Video Cam Hardware

I purchased an Amcap video cam (cheapo) and it worked fine for some time. I
had some issues with some processes and had to restore my system back a few
days. That worked, except the Amcap program does not now work. Then I had
some register problems and purchased Uniblue Registry Booster for a fix. I
believe the fix worked because my DVD player now players; it did not before.
I tried changing USB ports (I have 3; 1 for printer, one for link to camera
for downloads and one for video cam. That did no good. You think the cheap
Amcap is OK. I get the following message: "will not play, you have no video
capture hardware". Why would it say that when it worked in the past; is this
another registry problem?
Dean