Notebook Hardware and Upgrade Questions

Today my HP Webcam 101 which is built into my laptop (HP Pavilion g6-1337sa) has decided to not work.

It doesn't not fully work, as when I video call on skype it works for a split second and then turns off. It sometimes then either goes to a green screen or the YouCam loading screen or fails to work at all. I'm unable to make it work at all.

I have tried reinstalling Skype & YouCam but no change, as well as a System Restore from before the problem started. I have also tried many of the problems on the HP forums already, including from here, which hasn't helped;

http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c02452221

One of the solutions was to change the driver from HP-webcam101 to "USB Video Device" which did nothing, and I can't seem to find the HP webcam.

I'm not sure if this is also relevant but if I was to try and get the webcam to work in the YouCam application, it will attempt to connect to the webcam, and you also hear the sound when you connect a USB device? And a pop up comes up saying "This Device can peform faster" and then it dosconnects. 

It also had a short burst of time where it worked for maybe a few minutes, then stopped again and hasn't since.

The webcam does connect, extremely briefly, but I have no idea what the problem is at all. 

Any solutions or help will be greatly appreciated.

many thanks

Toby

(Windows 7 64bit)