Try the link below to understand your webcam. You should be able to simply make contact with your daughter using a VOIP (voice over internet protocol) program and the camera should activate. You can use something like the free Skype to talk to each other using your built in mic and speakers along with the cam. Skype is free computer to computer and allows photos or other files to be transferred while talking. You will need a 'handle' (user name) and password Here is a link that might be useful: Dell Webcam Central support

Snidely - good point about not removing things if they're not causing trouble - lest they turn out to have been needed. So I have left some things that I have no idea about. I did delete Dell Stage - bc. it's a real pain - gets in the way all the time (my daughter who's had this on her laptop for 2 years confirmed that it's just in the way). I did all the microsoft updates, ran a few antivirus, got rid of what I want to get rid of, and it's mostly good to go. Here's the trouble that remains: I can't get the printer working. It's a Canon Pixma MX850 - on the home network. I did not want to install the Canon disk bc. it has a ton of it's own bloatware. So I went to Canon and downloaded the driver - as well as the IJ utility software (I think that helps the computer find a printer on the network). Went to devices and printers, added the printer and made it the default printer. It shows up in printers and devices, but when I go to print something, it fails. Troubleshooting says the test page didn't print bc. something else is in the queue. But there is nothing else in the queue. I opened the queue from my pain desktop (that's connected to the printer) - and there's no documents in the queue. Went to the printer queue on DH's lapto; - it also shows nothing in the queue. I can print from other computers. Don't know what else to do. And I just remembered that I did not see Java. It didnt come up as needing updating when I ran the Secunia scan. I am not sure which programs need it, but can imagine my husband being stumped if he tries to do something that needs Java and asks him to install. I'd like to install it for him. Got to remember that. I also have a question about Microsoft Security Essentials. Twice now it found something bad - and I selected to remove the couple of files. Does this AV just run in the background or do I also need to run scans? Thank you. Lynn.

Hi, Jane. The computer seems to be working great. It's noticeably faster. I don't think that the mouse and keyboard not working was bc. of the RAM. One possibility is that I had put the USB devices back in any USB port - which I thought should be no problem - but may have been. maybe it was especially too much since there were 3 USB devices in new ports. The other possibility is that in getting rid of the dust bunnies - blowing the dust out with compressed air, that I got a bit of dust on the power supply plug/port. I'm not sure - but one place I googled (perhaps a cnet forum?) reported the keyboard and mouse not working bc. dust got into that area. They had unplugged the power cord - cleaned out any dust - and tried again. I did both. Unplugged the power cord and dusted the area again - and replugged the USB devices into the right ports. I also started by just plugging in the keyboard and mouse. Once I was up and running, I plugged the microphone back in. So I don't know what caused the temporary disabling of mouse and keyboard - but I"m pretty sure it wasn't too much RAM - just something I did when I was messing with the innards or replugging devices back in. All seems to be great now. I put it off forever too. I'm pretty sure that I went to Crucial's website (on the computer I wanted to upgrade) and let it scan the computer to determine how much RAM (and what type) it could use. If you haven't already tried that, I'd give it a whirl. Here's the link: http://www.crucial.com/systemscanner/ Let us know what you decide and how it goes. Good luck. Lynn.

Here's what you need to do in Firefox to make this particular web site work, To play Windows Media in Firefox, you need the Windows Media Player browser plugin installed. There are two different versions: The original, which is usually included with Windows up until XP. The new version, specifically developed for Windows XP and above, which is only available by download. Note: Even if you already have Windows Media Player installed, you may still be missing the plugin required to play back Windows Media audio and video embedded in web pages. This article describes how to check for and install the Windows Media Player Firefox plugin. See link. You will need to go into About: config and change a value to true, as instructed on the link I have provided. My Firefox would not work on the web page either. I went through the instructions and it works now. EDIT : I installed the plug-in from mike link that he provided, but had to do the about:config thing to make it work. Here is a link that might be useful: windows-media-files-in-firefox This post was edited by zep516 on Sat, Sep 28, 13 at 0:40