Problems with Webcam

For starters, here are the specs on my hardware: [it is an old system, don't laugh :)]

- WinXP SP2 fully updated
- 1.3 Ghz Athlon overclocked to about 1.4 or so...
- 2 NTFS partitions, both have plenty of space...
- NVidia MX 440 PCI video card [board doesn't have AGP slot]
- up to date spyware/AV software... I run scans about once a week... sometimes once every two weeks if I am lazy...
- USB 2.0 PCI card ... on board USB is 1.0

Here is the problem... I bought a logitech quickcam about 6 months ago... worked fine... very little delay... not much motion blur... never gave me any trouble with audio syncing... but just recently, out of the blue, it started acting up... The delay is horrible, it takes forever to start the video capture, and the motion blur is ridiculous. I used to record myself playing guitar and harmonica... [big Dylan fan :)] and it did fine... sounded and looked great... [if I do say so myself :D] ... but now, sometimes it jumps past parts of the audio, like when a record skips forward, the quality is terrible...

Here are the steps I have taken...

- Tried the camera in both the USB 2.0 and 1.0 ports [made no difference]
- Uninstalled the camera [device manager], and all of the software associated with it [add/remove programs].
- Reinstalled from the installation CD, and downloaded updates from Logitech...
- Updated my video card driver [nvidia website]...
- ran all sorts of scans to see if there was some rogue process slowing my system down. [Adaware, Spybot S&D, AVG etc]
- Consulted the pros at AO... I am still waiting to see what results I will get from the last one :)

If there is any info I have omitted, let me know and I will gladly provide it. I appreciate any help that will be provided...

Westin

Edit: I hope I posted this in the right forum, as I am not sure whether this is a hardware issue or something else. If it would fit better somewhere else, by all means move it.

A few questions..

Have you installed any other hardware/software recently ?

Have you tried the webcam on another computer?

Are you suffering from any other symptoms?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by steve.milner

A few questions..

Have you installed any other hardware/software recently ?

Have you tried the webcam on another computer?

Are you suffering from any other symptoms?

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I had a stuffed up nose this morning :) ...

I installed a new DVD burner, but that was after the problems started. I am always installing new software... if a new app comes out that I think looks interesting, I will download and try it... But I cannot think of any downloads that corresponded to the thing acting up... literally it worked one night, and the next morning, it was slow as hell... has been ever since. I have not however tried it on a different system, I know that is one of the first things you do in troubleshooting, but the only other system I have to try it out on is an old 500mhz laptop... I am not sure the thing would even run on that... :) I might give it a try tonight... actually I might be able to convince my neighbor to let me try it on his laptop... it is a newer model... as far as other symptoms, just today I noticed MSWord was opening slowly... I rebooted, and have not checked it since... but that just started today... I usually try to keep a pretty tight ship as it were... defrags, error checking, and security scans are all done pretty often. if I can provide any more details, let me know... Thanks for the ideas steve...

Edit: I just remembered, right around the same time, I started having some trouble with my *COUGH* emulators *COUGH* running pretty slow... but I just upped the priority [built in option in the emulator, not through task manager] and it seemed to do fine. This is what prompted me to reinstall my video card driver... I thought maybe that was causing the problem.

This is one of those things that is hard to tell but, What is the CPU usage like when you are running it?

CPU usage is 100% ... damndest thing though... it is acting fine now... 2 months I have fought with this thing, and as soon as I log in, to get an answer for oofki, it is working fine... I still don't think CPU usage should be at 100% ... let me do a few more tests, and I will see what happens... thanks for the help, if there is anything else I should try, I am still open to suggestions... let me see how this does though...

westin

Hmm i doubt it should be at 100% and that could cause problems since it using too many CPU cycles

oofki after I responded to you, I looked at the % by process, the one actually taking up all of the power was a desktop wallpaper switching tool. After I disabled that, it dropped to about 55%... I still don't think that was causing the problem, as that was installed about 7 months before the camera, but I had removed all but one image in the queue, and I think I confused the program by doing so... so once I removed the program from startup, and rebooted, like I said, CPU usage, while using the cam was around 55%... thanks again for the reply...