Hello all
I am new to this forum but have been a Dell PC user for the past 5 years now.
We bought this Dell Inspiron 531 Desktop PC with the Dell SP2008 WFP Monitor almost 2 years ago (getting close to the end of the warranty) for our son. The Monitor has a built in web cam which is causing problems. Everything else works just fine. I have tried Dell support to no avail for help on our webcam issue. They suggested a clean re-install which I (unfortunately) did but it did not help. The webcam still freezes.
To fix this problem short term, I power off and on the monitor. This, of course, then disconnects and re-connects the webcam via the USB cable (I tried different cables and different USB slots - same result). Then, we have the webcam working again for a few seconds, maybe minutes. But of course, I need to reconnect with the other party's PC again. This gets to be rather annoying, especially, if the freeze up occurs quickly again. Mostly, for the video calls our son uses Skype. However, please note that this freezing of the webcam also occurs with Dell's webcam software (actually, it appears to be a combo of Dell and Creative Labs' software).
Based on other forum questions, it appears that our problem is not unique. I have tried uninstalling all the software associated with the webcam and then a reboot and yes, the generic drivers will initiate but then I got an auto update that was pushed thru (no option given for yes/no on the update).
Any suggestions on how to fix this issue. Should we just get an external webcam or are we going to have the same problem? If external webcam, any suggestions.
Look forward to forum members input. Thanks in advance.