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QuickCam VC USB and Windows XP
Neither Microsoft nor Logitech claim or make any warranties regarding the use of this device with Windows XP. As a matter of fact it isn’t even supported under Windows 2000, though I have used this same trick there as well.
But some of these are kicking around for cheap at outlet sites, and other people have been tossing 'em away. Business users purchased most VC’s during the early PC videoconferencing craze several years ago. Some never really got them working, generally due to the poor quality of internal PC support techs available to them.
The VC’s CCD is old technology, but is more sensitive and has better resolution than many CMOS-imager cams - including Logitech's. The move to CMOS was prompted by this technology’s lower cost.
For grins (or if you're an amateur astronomer) see
http://www.swan.ac.uk/astra/astro/ccdwork/vcmod.htm.
Basic procedure to get the VC running under Windows XP
Phase 1:
Go to
http://www.logitech.com/cf/support/QuickCamfiles.cfm
Scroll down the page, download qc550enu.exe (use the file appropriate for your language) software package.
Install.
Reboot.
Phase 2:
Go to
http://www.ntcompatible.com/qb.shtml
Scroll down the page, download qcwin2k.zip (under heading "Quick Cam VC USB (Logitech).
Unzip into a work folder.
Phase 3:
Plug the VC into a USB port.
Cancel P&P software install attempt by XP.
Use Control Panel Add Hardware.
Let it plug/play for a bit, select manual installation when it gives up.
Tell it you have an "imaging device."
Tell it "have disk" and browse to your work directory and select the file cxcap.inf
Complete installation.
You’re done!
Fire up the Logitech software. An icon should have been installed in the Quick Launch toolbar, and shortcut in the Start Menu.
Voila. Enjoy!
This worked great for me in Win2K as well. Not bad for an old unsupported device.
XP seems stable. I haven’t experienced any power-management troubles and haven’t noticed any other degradation. If the device is active when you wish to shut down, hibernate, etc. you must first “shut down” the QuickCam VC though. This should also be done whenever you wish to unplug the VC while your computer is running.
This is done via the “Safely Remove Hardware” icon that should appear in the system tray area when you have USB, PCMCIA, or other such devices attached to your computer. I don’t believe this is a VC/XP issue - many older “hot pluggable” devices require this.
Addendum
Several users have reported that Windows XP’s Movie Maker application fails as soon as you try to use it to record from QuickCam VC. I have confirmed this behavior and have not yet found any fix for it.
I have found one workaround however. You can record your “movie clips” in Logitech’s application and save them as AVI files. These AVIs can be imported into Movie Maker as “clips” and then worked on further there.
So far I have also successfully tested the QC VC under Windows XP with Microsoft’s NetMeeting and Windows Messenger, and Yahoo!’s Messenger.
Copyright Ó 2001 Robert D. Riemersma, Jr.
