Microsoft LifeCam VX-5000 VGA Webcam

Blue Screen of Death Generator.  I had nothing but bad luck with this webcam.  After 4 hours of installing, uninstalling, trying different ports, etc., it got boxed up and returned.  the camera would install, Device manager saw it, control panel scanners and cameras saw it, but the microsoft SW provided always said "no camera is installed" - the help file was useless, it told me to try another USB port, so if I unplugged it then plugged it into another USB port, it gave the blue screen.  This is running on XP.  I tried multiple times to remove the SW then reinstall, and in the end, I got the same result, no matter what tweaks I tried.  I even tried it without installing the software, which some other site reviews said you could do, and using Skype, it would not recognize the video, only the audio.  Maybe I just got a bad one, but I wouldn't try another one of these.