Hi. I am stuck! Just got a Creative Labs Webcam. It works fine as far as opening the program and seeing myself onscreen. However, when I try to video conference with a friend using AIM or Yahoo or Trillium, all we both get is a black video screen. He's using a Mac, and I a PC. However, he's been able to video conference with others who have PCs.

This is what we tried:

Thinking it was an AIM issue, we both tried using Yahoo and Trillium IMs, with no success.

My Windows Firewall is always off, so that wasn't the issue. However, I tried turning off my other anti-virus and firewall entirely, with no success.

Also tried uninstalling and reinstalling the webcam software, but it made no difference. Like I said, it seems to work fine, just not for using with IM.

I've gone to the cam's website (it's a Creative Labs Live Cam Chat camera) but this issue wasn't to be found on there.

I've been trying to find the answer online, but I haven't come across the answer yet. I'm wondering if something else could be trying to use the camera, or there's a conflict of some sort, but I don't know how to determine that. Is there something within Windows that might be turned off that needs to be on for this to work?

Please let me know if you have any ideas. Thanks!

Did you configure the IM Proggies to use the Creative WebCam as the default ??

Yep, I did do that. Thanks though. :)

If you have a router, your router maybe blocking your webcam. Routers to are also firewalls and you may have to config your routers port settings to allow your webcam to go through.

No router here. But it does sound to you like the video is being blocked by something at my end? Is there some video setting within XP, or a service or something, that might have been switched off for security reasons? Or is something else trying to access the camera... I have a scanner, but it's turned off when not in use... The possibilities of what could be the issue seem endless. :( At this point, I'm considering returning the cam.