Skype Hates the Elderly
A couple of days ago I got a call from my dad. He was at my grandfather's house, working on the laptop he and my mom gave him for Christmas. One of the primary reasons for giving him the laptop was that it had a webcam, and they were setting him up on Skype to be able to video-chat with our enormous and widespread family. But now there was a problem. He wasn't seeing any video — mine or his — on his end, even though I could see him when we would call each other. Days before this, we had tested everything and it was working perfectly.
So what changed between the passed test and the failed test?
- New location, ISP (Grandpa's house)
- Installed Microsoft Office
- Turned on Windows "Large Fonts"
My grandfather, like so many older people, doesn't have the greatest eye-sight, even with his glasses; and the Large Fonts feature of Windows really helps him use the computer.
As it turns out, this was the culprit. Changing back to "Normal" fixed the video problem. And through some clever tuning in the dialog found by clicking the "Advanced" button in that screenshot, you can make the fonts larger without using "Large Fonts," if necessary. I know Skype hasn't done this intentionally, and I've sent them a bug report via their suggestion form.
In the meantime, I hope this helps someone else out there trying to fix their grandparents' video problems.
Posted in Misc | 1 Response
Thanks again for your help!