hamster Posted 17 August, 2009 Share Posted 17 August, 2009 Trying to set up thee built in webcam on mrs h's ne laptop, but can't even find it! Looked in device manager under 'Imaging Devices' to no avail. I am not that clever with techie stuff but am good at following instructions. please help as I want to get it working tonight for a video call to the Grandkids in Kent. The laptop is a Dell Inspiron as seen here: http://www.accomputerwarehouse.com/product-info/Dell-Inspiron-1545-T3400-3GB-RAM-250-GB-HDD-Vista-Home-premium thanks in advance you lovely people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baj Posted 17 August, 2009 Share Posted 17 August, 2009 Sounds like its missing the drivers for it mate, go to the manufacturers website and redownload and installed the webcam drivers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hamster Posted 17 August, 2009 Author Share Posted 17 August, 2009 Sounds like its missing the drivers for it mate, go to the manufacturers website and redownload and installed the webcam drivers. Que? I found a forum that said to download 'DELL webcam manager', but am a bit wary, although the site does look like a dell one. What do you reckon? It's this site Baj: http://ftp.us.dell.com/app/R168730.EXE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baj Posted 17 August, 2009 Share Posted 17 August, 2009 thats dell mate, do it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hamster Posted 17 August, 2009 Author Share Posted 17 August, 2009 keep getting an error message, i will have to come back to this one I think, thanks so far though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saint_stevo Posted 18 August, 2009 Share Posted 18 August, 2009 try MS updates and see what it finds Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mewsta Posted 18 August, 2009 Share Posted 18 August, 2009 Hamster, this is the software for the 1545 1.3MP camera..... Download this and install... http://support.euro.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs&releaseid=R198114&SystemID=INSPIRON1545&servicetag=&os=WLH&osl=en&deviceid=19297&devlib=0&typecnt=0&vercnt=1&catid=-1&impid=-1&formatcnt=1&libid=17&fileid=273878 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Dark Sotonic Mills Posted 18 August, 2009 Share Posted 18 August, 2009 'Ere, where's me webcam? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hamster Posted 18 August, 2009 Author Share Posted 18 August, 2009 Sorry peopleI am having a real headache with this now. I downloaded the Dell download manager and the driver. Installed it as per instructions and nought changed. I downloaded the DELL webcam Central program and on installation it tells me to install 'dell webcam central' first! In Device Manager there is no webcam showing. When I 'Add hardware' the only 'imaging device' that it offers is a Xerox scanner, which is not one that we own!! If i could put up a screenshot it may help but I don't even know how to do that. Sorry to be getting so frustrated but I expected the webcam to just work. I can always just plug in my old one (should ahve thought of this last night, I know), but the built in one was actually one reason i went for the 1545. I am off out in a mo to calm down. hamster Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mewsta Posted 18 August, 2009 Share Posted 18 August, 2009 Hamster, do you have any devices in Device manager with a yellow question mark, like the one in the pic? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hamster Posted 18 August, 2009 Author Share Posted 18 August, 2009 Hamster, do you have any devices in Device manager with a yellow question mark, like the one in the pic? No Mewsta. And I am sure I had one in there called webcam at one point, but it isn't there now. Cheers for this mate, I am determined to get this thing working. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mewsta Posted 19 August, 2009 Share Posted 19 August, 2009 No pbs... it's always hard for people that can't see it. I've done a bit of digging on the Dell support forums and a few people have the same issue. a couple of people have cracked it and believe me it wasn't without a headache! Ok so the 2 users that cracked the webcam did the following: Go to Add/Remove Programs and remove any webcam software or drivers that are listed. Give the machine a reboot Insert the Dell Application CD that came with the laptop and search for the folder called "Webcam Central" Install this software and reboot the machine. From what I can see, nobody can get this running using the software/drivers on the Dell download site so there must be a difference in the two. Let me know how you get on.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danny Posted 19 August, 2009 Share Posted 19 August, 2009 Is the webcam on? Some laptops/netbooks require you to turn the webcam on, usually by holding down the "Fn" key in the bottom left hand corner of the keyboard and pressing one of the F keys (F1 to F12). Usually it'll have a picture of a camera on it, rather than say "Webcam". You often do the same thing for volume/screen brightness etc. I've been caught out by this - spent ages farting around with drivers when the problem was just that the camera wasn't even turned on in the first place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sotonjoe Posted 19 August, 2009 Share Posted 19 August, 2009 looking forward to camming with your missus once you get it working though... unless she's fat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hamster Posted 19 August, 2009 Author Share Posted 19 August, 2009 Is the webcam on? Some laptops/netbooks require you to turn the webcam on, usually by holding down the "Fn" key in the bottom left hand corner of the keyboard and pressing one of the F keys (F1 to F12). Usually it'll have a picture of a camera on it, rather than say "Webcam". You often do the same thing for volume/screen brightness etc. I've been caught out by this - spent ages farting around with drivers when the problem was just that the camera wasn't even turned on in the first place. I don't actually have to hold down the fn key, as it appears to be 'on' by default. If I hold it down and for example press F1, I get the help window appear. Strange. Anyway, no webcam button. :confused: I didn't get a resource CD with the laptop, it was straight out of the box and running. I have downloaded and installed the Dell Webcam Manager and Dell Webcam Centre, but they both say 'no webcam detected. It's so frustrating as at one point after downloading the MS updates as ss suggested, it said 'webcam detected' on reboot, but I couldn't find it. I am trying all sorts to no avail. I just know that this is going to be something really simple. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hamster Posted 19 August, 2009 Author Share Posted 19 August, 2009 Hamster, do you have any devices in Device manager with a yellow question mark, like the one in the pic? Mewsta, something weird just happened. I went to device manager and lo and behold, the 'imaging devices' was there, clicked it and 'Integreated webcam' was there. opened the properties and the info box openened, and right before my eyes the 'imaging devices' disappeared from the device amnager. This literally happened 5 minutes ago. aarrgghhh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saint_stevo Posted 19 August, 2009 Share Posted 19 August, 2009 Stinks of user error.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hamster Posted 19 August, 2009 Author Share Posted 19 August, 2009 Stinks of user error.... ??? is that it code for something stevo? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mewsta Posted 20 August, 2009 Share Posted 20 August, 2009 Mewsta, something weird just happened. I went to device manager and lo and behold, the 'imaging devices' was there, clicked it and 'Integreated webcam' was there. opened the properties and the info box openened, and right before my eyes the 'imaging devices' disappeared from the device amnager. This literally happened 5 minutes ago. aarrgghhh What the hell.... I have to say in 10 years of doing this I've never seen that.... Sounds like it could be a hardware fault tho... if the cam is losing power then when the device manager refreshes it won't show.... Does seem very strange that one! Possible could be an OS issue and a reinstall of the OS would fix it!!??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now