Question Author
Thank you Mosaic but if the camera works plugged into a USB port on one computer then it ought, all things being equal, work on mine, thanks for answering though and if nothing else prevails I'll try your idea about a firewire.
As for your answer Rojash you really should read the question, of course there's no USB port on the camera, and having re-read the question it doesn't suggest that there is, as for where the signal goes once the camera is plugged into a USB port, of which there are some half a dozen on the back of my machine, presumable all the USB sockets on a computer route to the same destination and if they do why does my webcam work fine in the port alongside the one the camera is plugged into?
Since you asked and for the record the capture device is part of the XP OS and is called a Legacy Video Capture Device and for good measure there is also a Philips SAA713X Hybrid capture device which I recognise as a capture device I uesd to use with Window 98SE, it must have got installed at some time but I can't imagine when.
Anyway the people who use this site by and large have always been most helpful and I wouldn't wish to start world war 3, I had enough with the 4.5 years I spent in the Navy during WW2 but that's another story.
Thanks anyway everyone for your help.
musicator