Webcam not working. out of ideas

I've had a webcam for over 2 years now - the iCam 320.
Since then there has been software updates and I have the most recent one installed.

I don't know what I've done recently but now the webcam wont work.

It's not in the Device Manager list. The Imaging icon isn't even there. It's like it has uninstalled itself. But the problem is that I cannot get it to reinstall.

Once I run the latest Driver, surely the webcam should appear in the list and run again, but no, its not there.

So then I went thru "Add Hardware Wizard" as well as "Scanners and Camera" in the Control Panel. When I point to the filenames which it should use as the setup drivers, it indicates that there is no valid file in that location.

When I unplug the Webcam USB and then reconnect it, a plug and play wizard should (in theory) pop up right? Well it doesn't.

What do I do now?

Appreciate any help.

btw, I did do a Windows Update recently. Dunno if that has anything to do with it. I have Win XP Pro.

Thanks

 

Don't really know what the problem is but how long has it been since this problem started? Have you tried system restore?

 

Just happened recently after my latest updates. Or thats when I noticed it anyway.

There are no restore points since I reinstalled XP over my older version to fix other corrupt files.

 

And ............
Did you reinstall your drivers before plugging in the camera? Oh Oh ! Was it plugged in? Now you are going to need something like RegCleaner to pull all the old registry entries out and then reinstall following mfg directions, probably before plugging in your camera.