Webcam

I bought a webcam from the car boot which I can't get to work.
Specification: Windows XP, video and still capture upto 640 x 480 pixels,
USB connection, made in China sphere design but no makers name. It came with

pmj...

software, WinTV, which I believe to be the wrong software. On the back of
the box it illustrates Ulead Express, Ulead Photo Explorer and Ulead Cool
360 as the Software Combo.
Has anyone any idea how to get it working. I have tried just plugging it in
but XP doesn't recognise it.

pmj...

I know that very often, with (some) USB things, it's important to
make sure to Install the relevant Drivers for it *before* first
Plugging it in...

If you don't, when you Plug it in, WinXP sees it & tries to Install
Drivers, then when it can't find the right Drivers it Installs some
sort of weird "Null" Driver for it.

So, if that has happened, you would need to completely UnInstall
the Device before trying to Install the correct Drivers (assuming you
can find the right Drivers for it - see below) ...

I am Ł2 down at the moment - serious stuff.

pmj...

LOL!
It's not the money that matters here!
:-)

It's the principle that's at stake!
You don't want to be defeated by a bit of Computer Hardware/Software,
do you?
:-)

Jeff Gaines...

If you run Everest or Sandra does it tell you the make or chipset?

pmj...

& WinXP Device Manager will actually tell you that as well...

Go to Device Manager (in the System Properties Control Panel Applet,
or in the Computer Management Console thingy in "Administrative Tools")
& Find the "Unknown Device" Entry for it,
Open up its Properties Dialog Box & Switch to the "Details" Tab

Then look at (& Note down) the "Device Instance ID" (& "Hardware ID",
which is very similar)
Every Device (for PCI & USB PNP stuff) has a 4 Digit Hexadecimal
"VEN_ID" (Vendor_ID) String (along with another 4 Digit Hex
"DEV_ID" (Device_ID) String)
& for USB type stuff, it has a VID_ID & PID_ID String

They are Set by the Manufacturer of the ChipSet in it.

You can look up the Manufacturer (of the ChipSet) on one of the PCI
Vendor Databases, such as...

That Site also has Links to lots of useful Utilities such as PCITree,
which will show you a Tree View of *all* the Info on all the PCI/USB
PNP Hardware.

Things like SIW, Belarc Advisor, PCI32, PCWizard & CPU-Z will also
tell you the various bits of Info you need.

Once you know the PCI VEN_ID & DEV_ID strings, you can also just bung
them into a Web Search Engine, such as web-search & you will find lots of
Info about Drivers for it.

You will need to try various Combinations of the String(s) - But try
to use the Format that is in an .INF File...

PCI\VEN_HHHH&DEV_HHHH
or
USB\VID_HHHH&PID_HHHH

- in particular, if you include the "_" (UnderScore), it will find
Drivers, without that, you will get a load of other Results as well.

I have an old Pace webcam and it runs on a driver for a Creative webcam
with the same chipset.

pmj...

Yep, the Drivers for a lot of stuff are actually interchangeable...
You can even Edit the .INF Files for some (similar) devices, so as
to get WinXP to Install them - WinXP just looks at the PCI Ven_ID
(& DEV_ID) Strings on the Hardware & then looks through the .INF Files
in wherever you tell it (or let it) look.
So another thing to do is to use the [Have Disk...] Button & *tell*
it where to look for the Drivers, rather than letting it just guess.

Have a good look on (all over) the CD that came with it, for any .INF
Files (Opening them up in Notepad, to see what they are for) & tell
the "Found New Hardware" Wizard to look in them.
Sometimes it doesn't properly Search the various Sub-Folders.