Ah! New WebCam... Philips SPC 1300NC PC Camera!!!

I bought a new webcam earlier because Adrian's webcam is too old... well I looked like a woman in some old yellow photos. I didn't like it and so I bought this new Philips SPC 1300NC PC Camera... The one that I bought for my pc in Malaysia is an "installation-free" webcam, all I did was just plug it into the USB port, nothing technical... but, how difficult can it be?? I pulled apart a computer and put them all back together (without a manual) when I was only 16. Also a radio, a Video Cassette Player, a watch, a table fan, lights and other home appliances... not only did I pulled them apart, I them all back together and fixed whatever problems they had! And this was before I finished high school. How difficult can installing a webcam be?

Trust me, it was fatal.

This new one that I bought, well, it's expensive compared to the other available choices in the same supermarket (yes! I bought it in a supermarket in Taipa called Royal) and most of all it's a Philips, quite a reliable brand anyway. I thought... (sorry about the blurr images... I was really pissed off!)

I opened up the package, took the disc out and saw this:

It says, "STOP! FIRST run the installation CD before you plug in the camera"

Good, some dummy/picture instruction on the cover of the disc, OK, I won't plug in the camera before I run the disc. I thought.

This is the actual webcam, look at the red tag:

It says, "Stop! Install software before connecting!" good, I'll do just that.

Good, very clear, I thought.

And then this appeared:

It says, "Connect the webcam to your computer before installer driver"

Now at this point, it has really started to confuse me... do I plug it in now or do I install first and plug it in??? There's this red tag on the webcam that tell me to install software before plugging it in but the installer tells me to plug it in now... hmm... I was puzzled...

I was struggling to decide which one to believe but then I convinced myself that whatever the disc says should be more accurate than the printed labels. Right I'll plug it in.

And then I was asked to select the features I want to install. It even has an option to choose Adobe Reader 6.0 but I did not choose this one because I thought I have the most updated versions of ADOBE Distiller 9 and Acrobat 9 Pro...

Right, next it gave me 2 choices... If I want to read the instructions first. I thought to myself, I might need to because I was confused by the different instructions & warnings before. And so I chose.

Ehhh???? Do you know what it says after I clicked Next?

"There is no Acrobat Reader installed on your pc..." ya ya ya but my computer can still open and read a pdf file!!! bloody software!!!

Look!!! I've got enough software to read a bloody pdf file la!!

And when I finally finished running the installer, it says, "You need to restart your computer before you can connect and start using your WebCam. when you have restarted your computer you can connect your WebCam to your computer. EHHH?????????

I looked at my USB port just to double check, and the bloody WebCam is already plugged in as instructed upon running the installer -- the first instruction I received after running the freaking installer!!!

OK, I thought to myself, let's just unplug the bloody WebCam and restart and then connect and let's see what happens...

This is what happened!!!!!!!!!!!! LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WTF!!! You might be able to see what it says...

Cannot install this Hardware

There was a problem installing this hardware

Philips SPC 1300NC PC Camera: Audio (Microphone)

An error occurred during the installation of the device

Fatal error during installation

Click Finish to close the WIZARD.

Yes, you're right. This is what this freaking WIZARD was telling me after having to go through all the confusions!!!!!!!

WTF