Finding and Using Drivers
Communicating over the Internet has become a way of life. PC cameras are used every day in business and at home. Webcams are used for video confrencing, making calls over the Internet and chatting. The computer communicates with the webcam via its drivers, without the proper drivers installed your camera will not function. New web cams usually come with a CD that has the required drivers on it. But what happens if you lose your CD and need to re-install the drivers or if you buy a used pc camera? You need to find and install the correct PC camera drivers.
Insalling Drivers from a CD
Depending on the webcam instructions you will either put the CD into your cd/dvd drive and then plug the PC camera into a USB port on your computer. Or you will plug in the webcam first then insert the CD.
The disc should auto load, if it does not go to "My Computer" then double-click the drive letter where the disc is, a list of files will appear, select "Install" or "Setup" and follow the instructions on your screen to begin the installation. After the installation is finished remove the CD and restart your computer.
Finding and Installing Drivers
Locate the webcam's manufacturer and model number; which is usually found on the cam or in its manual. Do a search on the Internet, use a search engine like Google to find driver websites.
Download the compatible driver and save it to your desktop; when your download is complete you will have to "Run" the file to install the driver.
The file will have an .EXE (executable file) extension; which you will double click and "Run" to install the driver. Or in some cases the file will be a .Zip (compressed file) that you will need to extract the files from. To extract files right click the Zip file and select "Extract to current folder" when it's finished extracting the files simply Double-Click the "Set Up" or "Install" file, and click the "Run" button. The driver will install, when it's done go ahead and reboot your computer.
Drivers are updated occasionally so be sure to check periodically for new versions of your driver. Finding and installing PC camera drivers is easy once you understand the process.