programme monitor (me moving about in the early hours, no make-up, tatty t-shirt etc), msn says that I either haven’t got a webcam or it’s connected to something else. Please please help me! I’m seriously wondering if msn has had a sneaky look at me and decided that the world isn’t ready for my ugly mush! lol
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
I’m running on windows 98se (whatever that is! lol)The first thing to keep in mind is that you can only use a webcam with one program at a time. If you’re using the cam with the software it came with, MSN won’t be able to “see” the cam. You’ll need to exit one cam program before launching another.
I have to do this myself whenever I want to use my webcam on MSN Messenger. Because I’m using another program to capture images for the BigBlueBall webcams page, I’ve got to exit that program first, then I can launch my webcam in MSN. It’s inconvenient, but that’s just the way it is.
Let us know if that’s not your problem.
Hya Jeff,
when I’m on msn (& the internet) I have nothing else running that I know of. Where do I start looking to see if something else is running at the same time without me knowing?
I tried to contact the makers of the webcam, http://www.mingjong.com.tw and downloaded a driver for those of us who bought our webcams from ‘Argosa’!
I have taken off the webcam’s shortcuts off the desktop, uninstalled the cam, reinstalled msn then reinstalled the webcam but to no avail.
I continue to be grateful for all support.
LindaDepending on what version of Windows you’re using, you should check the running programs:
In Windows 95/98 you press Ctrl + Alt + Del while no program windows are active (easiest is by minimizing them all) and you’ll get a pop-up window with all running programs.
Check if there’s anything there that could be using the webcam.
If so, end the program (click on it and then click the “End Task” button).In Windows 2000/XP you press Ctlr + Alt + Del while no programs windows are active (easiest is by minimizing them all) and on the pop-up you choose Task Manager.
There you check in the Applications tab if there are any programs running that could be using the webcam.
If so, end the program (click on it and then click the “End Task” button).
Best not to mess with the processes tab unless you’re comfortable with what you’re doing…Also, if you could give the brand and type of webcam you’re using it’d be easier to get some extra information about the thing. Maybe it’s just not compatible with MSN Messenger, or there might be something extra that you have to do to get it to work 🙂
It’s me again… sorry!
I tried ctrl, alt & delete and the following came up:
Explorer
Msnmsgr
Rnaapp
Mdm
Imapp
Rscmpt
Wmencagt
Rundll
Loadqm
Amoumain
Ststray
I’m affraid I don’t know what most of them do. Is this any help?
LindaDoesn’t look like there’s anything you should shut down, so it’s pretty safe to say that your cam isn’t in use by any other programs.
Have you tried using the cam on another Instant Messenger, such as Yahoo IM, to see if it’ll work there?
There’s always a posiblity that the cam just isn’t compatible with MSN Messenger, but in that case your friend should have the same problem since (s)he uses the same webcam…
The only difference between my friend and I is that she is running on xp and I’m on windows 98 and the webcam bumf does say that it is compatable with 98 upwards. Thanks for your perseverance and I’ll let you know if I get any joy!
Linda
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