technika TK13Cm2 webcam

Before you download the driver and complain “it doesn’t work”…
…THIS DRIVER IS ONLY FOR THE “TK13Cm2”
and some other old obsolete webcams (listed below), not other random Technika cameras.
If you have a camera that is not MODEL TK13Cm2 THESE DRIVERS WILL NOT WORK !
Contact Tesco (link below) …


TECHNIKA Ultra Webcam and Headset
Model TK13Cm2 (DISCONTINUED mid 2008)
Catalogue number: 202-7098
from Tesco

If you haven’t done so, PLEASE complain to Tesco.
TESCO CONTACT DETAILS
BBC Watchdog program

– BTW. Yes I did phone customer support (normal and electrical goods) and they tried to help as much as they could. But as they couldn’t provide anything other than the original useless driver CD (only works for XP service pack 1 or lower), and couldn’t find out who makes their products, as they have no access to that sort of information.

. I urge everyone to ask them for the help you know they can’t give you, and take them up on the offer to receive a call about your “customer support experience”.
They called me within a few days (I guess my call went to the next step quickly as it was unsolved).
:eyes: Rather than a discussion about my “experience”, I was asked a load of questions from a very “leading” questionnaire. I chose my answers very carefully, as the questions are designed to make Tesco look good.
:devil: If you are aware of this before the call, you can use it to your advantage and have a bit of fun at their expense :whistle:

Am I the only person to have contacted Tesco about Technika product drivers ?
It would appear so, as they don’t feel the need to update their site.

I have found the drivers online, by searching for “USB2.0 PC Camera (SN9C201)” (as this is what is written in the installation pics in the manual).
💡 (if you have a different model webcam, you may find the clues you need in the photos of the setup process in your manual)

This lead me to one of those pain in the arse driver collection sites.
:star: http://driverzone.com/device.php?id=2444937 (updated link)
You can ignore this link, as once I knew what I was looking for, I looked for the makers of the chipset used in the camera, which lead me here.
http://www.sonix.com.tw/sonix/downloadSearch.do
Select “Video/Image Controllers”
then “PC-CAM Controller”
& finally “SN9C202”

Direct Links to Sonix info/downloads :star: (Links now dead – product obsolete)
This driver is for SN9C201 & SN9C202 chipset cameras.
They also have drivers for Mac OSX (which you don’t get on the install CD) :up:

:yes: LINUX drivers for this, and other Microdia web-cams can also be found here – Microdia

Current driver versions are (at the time I update this blog)
SN9C202_v5.7.27000.0_Win98/ME/2000/XP/Vista/Win7 (12388KB)
SN9C201/202_v1.03_MacOSX (1920KB)

The difference between the two product numbers is;
SN9C201 = USB 2.0 compliant video single-chip processor
SN9C202 = USB 2.0 compliant video/audio single-chip processor
both products use the same driver installation, and strictly speaking the SN9C202 would be the actual chip used in the Ultra Webcam
NOTE: This is an old and obsolete chipset :rip:

💡 THESE DRIVERS “SHOULD” WORK FOR ANY MAKE OF WEB-CAM THAT USES THIS CHIPSET 💡
This includes Intel, Trust, Microdia, Sonix or Tesco (I won’t say “Technika”, as this is just a made-up brand name, and not an actual company, with an actual website or any contact details of any kind)

To sum up.
Sonix made the chipset (a long time ago), Microdia seem to have made the camera, and Tesco put a sticker on it, and packaged it with driver version 1, which was pre-Vista and only worked for a few XP users (probably ver.1 XP pre-SP1, with no updates), so was already outdated when Tesco first got it.

:star: UPDATE (07/09/2008)
In the one day after this page was put up, it already had loads of visits.
I guess there are a lot of people without the installation disc, or want better/updated drivers.

:star: UPDATE 2 (26/03/2011)
A few years down the road, and this page still gets a stupid amount of visitors from all over the world!
I guess the cameras are endlessly being sold back and forth on ebay 😆
I’ve re-written a few bits and added more info, as people seemed to be following the wrong link, instead of the direct links (now labelled as such).

:star: UPDATE 3 (18/01/2012)
I keep getting asked about this “H16WC-01” webcam so I thought I’d look into it.
If you have one, you are stuffed. Get rid of it ASAP, and stop buying Technika products. Tell everyone you meet, and tell your children, and tell them to tell thier children when they have some etc.
Here is the official support page for the chip used in the camera.
PixArt PAC7301/PAC7302
LinuxTV info page has examples of other cameras using this chip. Try the drivers for those (Labtec Webcam 2200, looks like a good bet).

:star: UPDATE 4 (05/10/2013)
Good news! Tesco updated their support page in 2012 :hat:
Bad news! they just copied the same 6 drivers to the new site :doh:
So it looks like I continue to be the unpaid, unofficial support for Tesco into 2014.
Due the the ancient nature of the webcam, the official driver source no longer has it.
If the link I have left also stops working, I will host the files myself.
Catch up next year, for another laugh at the :monkey: :monkey: who run Tesco.

NOTE:
NEVER BUY ANY TECHNIKA PRODUCT THAT MAY NEED SOFTWARE.

:doh: They make cheap hardware, based on ancient obsolete products.
If you need more proof, check the original Tesco Technika support page at the bottom. It hadn’t changed since 2006, so only has support for dead old products :rip: they used to sell about 8 years ago :yikes: They have 1 driver for a webcam no one probably has anymore :jester:

:hat: Hooray for me!:cheers:
:faint: Boo to Tesco tech-support, or complete lack of. :doh:

CLICKHERE
AND LAUGH

ORIGINAL support page
http://wayback.archive.org/web/20120214061347/http://direct.tesco.com/content/specials/technika.aspx

Ageing techno-hippy armed with a radio show and not afraid to use it.

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