PC help please

[Chris1.4RT]

Ok I'm trying to get a webcam set up on my mate's mam and dad's pc as my mate's got a job abroad.

The webcam is a cheap one off ebay but I had it working fine on my pc.

Took it to theirs, set up yahoo (& msn messenger).

Camera works fine when you select it within My Computer.

Will it heck work with messenger. In both messengers the box for any camera setting is grey and you can't click it. I've uninstalled and reinstalled both messenger and the camera. No joy.

I've put more ram in their pc and still no joy.

It's a 2.6 P4 with 512mb ram and running XP home.

I don't want to open a can of worms by wiping and reinstalling windows (though to be fair the amount of crap on their it could do with it).

I spent three hours there yesterday tearing my hair out, looking like a complete muppet trying to install a camera in what should be a ten minute job!

Any one have any idea?

Cheers.

 

[Adams_16v]

dirty boy doing cam stuff!

 

[BenWall]

theres no need to go to extream lenghts like upgrading RAM etc as its not a problem with the PC not having enough power. I dont know MSN or Yahoo as I dont use them, but with it being greyed out surly its just a setting in MSN that needs ticking to use webcams.

 

[JoelDee]

Either a setting within msn or the webcam software/driver needs installing?

 

[ollie]

messed about in there?

Edit: Tools > webcam settings...

 

[Chris1.4RT]

Cheers for trying but I do know a few things about pcs and it's a bigger problem than just simple settings. I get it to work fine on my pc but won't on theirs.

Anyway, their pc is a crock of s and I'm now in the middle of trying to format it but am discovering bad sectors within the hard drive.

Their pc never ran well and now I'm starting to see why :S

Cheers anyway.