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vbrad511
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Hey all, I've got a good friend whose daughter won't be able to make it home for Xmas. She lives somewhere in Az (I think), but her family hit me up about getting them a webcam so she could at least see the action at home. I've gotten on Fleabay and bought a cam (about $25 worth), and a 2.0 USB card to feed the cam to. So once I get this stuff how do I set it up. I'm assuming the cam will come with software, but will it be an automatic thing? Will there just be a program to load and open? It's all new to me so any tips you've got would help. Oh....and the computer's only got 256mb of memory. For what little she does on it, it's always been enough. Will that be enough for the cam?
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Hey all, I've got a good friend whose daughter won't be able to make it home for Xmas. She lives somewhere in Az (I think), but her family hit me up about getting them a webcam so she could at least see the action at home. I've gotten on Fleabay and bought a cam (about $25 worth), and a 2.0 USB card to feed the cam to. So once I get this stuff how do I set it up. I'm assuming the cam will come with software, but will it be an automatic thing? Will there just be a program to load and open? It's all new to me so any tips you've got would help. Oh....and the computer's only got 256mb of memory. For what little she does on it, it's always been enough. Will that be enough for the cam?

 

 

 

if the pc has xp it will (should) automaticly pick up the cam and then u use summin like yahoo messenger or skype or msn messenger for the video confrence part and it will be reall lagging with only 256mb ram im guessing

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If you don't get a disk and for whatever reason windows can't find a driver and or software to operate your device, just google the model number found on the camera with the word driver afterward, that and try to find the cam on the manufacturer's website. If you play with the display settings and the camera settings you might get it to work, but unless you have a dedicated graphic's card to that 256MB of RAM will get you some lag and pixelisation.

 

Also check out talk shoe if you need a program to hold the session for you.

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Turns out the daughter's already got Skype set up, so that's good. How much more memory? This gal's on a budget, just got back to work after about a year off for medical reasons, money's kind of an issue. Would 512 total run this thing acceptably?
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Turns out the daughter's already got Skype set up, so that's good. How much more memory? This gal's on a budget, just got back to work after about a year off for medical reasons, money's kind of an issue. Would 512 total run this thing acceptably?

 

Need to know if there is a graphics card present?

What CPU were talking here (doesn't have to be exact P1, P3, celleron 1Ghz, Dual core)?

And connection speed, does she have DSL or Cable?

 

Good news is memory is pretty cheap, especially for older bus speeds.

I even have a bunch of 128MB chips here somewhere.

If it would help I'd mail em to you if you want to pay for the shipping.

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It's a Dell Dimension 8100. P4, 1.5g processor, running the onboard Dell vid controller, and on cable. The specs call for PC800 for the memory. I put this machine together some months back, and I think it's got two open memory slots, but I'm not positive. I'm gonna go look at it tomorrow afternoon to get the exacts on it, so I'll know for sure then.

Thanks for the input....keep it coming, lol....

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It's a Dell Dimension 8100. P4, 1.5g processor, running the onboard Dell vid controller, and on cable. The specs call for PC800 for the memory. I put this machine together some months back, and I think it's got two open memory slots, but I'm not positive. I'm gonna go look at it tomorrow afternoon to get the exacts on it, so I'll know for sure then.

Thanks for the input....keep it coming, lol....

512 might do it then.

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If the cam is not a creative or logitech, get ready for headaches and/or disappointment. A Creative or Logi can be found for about 30 or so in stores. Oh... and don't forget a microphone, some cams will come with a headset of some kind.

 

You will NOT see fluid motion (30fps), unless you drop 60-80 on a camera. So do not expect something much expectacular.

 

If it's a P4 and above... 128mb of ram should be fine, if your install (of XP) is clean. If it's cluttered with all the mumbo jumbo from the factory, 256mb just in case.

 

Web cams do not care so much about the video card, so long as there is at least 32 megs of video ram. Web cams rely on the processor. The 128/256mb ram factors in on how well you'll be able to multitask, and how laggy the computer will become during broadcasts. That said, if it came with XP, it'll work just fine... so long as XP is working fine.

 

-Robert

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