Logitech Quickcam 3000 on Windows Vista

I tried this evening to do a video conference with my Grandparents up North. My sister was there last week and I talked her through installing MSN Messenger on my Grandma's laptop (which conveniently has built in webcam, microphone, etc).

So this evening I also installed MSN Messenger myself (I haven't used IM software for 3 years or more for distraction/ productivity reasons), installed my Quickcam 3000 from Logitech on my Fuji P1610 and made the call. It connected and we could see each other but the video was juddery and the sound kept looping so that she sounded like a scratch DJ was involved! He-He-He-Hello Simon...etc.

So next I decided to switch to my desktop machine. It's much more powerful and its not going through WiFi. Then I spent hours and hours trying to get the camera to install...

It turns out that Logitech don't support anything before a 4000 on Vista. There is a way around it but in the long threads on the subject on Logitech's forums every time someone posts the solution Logitech say it is against the terms of use and delete the post!! I guess they want you to upgrade your camera...

I eventually found the instructions (basically uninstall all of your bad attempts and then reinstall the XP software) on this blog: http://blog.avanadeadvisor.com/blogs/johanr

I figure the more links to Johan's instructions on Google the better, hence this post.

To finish my story, after this we tried again and the results were superb. Really good full screen quality with proper lip synching, no juddering, no looping audio. I was very very impressed. Its much better than its been when I've played with it before.