BleepingComputer.com: WinME and my webcam

Hi, first off my Machine: a Gateway performance 1000, pentium3 1gigahertz, 512mb of ram, 18 gig hd, WinMe.

My problem is I just bought a Logitech QuickCam Zoom, I meet and surpass the Min. Requirments. The installtion of the software is flawless, I then reset as prompted and when Windows starts up plug in the cam. It does what it should and loads the drivers, a window then pops up and my Cam works. Everything is kosher for an hour or two. Then I get a blue screen(don't know what it said last time) and have to restart. Once windows is loaded a device driver window opens like it is installing a driver for the webcam, which upon completion tells me to restart. Here is where it gets weird. The comp restarts goes through the motions comes to the WinMe screen the goes to a black screen( as usual) then out of nowhere the Machine shuts down. I mean it turns the power to the Tower off. I have to turn it back on, it will continue in this fashion unless I boot in Safemode. The only way to fix it is to restore my sytem to before I installed the software. Now, it can't be the Cam, because I also own a Sony Digital Handycam. I have tried to load its software as well with the exact same results as the webcam. I tried Gateway tech support the guy told me it was because my Usb was a 1.0 and the Cam was 1.1 or 2.0 only. Which made no sense, seeing as how the cam works for awhile. So I got a new usb card, installed it and verified it is working. Unfortunately I have yet the same problem. I tried to do a boot clean install per Logitech's support page, but that didn't work either. Any Ideas, I really want to get this thing working. My parents moved to Venezula for 2 years and I want my kids to be able to cam with them occasionaly, so do it for the Kids

This post has been edited by hatinME: 24 May 2005 - 03:26 AM

Anyone?

Sorry no-one has come up with any ideas - that's a very strange problem. The only thoughts I can come up with are:

1. Check out your video card (display adaptor) specs. Is it onboard? If so how much RAM does it share? Can you increase that in the BIOS?

2. How much free space do you have on the hard drive and has it been defragged recently? Here's how:

• Clean your internet cache and temporary files:
  Click Start and Run then type in cleanmgr this will start the windows disk cleanup tool.
  Tick the boxes beside Temporary internet Files, Recycle Bin and Temporary Files then click OK
  
  
  
• Boot in Safe Mode and do a scandisk with the 'Thorough' and 'Fix' options checked.
  If you are not sure how to boot in Safe Mode there is a tutorial here:
  Safe Mode
  How to find scandisk:
  Start>My Computer. Right click the C: drive then Properties>Tools tab, click on Check Now
  
  
  
• When that's finished do a defrag.
  Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter
  They will take some time but at least you will know your hard drive is working correctly and tidied up.
  
  
  
• Reboot and see if there's any improvement.
  
  
  
• Check how much free space you have on your hard drive.
  Start>My Computer click once on your C: drive and look in the Details box on the left.

3. Some webcams install a lot of software to do all kinds of things that you may not need - can you do a minimalist installation and if so does it make any difference?

4. Maybe (longshot) this is some kind of power issue or overheating issue related to the work the CPU has to do to process the video images? Check your system temperatures using this utility:
Everest download
Temperatures, voltages and fan speeds are shown under Computer>Sensor.

hth

This post has been edited by Rimmer: 30 May 2005 - 08:24 PM