Yahoo Messenger, Webcams, and kids

The inspiration for this blog was the successful resolution of a problem with getting my kid's Webcam working with Yahoo Messenger.


Of course, even though we've had the camera (not really a webcam, but supposed to work as one) since Christmas, she never cared until last night when I was madly finishing a document I was editing and needed to send off that night. Suddenly she needed it hooked up and working in 45 minutes so she could video chat with her BFF in California. Good luck with that - but I did try.


First I had to install the drivers for the camera - a Mustek DV316L that is about the most inexpensive digital video camera out there. Drivers installed ok although the instructions were dicey at best. But clicking "My Webcam" in Yahoo messenger only brought up an error message window in Internet Explorer.


First I worried that the camera was just too cheap and wouldn't work as promised. Of course, there's nothing useful about this particular camera on the web, so I turned to Yahoo help which wasn't much better. But, following the instructions in this link allowed me to determine that the camera SHOULD be compatible with Messenger. Then I tried this test and found something interesting, it wasn't automatically finding the camera, and the camera wasn't listed.


So I rebooted just for good measure. Tried the test again, set the camera source to the right camera, and I got video. So I went into Messenger and set the camera source to the correct camera (it's in Preferences or something like that), and tried "My Webcams" again. This time I got the error message that the application failed because it couldn't find kdu_V32R.dll. Which, oddly enough when I searched for it, was in the Program Files/Yahoo Messenger directory where theoretically it is supposed to be.


Searched a little more online and found all sorts of suggestions (seems this is a common problem) - from reinstalling Messenger to reinstalling camera drivers - neither of which sounded appealing at the moment. But one suggestion was just to copy kdu_V32R.dll into my /Windows/system directory, which I did (actually into the /system32 directory).


Tried "My Webcams" again and I was back to the small IE window with the error message. GRRR.


BUT, in my trolling of Yahoo's help files during all of this, I'd noticed this page, which says that if you are under age 13 (according to the birthday on file with Yahoo) you can't use the service. Period. So, wondering if this might be the problem, I logged into Messenger with my own Yahoo ID (I'm seriously older than 13), clicked on My Webcam, and lo and behold, there was my ugly face staring out at the world! Turned that off FAST, but problem solved.


What pisses me off about this whole process is that all Yahoo had to do was give us a specific error message when we tried to use the Webcam that my kid was too young according to their records. But NO, I had to jump through a dozen hoops to finally figure it out (and maybe there were some fixes along the way that helped the camera work with Messenger). And if she wants to set up a new Yahoo ID with a fake birthday so she can video chat with her few friends that have the same capability (all of whom I know), that's fine with me, at least for now.


Anyway, if you're having similar troubles, look in the unlikeliest places and try anything...