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    Webcam Center Woes - Crashes and Spontaneous Password?

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by DirkBelig, May 25, 2008.

  1. DirkBelig

    DirkBelig Notebook Guru

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    The webcam on my M1530 sucks - no news there to anyone cursed with the POS - but at least it used to RUN while sucking; now it can't even do that.

    The problem started a few weeks ago when I launched the cam and tried to record something. The preview was fine, but the moment the countdown concluded and recording was to begin, a box labeled XviD Status popped up and Vista alerts that "Livecam.exe has stopped working." Clicking Close Program makes everything go away.

    I uninstalled all the Dell apps and reinstalled the latest versions of the driver and Webcam Center from Dell. I then got busy and never tested it until today. Now, when I fire it up, it's asking for a password for a box labeled Activate Webcam. "This webcam has the Parental Control feature enabled. Please type the password to activate your webcam." WTF?!? I DIDN'T SET UP A PASSWORD!!! :mad: On top of that, when I click record, it still crashes!

    What now?
     
    DirkBelig, May 25, 2008
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  2. idq000

    idq000 Notebook Deity

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    Whoa. That doesn't sound too good. I ordered a M1530.
     
    idq000, May 25, 2008
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  3. DirkBelig

    DirkBelig Notebook Guru

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    No one has any ideas?
     
    DirkBelig, Jun 1, 2008
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  4. DirkBelig

    DirkBelig Notebook Guru

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    I removed everything I can see related to the webcam but the driver and rebooted. I wanted to see if Meebo could access the camera and launched a chat and when I tried to access the camera, the Active Webcam password dialog came up again!

    There isn't anything else to remove in Programs and Features yet I can search for "web" in the Start menu and it lists "Dell Webcam Console" and the shortcut properties lead to "C:\Windows\system32\rundll32.exe OEM02Cvw.dll,ctCVWConsoleRunDLL32EP". What the heck is going on here? I don't have any passwords set anywhere, so WTF is this about?
     
    DirkBelig, Jun 4, 2008
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  5. DirkBelig

    DirkBelig Notebook Guru

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    I did a Google on the string after the rundll part and came up with this page which included this review:

    Built in Webcam cosole is fragile, as mine stopped work ing after applying Microsoft updates and then suddenly started working again after applying different updates from Windows update Besides it is not a simple exe. it is "C:\WINDOWS\system32\rundll32.exe OEM02Cvw.dll,ctCVWConsoleRunDLL32EP" , thus, there is nothing a user can do to correct it when console module stopped working.

    No mention of a password, but it's a clue, perhaps?
     
    DirkBelig, Jun 5, 2008
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