Laptop Help?

Will-O'-The-Wisp

Will-O'-The-Wisp

Cardcaptor
I'll jump to the point:

BASICALLY, I'm not sure whether or not my laptop has a built in webcam. This sounds stupid, but I honestly don't, It has the black bit of plastic/lense (I'm not sure it's definitely a lense) just above the monitor

The laptop Model is an acer aspire 5735Z, I've tried googling to find out but no cigar. Apparently one customer bought it and mentioned it's built in webcam along with another piece of hardware on the F+Q section so I presume it does, I just don't know how to, uhm, "activate" it?

Sorry for the weird question aaaaand YEAH

I'm a dumbass I'm sorry ;_;
 
It should have a Crystal Eye webcam:

http://support.acer.com/acerpanam/noteb ... Zsp3.shtml

Assuming you are using Windows...

Check the drivers are installed and that it's all working by going to Device Manager in Windows (usually somewhere like Control Panel> System> Hardware> Device Manager depending on your version of Windows and config). In the Imaging Devices category you should see something listed for your webcam. If it has an error message next to it (yellow icon) right click it and select properties to find more details.

If you need to install the drivers check the driver link on the page above as well. There are two distinct chipsets your laptop might have for its webcam so make sure you download the right one.

Once it's installed, or if it's already showing up in Device Manager as working properly and has a sensible name there, you should be able to select it in apps like Skype or Yahoo Messenger or whatever cool people use these days. Skype is pretty good for testing as it's free and shows you a preview image with less arcane twiddling needed than Yahoo/MSN. Once you know it works in one, close it and try another - webcams only work with one app at a time and this is the most common cause of "my webcam doesn't do anything!" technical issues.

This is a pretty good free app for testing stuff, recording video and taking pictures:

http://www.nchsoftware.com/capture/index.html

Just don't install all the extra software that it offers you as it's all rubbish; stick to the main app.

R
 
Jayme said:
Will-O'-The-Wisp said:
This sounds stupid
Click to expand...
Your right, this does sound stupid. :p

Oh, this also means you can explore the wonders of Chatroulette. Get to it.
Click to expand...

Or that other thing that you made for all of us on AUKN to go on. I forget the name, lol. Stu advertised it.
 
Thanks Rui, you're a gem <3, I haven't actually downloaded the drivers yet I'll give it a go later on. And sparrow you're lucky, Msn is the primary reason I need it :p
 
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