How to Install Webcam Drivers
When you buy a web camera, all the associated webcam drivers should be on the installation disk that came with your webcam. And whatever operating system you are using – Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8.1, or Windows 10 – your installation disk should contain the related drivers. You need to install webcam drivers for the webcam to work properly.
Your webcam most likely will have a USB connection cord. You must first install the webcam drivers, before plugging in your new webcam. Insert the installation CD into your CD-ROM drive. The setup screen should automatically appear. If your operating system did not pick up the auto run feature, you may load the setup yourself. You can follow these simple steps to get to your webcam drivers setup.
• Click Start.
• Click Run.
• Click Browse.
• Choose your CD-ROM drive from the drop down box.
• Highlight the SETUP.EXE or INSTALL.EXE.
• Click Open.
Tip: If there is no setup.exe or install.exe, try opening the autorun,inf file with notepad to see which executable should be used.
You should now have the setup screen showing. The steps are simple and the on screen prompts will walk you through loading your webcam drivers. Once all your webcam drivers have been loaded successfully, you will be prompted to restart your system. After you have rebooted and are back into Windows, you will be asked to plug in your webcam. All your webcam drivers should be loaded and your webcam working properly!
Webcam Drivers for Wrong Windows Version
In case you do not have the right driver for your Windows version, for example you have no Windows 7 driver for your webcam, you can always try using a driver for a previous Windows version. Windows Vista drivers often work as is in Windows 7, but even Windows XP webcam drivers can sometimes be used in Vista or even Windows 7. Likewise, Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 can very often be used in Windows 10. If running the installer does not work the first time, try running the installer as an adminstrator or run it in XP compatibility mode (both by right-clicking the installer file).
Missing Webcam Drivers Installation Disk?
If you have purchased a webcam without an installation disk (or lost the disk), you will need to find the necessary webcam drivers yourself. You can go to the manufacturer’s web site and usually find the webcam drivers. If the manufacturer does not have the webcam drivers you are looking for, search the net. You can search with the major search engines to locate the webcam driver’s specific to your operating system. It is also possible to seek out forums or blog posts that may relate to your webcam (links to your webcam drivers may be found here).
The same is true if you have a netbook without a CD/DVD drive. It would be possible to use a USB stick to transfer the webcam driver files, but the common solution in that case is also to simply download the drivers from the manufacturer’s website through the Internet.
Why You Need to Update Your Webcam Drivers
True, the required drivers are on the installation disk of your webcam when you bought it but guess what? These drivers may not be the latest drivers at all.
You see, that installation disk was compiled when the webcam was produced. Now, consider warehouse time, delivery time to stores, time on the shelf, and others, and many months – even years – may have passed. Since then, the webcam maker may have released several updated versions of the driver already.
In addition, if you install new software or change to a new operating system, the webcam drivers may need updates to suit these changes.
You can find updated webcam drivers on the manufacturer’s site. You can also find the webcam drivers online via forums and driver-related blogs. You can also use a third-party tool such as DriverFinder, which can scan your PC for webcam drivers and check if you need updated ones.
Once your webcam is working again, have some fun with your instant messenger friends and record each others webcam chat with EatCam.
If you want to make your own movies with your webcam, have a look at our article on recording video with your webcam.
Installed the webcam drivers, but the webcam is still not working? Check out our article on troubleshooting webcam problems.
@Sarah – Sorry, I am not too familiar with Mac OS X, and do not have a Mac to try this on.
I can’t seem to find the drivers- but I did download Macam, only to be given a “Status:No Camera Connected”. Any suggestion for how to use Macam?
@Sarah – The best option is to get the webcam drivers for a Mac from the Creative support website. If they are not available, I am afraid it might not be possible to use it on a mac.
I have a Creative WebCam Notebook Ultra VF0070 given to me from a friend. It came with an installation CD, but I have a Mini Mac and can’t seem to figure out what to do, as the CD does not give an installation window (it seems to work only on a PC). What can I do?
thank you for the advice works, because there is a black screen that comes up, like I tried with my other web cam that is on my laptop and its not a great web cam, but the panwest leb web cam eca is good. My laptop web cam works sometimes i also tried a program like this which was called hyperam. When I try to take a picture by clicking on a thing on top of the panwest web cam it clicks, but this message came up – error 80070002: Cannot run preview graph and their should be a green little light that shound come on the web cam.
@keith – Have you tried the LebecaWebCamDriver from RapidShare?
I have a panwest leb web camera eca. I have tried all types of web sites and I am not sure what web cam I have because when I go on those sites they are showing other ones that I don’t have one and it is about 2-3 years old. Also I do not have a cd rom to install, but I installed a driver called AMCAP look 312p and shows a blank when I choose m web cam – look 312p. Please help me, please.
@rocker – Glad you got it working!
@John Farley – This is a first for me, normally the video quality would be the same or better with the drivers from the webcam manufacturer, especially with Logitech.
Have you checked the QuickCam software settings to see if anything was possible with the settings?
Having said that, I also use a Logitech webcam and I never use the QuickCam software…. So even the Microsoft driver can be used without problems.
hello,
I just bought the logitech QuickCam pro 9000. It works fine.
The problem I am having is with the video image quality.
When the logitech driver (it is up to date) is installed the the video image is noticably more grainy and pixelated than when I had the generic windows
driver installed. Why is this? I do not inderstand.
Obivuosly, I have had to sacrafice some functionality in the Logitech software.
(which is a bummer) But I can adjust the webcame video image in Skype just fine.
This is the first situation I have experienced where the MFG. driver is outperformed by Microsoft. Could have I missed something here? I have you heard anything like this before?
Thanks,
John
OS: Windows XP Pro 32bit
Motherboard: Asus Extreme 680sli
Video: Nvidia GTX8800
Chip: Intel duocore 2.66
thanx. it worked in vista. the problem was that i installed amcap but did not update the drivers as u told in your article. i went to device manager and pressed “search online for drivers” in camera and then it started working. i would like to really thank you as i was having this problem for a month and now finally i can use my webcam!!!
thanks…
@rocker – So you are running Vista now or is the problem with XP?
In the case of Vista, if there are no webcam drivers for the model, it will probably mean you cannot use it. I have an older Logitech webcam lying around that also does not have Vista drivers. I have even tried to change driver INF files to get it to work with drivers for other webcam models, but no luck so far.
If it is with XP, try uninstalling the webcam, disconnect it, reinstall the drivers and then plug it again.
also the manufacturer does not provide vista compatible software for the webcam. so which software i should use ?
hi. i have got a webcam of tlink and i m using amcap software for using it. the first time i installed it my webcam worked well in xp.but now when ever i connect by webcam on usb port and start amcap – i says ” you have no video capture hardware”
although i have connected my webcam. also the windows pop up of new hardware found and install drivers… comes up every time ??
is there a fault with webcam or the software?
@Marty – Please see my answer on your comment in How To Fix Webcam Problems.
@Amy – The Logitech QuickCam software should show your webcam image without problems, otherwise the webcam won’t work in any other program.
First I’d try uninstalling the QuickCam software and reinstalling it. Also check your device manager to see if the webcam is shown there and has no errors.
Some webcam software has sharing settings that could cause the problem, but this should never be the case with the QuickCam software itself.
I just bought a quickcam web camera for my dell laptop and when i try to use it, nothing shows up. The program works and pops up when i click on it but no video feed shows. There is a message that says “device is already in use” I am not already using it and i don’t know how to make it work. can you help? thanks.
I just bought a Microsoft life cam vx-5000, about 3 weeks ago. I can install the software and have updated it to the most current version as of 3 weeks ago, with no problems. XP pro finds and installs the web cam, i can find it in my drives, and see myself, so i know its working.
I have 3 problems thought,
1) It puts two icons on my desk top one is called lifecam and the other one is, live windows messenger (i think this what they are labeled, or pretty close to it ). If I click on the life cam icon it tells me that i don’t have a camera hooked up. If i click on the, live windows mess. I can connect and do a cam feed with someone else.
2) I have no audio using the windows live
3) I have no microphone using the windows live, my guess is that, 2 and 3 are related. This is what i have done to fix it, go into the windows live messenger and set up the microphone and speakers, i get a wizard, I choose and set the speakers and microphone to the correct application, click next and a get another screen that tells me i do not have a camera hooked up. Even though I’m doing a video feed with someone else.
Also when i set the speakers and microphone there is a test for the speakers, I press it and can hear the test music no problem. The microphone has a green scale that goes up and down when detecting noise, and when i speak it goes up and down.
Since i can not access the lifecam software I can not use any of features like zoom, fix the color, etc. your help will be greatly appreciated.
@Colgo – Actually most of my knowledge is also based on personal experience with computers, I got started with them before the first PC was even available! And of course a lot of books, hardware, software, operating systems, programming, anything I could get my hands on ;)
Kyle
I mean did u read a book or somthing like that or u just teached them !
Kyle thx u for ur so good advice can u tell me how did u teach hole these things i wana become a computer fixing man ive tried 2 teach allot things but they are just 2 many ive learned allot about errors beacause my computer get error each day or week ive learned allot of them lol …….!!!!
@scigirl – Do other USb devices work without problems on the USB ports?
One thing to try is to uninstall the “USB Root Hub” devices in the Device Manager. Upon restart Windows will reinstall them, which should fix any issues with the USB port configuration.
SP3 should not be a problem with the USB webcam, I am running a Windows XP laptop with SP3 as well. Both the internal webcam as an external Logitech webcam work with that.
Kyle
Hi, I have a Dell Dimension 4600 desktop running Windows XP Professional, Service Pack 2 (I had SP3 installed, but went back to SP2). I used to have a Logitech Quickcam, but it was horrible in low light, so I decided to get a new cam. I was given a Creative webcam, but I thought it was broken, as I could not get the computer to install the software for it — the “found new hardware” wizard would always pop up when I plugged the new camera in, but I could never seem to install the drivers and get the computer to recognize that there was a webcam plugged in. I thought this was a flaw with the webcam, but I have now tried a Rocketfish cam and now I have an HP Premium Autofocus Webcam and I’ve had the exact same problem with both. It is infuriating. I have uninstalled and reinstalled the software, made sure there’s no old software from the old webcams installed, gone back to SP2, cleaned up my registry, and am out of ideas. This is SO frustrating!!! The cameras work on my ancient Dell laptop running Windows XP SP2, so I don’t understand what the problem is with the desktop! I am using the USB ports in the back of the computer. Like I said, when I plug in, the computer knows I’ve plugged it in, it just won’t install the software correctly (it also keeps telling me the driver for Magic-i 3, which it comes with, is not installed, too). ARGH! Help!
@Puneet – If you have restrictions on your laptop, that probably also means that you do not have admin rights. As a result many drivers may not install properly. The fact that the Philips webcam works fine could simply be that it is supported directly by your Windows version and does not need a driver installed.
The only real option is to get it installed by the system admin who controls the administrator account I fear…
Kyle
Hi Kyle,
My issue is with the laptop i think. I have an official Laptop and on that i have some restrictions like group policies are disabled, Mcafee firewall is turned on etc. Also some of the USP ports are disabled but i managed to open the storage device from registry and i can access my external hard drives now. But the problem is whenever i try to install any web cam it is unable to load the driver. Also one of my frnds Philips web cam work fine. Any other brand (rocket fish, logitech quickcam communicate MP) does not loads or installs the driver. Please help me out with as i need to see my family back home.
Thanks a Ton
Puneet
@jet – The text box probably indicated that the driver was not signed, which means it is not certified by Microsoft. Not all vendors have their drivers certified, which does not mean the drivers are bad though.
In your case it seems odd to have a webcam driver conflict with the local area network. Have you tried reinstalling the games?
You can also check the Windows Device manager to see if their is a conflict between the webcam and another device.
Removing the webcam and unisntalling the driver is the quickest way to see if the wbecam (or driver) is causing the problems with your games of course.
Kyle
hi kyle!! i bougth a webcam with the driver,, but then upon installing it, a text box appears, and it says that “my operating system might malfunction if i will continue installing!!” and a day after i installed my webcam, i can not longer run some of my lan games, can you help me with this? sorry for my english!!