Home › Forums › Archives › Instant Messaging › Windows Live Messenger Support › WLM Webcam causing crashes.
- This topic has 7 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 14 years, 2 months ago by theteacher.
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January 12, 2008 at 12:45 am #28135Bokka1988Member
Hey I just stumbled on this forum and figured maybe one of you out there could help me out. Anyways, About a week ago my webcam, along with other people’s webcam were working fine. But out of nowhere, each time I either send (and they accept) or accept to view their webcam my messenger freezes. The messenger works fine until I click accept to view or they click accept to view. So I figured maybe something was wrong with my computer, since I needed to scrub the system I popped the old system restore disc in hopes to fix that (along with a few other problems that aren’t there anymore). I let that do its thing and right when my computer is up and running again I try Windows Live Messenger again and it does the exact same thing. There are rare cases where I can view and they can view but it takes about 10 tries. So if anyone could help me out here I would appreciate it very much.
January 13, 2008 at 1:45 am #166047PhilipModeratorWelcome to BBB. Here are a few suggestions you can try (if you haven’t already):
- Your webcam drivers could be corrupted. Try uninstalling and then getting the latest drivers from your webcam’s website.
- Uninstall all Messenger add-ons.
- Try logging on to Web Messenger and see whether the problem resolves.
- If all fails, borrow or obtain another different webcam and test it.
If you need further help, please let me know.
January 13, 2008 at 5:06 pm #166049Doris KenneyParticipantHi! I’m glad you found BBB! I’d like to suggest going to the WLM menu underTools/Options/Connection and make sure it says you are connected through a UPnP port. WLM relys on this for voice and webcam to function properly. If not go to this site and download it to your desktop. You can then enable and disable UPnP whenever you need to. It can take a little time for your system to recognize once you enable it, but if it’s not currently enabled you definitely want to do so.
I will say however, I’ve noticed quite a bit of issues recently with webcam. The notification that the system is experiencing heavy traffic has been popping up a lot, and my cam freezes then unfreezes along with voice getting choppy. Also, is this just happening with a single contact? I have one person I can’t view cam with on any reliable basis, but all my other contacts are fine. I could possibly be an issue with your contact and not you. If it’s happening on multiple contacts though it may need a bit more delving to find the problem.
Another thing you can try is to start a voice call only. Once that is enabled, then send your cam to your contact, and once that is established, request to view their cam. The only drawback is you can’t go full screen, but sometimes this workaround helps to get things going.
Also make sure if you’ve redone your system your firewall is correctly set up to allow WLM through completely. Especially if you’ve just reinstalled or upgraded it, there’s a possibility a setting got changed without you realizing it. If you just reinstalled, be sure if you’re using a software firewall other than Windows Firewall, that you’ve disabled the Windows one. Having more than one firewall can cause them to “fight” over who has control of what and can cause issues.
Good luck and let me know how it goes!!
-Doris-
January 13, 2008 at 8:38 pm #166052Bokka1988MemberThank you very much, I will give this all a try tonight and let you guys know if it works or not!
January 13, 2008 at 10:06 pm #166050Doris KenneyParticipantGood luck! We’ll wait to hear if any of this helps. If not, be patient we’ll keep working on it. We should be able to get it sorted out without too much trouble.
-Doris-
February 27, 2010 at 3:07 pm #166053theteacherMemberI have pretty much the same problem: when I send a webcam invitation (and they accept), or when they send a webcam invitation and I accept, WLM either crashes, or it says the webcam session has ended. BUT THIS ONLY HAPPENS WITH SOME CONTACTS (around half of them). For the rest, no problems. It started around mid-October 2009. In December I bought a new webcam – the problem remained.
I am googling like crazy for a solution. Most of the suggested solutions are of the usual upgrade, reinstall, do a virus scan, check settings, format your hard disk variety which take no account of the fact that this is a CONTACT SPECIFIC problem. (If my webcam works with one contact but not with another, the problem isn’t with my webcam. Is it even with my computer?)
This is clearly an old problem – the OP was writing in January 2008! Surely, after 2 years + of this enraging problem, there must be a solution.
It is to do with different versions of WLM on the connecting computers? Why would it cause WLM to crash sometimes, but at other times it just says the webcam session has ended? Does WLM have a crash log?
February 27, 2010 at 5:09 pm #166051Doris KenneyParticipantThere are lots of known problems with webcams and WLM 2009. It very well may be with regard to contacts using an older version of WLM. Anyone using older versions can expect glitches and problems with some features. Have you been able to ask the contacts with whom you are having problems what version they are on?
If it works ok for some contacts, the problem is not likely on your end. There could be any number of reasons webcams don’t work. Your contacts may need to update Flash, Java, video, graphics or audio drivers.
It could also be a server level problem and has nothing to do with either of you. October was about the time of the forced upgrade and there are many many users who have experienced webcam issues since. For most, the only resolution (if you can even get it to work right now) is to downgrade back to an older version. This however may cause other instabilities or glitches – tho it typically fixes the webcam problem. It may also revert to the forced upgrade fairly quickly but it may be worth a try for those contacts.
Most notably for webcam to work reliably UPnP needs to be enabled and running on both machines.
WLM will create error logs if you go to the options and set it to do so. However, you are not likely to find anyone but WLM support who is able to help you read them. You could always try contacting support, but my guess is that with all the other webcam issues out there – it’s not likely that you’d get very far. May be worth a try though.
February 28, 2010 at 3:02 am #166048PhilipModeratorpatndoris;246731 wrote:There are lots of known problems with webcams and WLM 2009. It very well may be with regard to contacts using an older version of WLM. Anyone using older versions can expect glitches and problems with some features. Have you been able to ask the contacts with whom you are having problems what version they are on?If it works ok for some contacts, the problem is not likely on your end. There could be any number of reasons webcams don’t work. Your contacts may need to update Flash, Java, video, graphics or audio drivers.
I think Doris made some good suggestions there. Sometimes we just assume the fault is at our end when it isn’t. Webcam problems can be such a pain (because we want to see and talk with our friends and loved ones and we can’t!) It doesn’t hurt to ask your contacts to check their webcam drivers, flash, etc. As Doris mentioned, ask them to upgrade to the latest WLM if they haven’t done so.
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