Since I posted my previous Leopard question I thought I would try one more.

My wife and I own Macbooks. My brother and parents have iMacs. We all run Leopard. (all upgraded from Tiger)

We do like to use iChat to video conference. The problem occurs only with my parents' computer.

Their computer is one of the newer iMacs. they have the wireless keyboard and mouse.

Often (seemingly randomly) when we try to initiate a video chat, they get an error that they cannot start the video because the camera is in use. The camera is not being used, and I think it must be some error. Could it be due to the USB attached external drive (Maxtor) or the USB attached Brother Printer, or the USB card reader?

They took the computer to the Apple store and Apple just reinstalled the OS. But it still happens. I try to use screen share from here to check what is happening, but it is suboptimal.

I know sometimes there is a bandwidth issue (as my father has a computer setup from the hospital which uses enormous bandwidth to transmit images) but that's not always it as this occurs even when that computer (in the basement) is turned off.

Sometimes, this whole issue freezes the computer or it takes forever to be able to switch windows (you just see the pinwheel). Sometimes there is even a delay in ichat before my parents can see that I am logged in.

Any insight?

fuzz