Micro innovations (basic webcam) installation

hi, mattato1; imma ijit, sigh. sorry, in advance. please help me, anyway, if ya can. i'd bought and installed the micro innovations basic webcam IC50C in Sept 2008. then, a few weeks later, my laptop died (unrelated problem) and i received a new (well, rebuilt) laptop at the end of October. i successfully installed most of my hardware and downloaded/installed most of my software. yea! for me.

except i forgot that i needed to install the software needed for my webcam before i plugged in the actual webcam. so after i realized my oohps, i uninstalled the software and made sure that my webcam was not plugged in and then tried to reinstall the software. which seemed to be successful. i restarted my computer. i plugged in the webcam. and uhm?

the lil green light on the webcam lights up. but my webcam itself is seemingly not there. i go to my computer, and there are no indications that the actual hardware/webcam is installed/connected. i have tried to just run it or open it, but i cannot find anything to actually open that would allow me to use the webcam.

i've tried going thru the uninstall, reinstall process several times; being sure to take all the proper steps in order. now, i'm at a complete loss. i did make a mistake initially, when i had plugged in the webcam before i installed the software. but i'd thought i'd unistalled (and therefore undid the damage) and reinstalled.

please, please, please help me! i'm unfamiliar with this website, but have tried to navigate it and read the suggestions, but more folks seem to have a different problem (no disc, no software). i have the disc/software. i'm just an ijit. it'd be great if you could/would help me. it may be more effective to eMail me, cuz i'm not sure how it is that i receive the suggested solution, as this is the first time i've used this forum. thanks, so very much, for your consideration, grins, debra dkb1116@peoplepc.com