Webcam causes MSN messenger to freeze

[#1]

I have a PC with AMD Sempron 2400 1,6ghz with 768Mb RAM
it was 512 ram but I recently added an extra 256mb
I have a Lexcron Genie webcam which has worked fine till today
Then whenever I try to invite someone to view my cam MSN freezes up and it wont shut down either. I tried to shut it through Task Manager but it wont budge.
I ran ccleaner and another registry cleaner program. Ran a defrag. uninstalled both msn and the webcam driver and re-installed everything fresh
The problem still remains
I'm using MSN 7.5 because I dont really like the Windows Live version which I find too imposing
Has anyone any idea what is happening and how to fix it?
Thanks

[#2]

What version is the person you are trying to connect to using? Try live and see if the problem persists. If the problems doesnt go away you will know it isnt messenger related.

[#3]

Quote from: God

What version is the person you are trying to connect to using? Try live and see if the problem persists. If the problems doesnt go away you will know it isnt messenger related.

it happenw with whoever i talk to if i include my cam.
It worked perfectly alright before today sometimes the picture would freeze then go alright again but thats all

[#4]

May seem a stupid question but is your pc time set to the correct time? There is a funny quirk in MSN that if you time is to far out it wont connect and if its out a few mins silly things happen as it may think you are sending pics back before they arrived. I have had some funny thing with the time on it.
Does the webcam work ok in other applications? Any fire walls make sure they are set up to let MSN through

[#5]

Quote from: samuria

May seem a stupid question but is your pc time set to the correct time? There is a funny quirk in MSN that if you time is to far out it wont connect and if its out a few mins silly things happen as it may think you are sending pics back before they arrived. I have had some funny thing with the time on it. Does the webcam work ok in other applications? Any fire walls make sure they are set up to let MSN through

Time is set ok and it doesnt work in yahoo either.
when i try in yahoo it also stops respondinf and i cant shut it down, even with task manager

[#6]

Have you enabled UPnP in your router and on your PC?
Messenger uses UPnP to negotiate its way round NAT routers.  It'll work OK with UPnP disabled for text conversations but generally needs it enabled for audio/video.  Worth checking.

[#7]

uPnP (Universal Plug and Play) really isn't necessary for MSN Messenger nor Live Messenger to work, even for video/audio. I've got a PC and two laptops here all running through a NAT router with uPnP switched off - never had a problem even with all three running at the same time.
@juliasdream
You say the problem surfaced recently - was adding the ram the only change you made and did the problem come up immediately following the upgrade?

[#8]

Quote from: Phil_E

uPnP (Universal Plug and Play) really isn't necessary for MSN Messenger nor Live Messenger to work, even for video/audio. I've got a PC and two laptops here all running through a NAT router with uPnP switched off - never had a problem even with all three running at the same time. @juliasdream You say the problem surfaced recently - was adding the ram the only change you made and did the problem come up immediately following the upgrade?

Excuse my impatience. This problem starts to drive me nuts.
I wonderd as well about that because I had mixed a DDR 400 with 2 sticks of DDR100
I didnt think that would be a problem since usually the higher memory is read the same as the lower ones  making the equivalent of 3 x 256
Well just to find out I removed the extra stick of 256mb 400
I again uninstalled MSN and yahoo
I uninstalled the webcam driver
cleaned the registry and removed all relating folders from C:/programs.
I rebooted the computer
Re-installed MSN and Yahoo
Re-installed the webcam driver
Opened MSN
The moment I went into webcam settingsin MSN,  MSN froze again
Same thing happens in yahoo
I cant shut either down, even through the taskbar
The only way is to unplug the computer

[#9]

I agree that uPnP isn't always needed (hence *generally*) - I know a couple of people who don't have uPnP enabled routers who are quite happily using voice and video with Messenger.
However, Messenger refuses to work with voice for me without the router (Draytek Vigor 2800) having uPnP enabled (video works fine though!).
@juliasdream
Have you tried uninstalling Yahoo messenger, rebooting and running MSN?
It could be that there's a resource clash with them both running.
Another thought - have you upgraded the webcam driver at all?  If you did that recently, try rolling back to the previous version.

[#10]

I asked before but you didnt reply doe sit work with anything else ie not msn /yahoo like any software that came with it or as a twain device.
If it works with other software then we need to look at msn but if it doesnt wok with anything then its likely to be hardware/drivers

[#11]

Quote from: paulby

I agree that uPnP isn't always needed (hence *generally*)

Sorry if that sounded a bit curt, wasn't meant that way.
@juliasdream
I can only echo what samuria is asking. Does the cam work outside of MSN and Yahoo?

[#12]

Quote

Sorry if that sounded a bit curt, wasn't meant that way.

No problem - I hadn't taken any offence!!

[#13]

Hi and thanks for all who tried to help
I tried it on other computers and same thing happened
I almost binned the cam thinking it was bust
Well after all that it turned out to be something quite simple.
It was the cable
I've now fixed it and its working perfectly