Why does the video call button on Skype go away?

Answer 1

I had this same issue when my customer/client could not talk to his daughter in Russia last year. All of a sudden it was a problem. Skype said it was a problem that many people had and they were working on it. I never could fix it, but I fixed it on MY computer months later

The LAST letter they sent was this:

To help resolve some common video issue please go through the following steps:

- Make sure both you and the person you are video-calling with are using Skype version 3.0 (!!) or later, which is available here:

http://www.skype.com/download/skype/windows/

- Download and install the most recent drivers for your video device (you can get those at the webcam device's manufacturer's site).

- Select your video device in Skype under Tools -> Options -> Video and make sure it is functioning by clicking on the "Test Webcam" button (note: firewire devices are not supported at this time, for more info go here: http://forum.skype.com/viewtopic.php?t=45549).

- Make sure the option "Enable Skype video" is ticked. Also you can set video privacy settings to your desired options in the same window.

- The recommended system requirements for Skype video calls are a 1Ghz CPU, 512MB RAM, a video card with at least 16MB of memory and a 512/256kbit (down/up) connection. Video and call quality may vary greatly in environments with conditions below those recommendations. The video device must also support the DirectShow 9.1 standard (WDM is currently not supported).

- Please make also sure that you have the latest version of DirectX. You can download DirectX from here: http://www.Microsoft.com/windows/directx/default.mspx

( THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!!!)

(After installing it, please go to Start->Run and type 'dxdiag' without the ''. In the opening window, there is DirectX Version. Please make sure it is 'DirectX9.0c' or higher. Sometimes installation fails to update the version and in that case please contact Microsoft for support.)

A short tutorial can be found here (inofficial and for version 2.0):

http://forum.skype.com/viewtopic.php?t=41492

Also, make sure to check out our short guide to Skype video:

http://www.skype.com/help/guides/howtoskype_video/

Shortly after trying all these, I completely uninstalled MY new Logitech Video Cam, restarted the computer and reinstalled it again, and all was fine...sometimes, but it reappeared.

I can also tell you that being a technician, I personally did everything on their list for myself, but i found out that I had downloaded the NEWEST Version of Skype and because I didn't have Service Pack 2 of Windows XP installed, it would never work right, so I installed Service Pack 2 at the same time as re-installing the camera and it worked for good

Good luck, its a tough one

John

http://www.squidoo.com/Computer-tips-tweaks

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