Installing a webcam before the software

[grrl]

I just bought an MS webcam and they seem pretty serious about you NOT installing the camera before you've loaded the software. There is even a warning stapled over the USB plug. What damage are they trying to avoid?

 

[Slugbait]

About 10 years ago, I had to use an IBM Webcam for testing some A/V software. It had a huge red tag on the cable warning to install the software before plugging it in.

I often had to flatten my test boxes to do clean installs of the product, and one day forgot to install the software for the camera first. After plugging it in, it didn't matter what you did: you cannot get the damn thing to work. Your only option was to flatten the machine and do it again.

Most other webcams didn't have this problem (a few did, but not many...most cams with this problem were manufactured by Xirlink). MS webcams should not have this problem, but it's still a good idea to have the software pre-installed anyway.

 

[grrl]

Originally posted by: Slugbait
About 10 years ago, I had to use an IBM Webcam for testing some A/V software. It had a huge red tag on the cable warning to install the software before plugging it in.

I often had to flatten my test boxes to do clean installs of the product, and one day forgot to install the software for the camera first. After plugging it in, it didn't matter what you did: you cannot get the damn thing to work. Your only option was to flatten the machine and do it again.

Most other webcams didn't have this problem (a few did, but not many...most cams with this problem were manufactured by Xirlink). MS webcams should not have this problem, but it's still a good idea to have the software pre-installed anyway.

That's very strange.

 

[Slugbait]

Originally posted by: grrl

That's very strange.

Not really. Ever heard of the Mwave? It was worse than their cameras...they got sued for that one.

 

[grrl]

Originally posted by: Slugbait

Originally posted by: grrl

That's very strange.

Not really. Ever heard of the Mwave? It was worse than their cameras...they got sued for that one.

I remember the Aptiva. I think my brother had one, but I don't recall the MWave issue.

 

[nineball9]

Some USB printers install this way too (HP for example).

 

[Slugbait]

Originally posted by: grrl

I remember the Aptiva. I think my brother had one, but I don't recall the MWave issue.

As long as you didn't flatten the machine, or just uninstall/re-install the Mwave, you were OK.

If you did either of those things, you eventually got a new sound card and new modem (separates, of course). If you bought an Mwave off the shelf, you got your refund about two years later.

It's kind-of like the USB supplement that was released for Win95 OSR2: it worked fine if an OEM machine came with it pre-installed. If you installed OSR2 yourself, it was impossible to get your USB ports to work. Didn't really matter, since it was USB 1.0, and there were only a handful of devices that were ever released for it that very few people ever bought, but still...very aggravating.