MacBook - iSight and Yahoo Messanger not recognizing a camera - Mac-Forums.com

radhalper · 03-19-2008, 03:09 AM

I'm trying to set up a way to do video chat with my girlfriend, who lives far away. She has a macbook and I have a pc. I'm pretty tech savy with PCs, but don't know much about macs and I'm hoping someone might give me some insight into what is going on.

We both installed Yahoo Messenger to use for our webcams. She was able to view me without a problem. However, when she clicked on the webcam button in our chat window to launch her webcam, the computer said that no webcam was present. However, she insists that her macbook has a built in webcam.

I then suggested that she try logging onto ichat and me on AIM and we try to video talk that way, but ichat wasn't installed on her computer. Does anyone have any idea what is going on? My working theory is that she might have a version of MacOS/OSX/Tiger (forgive me. I don't know the general name for the OS on Apples) that predates ichat, which is why that wasn't on her computer. However, I don't know why that would cause yahoo messenger not to be able to see the webcam. If that is the case, can she simply download and install ichat to use the webcam? Does she have to install any drivers or change the hardware settings to enable the camera?

Can anyone help?? Please? I'm begging. How often do you get to see a PC user grovel at the feet of Mac experts? (To be honest, I almost bought a macbook pro for my last computer. They are really nice. However, in the end I found a really, really great price on a PC so I couldn't justify buying the apple. Maybe next time.)

dtravis7 · 03-19-2008, 03:28 AM

Any Macbook made has a built in iSight Camera. All Macbooks shipped with at least 10.4.6 Tiger or higher. All came with iChat installed. If iChat is not there it's been removed. There is a way to get it back without totally uninstalling using an application called Pacifist and finding iChat on her OSX Install DVD. Yahoo should also find the iSight. Is she using the latest new Beta of Yahoo Messenger? The only thing so far Yahoo has not given us Mac users is Voice, but the Video does work.

radhalper · 03-19-2008, 03:45 AM

She just installed yahoo messanger yesterday and it said that it couldn't find a camera. Do you know what that would mean?

dtravis7 · 03-19-2008, 03:48 AM

Ask her to see which version of Yahoo it is. It should be Version 3 Beta 2.

Also can she view her Isight in Photobooth?

radhalper · 03-19-2008, 10:54 AM

If she can't view her isight in Photobooth, what does that mean?

eliehass · 03-19-2008, 12:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by radhalper

If she can't view her isight in Photobooth, what does that mean?

that would probably mean that something is wrong with the isight

radhalper · 03-19-2008, 01:34 PM

She claimed that she once uninstalled the camera or something. Is there something she could have uninstalled that would cause Yahoo Messenger not to recognize the presence of a camera?

oonal13 · 11-03-2008, 10:57 AM

msn messenger mac to windows
I am using my MBP to chat with someone using msn messenger on a windows. I cannot use my cam because there is no option to choose. what do you suggest?