Sony Vaio Camera Not Working with Live Messenger

My Vaio built-in camera will not work with MSN Live Messenger. Any attempt to
send or receive video or even setup camera results in message that "Windows
Live Messenger has stopped working" and then must shut down.

Greetings David,

This usually indicates a problem with the webcam driver. You might want to go check the Sony
website and see if there might be some updated ones.

--
Jonathan Kay
Microsoft MVP - Windows Live Messenger/MSN Messenger/Windows Messenger
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/
Messenger Resources - http://messenger.jonathankay.com
All posts unless otherwise specified are (c) 2007 Jonathan Kay.
You *must* contact me for redistribution rights.
--


"David" <> wrote in message
news:5D22D773-BADB-48C0-AB96-...
> My Vaio built-in camera will not work with MSN Live Messenger. Any attempt to
> send or receive video or even setup camera results in message that "Windows
> Live Messenger has stopped working" and then must shut down.

Hi Jonathan and David,

I must disagree with Jonathan overhere. I am experiencing exactly the same
problem as David. However I have a HP Pavilion TX1150EA laptop. Completely
different machine than the Sony David has. And I know I am not the only one
because I have read posts from other users in different groups/websites that
have exactly the same problem. Check this link:
http://messengersays.spaces.live.com...9E!29167.entry
and check the replies from this guy: The_M1K3 he talks about "cam" invites
and there is another one at the beginning who is experiencing the same
problem David and I are having. And that is just one place where people talk
about it.

I have been in contact with the Live support people exchanging emails for
the last 2 weeks or so. But I only get the standard solutions. In short
blaming my laptop, drivers, virusses etc. Well, I have checked it all, and I
can tell you (using my experience and insight being an ex-IT professional
myself (certified MCSE on windows NT4.0/2000 in the old days)) that there is
nothing wrong with my laptop or my drivers. I have tested the same problem
with other programs that make use of the webcam and NONE of them stop
responding. They all continue to work without any problems. The problem drove
me nuts. In complete despair I downgraded to Messenger Version 8.0 (Build
8.0.0787.00). And guess what???? All the problems disappeared like snow for
the sun. No problems at all. It worked, solid and to satisfaction. I was a
very happy man...

But then, about two weeks ago. Guess what happened? Microsoft in its
infinite wisdom (or stupidity, I haven't figured that one out yet) decide I
HAD to upgrade to the new version in order to continue using Messenger....
and it all started over again. Webcam problem reappeared, and it now stops
responding in about 95% of the times you try to use it.

So here's the question for Jonathan, are you telling me that all those other
people have driver problems too? Or might there possibly be a little "bug" in
Messenger? I know there's a little frustration in that line (and about the
wisdom of Microsoft as well), but being treated as a complete idiot by the
support department is also very frustrating. I think what I (and others) are
searching for is some recognition of our problems. That it just isn't our
hardware and/or drivers and that the problem might just lie in the new
version of messenger.

Kind regards,
Remko schooneveld




"Jonathan Kay [MVP]" wrote:

> Greetings David,
>
> This usually indicates a problem with the webcam driver. You might want to go check the Sony
> website and see if there might be some updated ones.
>
> --
> Jonathan Kay
> Microsoft MVP - Windows Live Messenger/MSN Messenger/Windows Messenger
> Associate Expert
> http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/
> Messenger Resources - http://messenger.jonathankay.com
> All posts unless otherwise specified are (c) 2007 Jonathan Kay.
> You *must* contact me for redistribution rights.
> --
>
>
> "David" <> wrote in message
> news:5D22D773-BADB-48C0-AB96-...
> > My Vaio built-in camera will not work with MSN Live Messenger. Any attempt to
> > send or receive video or even setup camera results in message that "Windows
> > Live Messenger has stopped working" and then must shut down.
>
>

Totally agree with Remko here. Same problems. Remko, did you find a solution?
pls let us know
thanks
ORM

Hi,

I've made another post somewhere in this forum explaining the problem in a
little bit more detail. I shall paste it at the end of this reply. But here
are my findings so far.

WLM normally seemed to crash after I changed networks (I travel a lot from
hotel to hotel). Everytime when I arrived at a different location and I try
to start sending the webcam for the first time it crashed. This is more or
less a stable factor. But it did crash on other occasions as well. And I
haven't got a clue what caused those crashes. But I could then usually get it
to work again by shutting down my laptop, restarting it, starting messenger,
quit messenger again, restart the laptop and then start using messenger and
the webcam again. That normally did the trick (but not always unfortunately).
If you continue to read the next paragraph you might find something useful
there.

I'm in contact with the Microsoft Global Escalations Center now. However,
responses are painfully slow. But at least I'm "talking" to the same guy now
and he comes with a little bit more useful feedback then the normal support
lines. But so far, he hasn't produced a complete solution to the problem.
But, there is one thing he said that seems to have a little effect. He told
me to shut the windows firewall down. Now, I'm not using windows firewall but
I am using Trendmicro Pccillin firewall. But I figured "a firewall is a
firewall". So I tried it. It seemed to be a bit of a long shot, but they have
done a security upgrade to the webcam module. So I am trying it now without a
firewall activated. Which is not an ideal situation to be honest, especially
not for someone working in different network locations. But guess what... It
seems to have improved the situation. A word of caution here, I haven't
tested this to the fullest. Because my problem was intermittend and I
couldn't reproduce the problem when I liked but so far it hasn't crashed
anymore. This has been the case since a week now.

I will continue to work on this and "bug" microsoft for as long as I can
until I'm confidend that problem has been completely resolved.

Cheers,
Remko

================================================== =
MY OTHER POST
================================================== =
Hi all,

After weeks of emailing with the WLM helpdesk and now the Microsoft Global
Escalations Team, I'm trying my luck here as well. I am running a HP Pavilion
TX1150EA laptop with a build in webcam. It's running on Windows Vista Home
Premium 32bit. I did buy this laptop in the beginning of August 2007 and
after initial installation it worked perfectly. Running on an older version
of WLM 8.0 (build 8.0.0787.00) without any problems. Then a couple of weeks
later build 8.1.0178.00 appeared. So, I upgraded to that version. And that is
when all my problems began.

In short, as soon as you try to start sending the webcam WLM stops working.
At first I thought, maybe my webcam drivers so I've upgraded them and the
firmware to the newest version. But no luck. Tried reinstalling WLM, no luck.
Got frustrated and downgraded to build 8.0.0787.00 again and voila, problem
solved. At least for a few weeks. Because guess what? They decided to "force"
build 8.1.0178.00 on everybody. And I was back where I started again. Try to
use the webcam within WLM and it stops working. REALLY ANNOYING!

I have seen multiple messages from people on the web who are experiencing
the same problem. And they are using all different hardware and software. So
please don't post a reply with "upgrade your drivers". Because I am convinced
that the problem lies within WLM and not with our hardware and software!

Is there anybody who have an idea to solve this problem? Or let someone
please tell me the WLM team is working on a solution that will be available
soon!

Kind regards,
Remko Schooneveld

P.s. applications like skype, yahoo messenger and other applications that
make use of the webcam feature are not experiencing any problems at all... go
figure...

I got it working with MSN and it does point to the driver and not Windows.
How to reproduce

1. Run MSN Messenger
2. Run Webcam Settings (it should crash)
3. go to Manage/Computer Management/Device Manager
4. Disable/enable your camera (under imaging device)
5. run MSN Messenger,it works great.

"Remko76" wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I've made another post somewhere in this forum explaining the problem in a
> little bit more detail. I shall paste it at the end of this reply. But here
> are my findings so far.
>
> WLM normally seemed to crash after I changed networks (I travel a lot from
> hotel to hotel). Everytime when I arrived at a different location and I try
> to start sending the webcam for the first time it crashed. This is more or
> less a stable factor. But it did crash on other occasions as well. And I
> haven't got a clue what caused those crashes. But I could then usually get it
> to work again by shutting down my laptop, restarting it, starting messenger,
> quit messenger again, restart the laptop and then start using messenger and
> the webcam again. That normally did the trick (but not always unfortunately).
> If you continue to read the next paragraph you might find something useful
> there.
>
> I'm in contact with the Microsoft Global Escalations Center now. However,
> responses are painfully slow. But at least I'm "talking" to the same guy now
> and he comes with a little bit more useful feedback then the normal support
> lines. But so far, he hasn't produced a complete solution to the problem.
> But, there is one thing he said that seems to have a little effect. He told
> me to shut the windows firewall down. Now, I'm not using windows firewall but
> I am using Trendmicro Pccillin firewall. But I figured "a firewall is a
> firewall". So I tried it. It seemed to be a bit of a long shot, but they have
> done a security upgrade to the webcam module. So I am trying it now without a
> firewall activated. Which is not an ideal situation to be honest, especially
> not for someone working in different network locations. But guess what... It
> seems to have improved the situation. A word of caution here, I haven't
> tested this to the fullest. Because my problem was intermittend and I
> couldn't reproduce the problem when I liked but so far it hasn't crashed
> anymore. This has been the case since a week now.
>
> I will continue to work on this and "bug" microsoft for as long as I can
> until I'm confidend that problem has been completely resolved.
>
> Cheers,
> Remko
>
> ================================================== =
> MY OTHER POST
> ================================================== =
> Hi all,
>
> After weeks of emailing with the WLM helpdesk and now the Microsoft Global
> Escalations Team, I'm trying my luck here as well. I am running a HP Pavilion
> TX1150EA laptop with a build in webcam. It's running on Windows Vista Home
> Premium 32bit. I did buy this laptop in the beginning of August 2007 and
> after initial installation it worked perfectly. Running on an older version
> of WLM 8.0 (build 8.0.0787.00) without any problems. Then a couple of weeks
> later build 8.1.0178.00 appeared. So, I upgraded to that version. And that is
> when all my problems began.
>
> In short, as soon as you try to start sending the webcam WLM stops working.
> At first I thought, maybe my webcam drivers so I've upgraded them and the
> firmware to the newest version. But no luck. Tried reinstalling WLM, no luck.
> Got frustrated and downgraded to build 8.0.0787.00 again and voila, problem
> solved. At least for a few weeks. Because guess what? They decided to "force"
> build 8.1.0178.00 on everybody. And I was back where I started again. Try to
> use the webcam within WLM and it stops working. REALLY ANNOYING!
>
> I have seen multiple messages from people on the web who are experiencing
> the same problem. And they are using all different hardware and software. So
> please don't post a reply with "upgrade your drivers". Because I am convinced
> that the problem lies within WLM and not with our hardware and software!
>
> Is there anybody who have an idea to solve this problem? Or let someone
> please tell me the WLM team is working on a solution that will be available
> soon!
>
> Kind regards,
> Remko Schooneveld
>
> P.s. applications like skype, yahoo messenger and other applications that
> make use of the webcam feature are not experiencing any problems at all... go
> figure...
>
>

I have a one-year old Sony VAIO VGN AR590E laptop with a built-in Sony
Visual Communication VGP VCC6 camera and VAIO Camera Capture Utility
2.2.00.22110 software. I use MSN Live Messenger 2008 (Build
8.5.1302.1018). I have Windows Vista Home Premium SP1.

I have always been unable to use MSN Messenger for live video calls
until recently. My computer upgrades automatically all of the time so I
don't know which update caused this failure but it recently updated from
Sony VAIO some products and also Vista updated to SP1.

Offline, my problem is that my camera will only capture "black
screen" stills but will record video accurately. In MSN Messenger,
everything works fine, except when I try to activate Video Call, MSN
Messenger crashes and closes. Also, just starting Messenger and clicking
on webcam setup crashes Messenger.

I have updated and restored everything from Sony VAIO. Windows Vista
Update is fully updated. I have searched the Internet for weeks finding
people with similar problems but no good solutions.

I uninstalled Vista SP1, uninstalled and reinstalled the camera drivers
and software to no avail.


--
Pactzin

"Pactzin" <> schreef in bericht
news:...
>
> I have a one-year old Sony VAIO VGN AR590E laptop with a built-in Sony
> Visual Communication VGP VCC6 camera and VAIO Camera Capture Utility
> 2.2.00.22110 software. I use MSN Live Messenger 2008 (Build
> 8.5.1302.1018). I have Windows Vista Home Premium SP1.
>
> I have always been unable to use MSN Messenger for live video calls
> until recently. My computer upgrades automatically all of the time so I
> don't know which update caused this failure but it recently updated from
> Sony VAIO some products and also Vista updated to SP1.
>
> Offline, my problem is that my camera will only capture "black
> screen" stills but will record video accurately. In MSN Messenger,
> everything works fine, except when I try to activate Video Call, MSN
> Messenger crashes and closes. Also, just starting Messenger and clicking
> on webcam setup crashes Messenger.
>
> I have updated and restored everything from Sony VAIO. Windows Vista
> Update is fully updated. I have searched the Internet for weeks finding
> people with similar problems but no good solutions.
>
> I uninstalled Vista SP1, uninstalled and reinstalled the camera drivers
> and software to no avail.
>
>
> --
> Pactzin


see my reply on your post from: 21-9-2008 23:07

heian

I have this same problem.
I have a vaio about 18 months old and everything worked fine.
Upgraded to windows live messenger (didnt want to.. had NO choice)
Video call kills my msn every time. (messenger has stopped working looking
for a solution blah blah)
Constantly being told by microsoft it is my webcam drivers..
SO.. if it is my webcam drivers why did it work just fine with live 2008..
and if I plug in another camera with its own set of drivers (Logitech sphere
with all the LATEST drivers) why does the EXACT same problem occur.
Also as a side note have benn given software that runs a 'virtual' webcam
from any old video test MSN with from a friend. Seeing as it doesnt have any
webcam drivers at all but just loops an old video from the harddrive why does
the problem still occur exactly as if I was running either the built in
camera or the USB camera.
Cmon Microsoft. Stop telling me this is my problem with out of date drivers
and admit this wasnt an issue before WLM 2009