Webcam fails to initialize with SOME apps

[Prince]

I'm having trouble getting my Creative VideoBlaster Webcam III (USB) to work with Yahoo Messenger....or even the wevcam's own Control tool. Interestingly enough it will work just fine with Windows Movie Maker, or Creative Webcam Monitor, but not YIM or Creative Webcam Control.

The applications in question will fail to initialize the camera, it seems. They do not produce an error message, the application simply freezes, and even deleting the process via task manager won't work - the process cannot be killed without rebooting.

I've tried the old drivers and then the new drivers. I don't think it is a matter of a corrupt file, as I had the same issue before I reformatted the hard drive, reinstalled XP and the drivers and apps.

YIM requires VFW support from the camera, but only WDM drivers are available. This would explain the YIM problem, but not the fact that Webcam Control cannot initialize the cam either. I repeat, Windows Movie Maker can initialize and use the camera just fine, and so can Webcam Monitor.

Any ideas?