Solutions to Google Voice and Video Chat Problems

Google Talk instant messaging service is provided as a plugin or standalone application for smartphones, PC and Mac computers. It is also integrated in the popular web-based e-mail service, Gmail. Website, blog owners or Internet content providers can embed Google Talk Gadget as a chat tool.

This free video chat tool has received Google voice, video chat problems and comments and has known issues. The next section of this article lists the common problems or known issues when using Google Talk.

Installation and functionality issues:

• Vista users without Service Pack 1 or higher may see video and voice chat not functioning properly. The solution is to install the latest service pack for Vista.
• There's also the Fatal Error 1603 or error code 0x00000643, that pops up when installing the Google video and voice chat plugin. Google has not released a fix or work-around to this problem, but I suggest restarting the smartphone or unplugging the SIM card in the phone as a fix, before installing the application again. For Windows users, make sure that you install the plugin or program using the administrator account. If you are logged in as the administrator already, right-click the setup file and then click “Run as administrator."
• The voice and video chat plugin is not recognized by Google Talk. There is no fix yet but a work-around only. Delete the googletalkplugin_port file in directory of the plugin:

o XP users: Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\{Your User Account Name Here}\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Google Talk Plugin

o Vista and Windows 7 users: C:\Users\{Your User Account Name Here}\AppData\Local\Google\Google Talk Plugin

o Mac OS X users: Finder/Library/Application Support/Google/Google Talk Plugin

Connection issues:

• A message is displayed that you have been signed out of Gmail during a chat session. This problem affects the Firefox browser and the solution is to clear browser cache.
• A notice “Oops. Your chat connection may have been interrupted” when using the voice chat in Gmail. There’s no solution at the moment but the work-around is by disabling the outbound Google Voice calling function. To disable this function, click Settings in the Gmail website, click the Chat tab and select to disable outbound Google voice calling.

Incompatibility software issues:

• Google Talk plugin is incompatible to Greasemonkey, an add-on for Firefox. If you prefer using Greasemonkey, you need to disable the Gmail Conversation Preview script in Greasemonkey.
• Earlier or old version of better Gmail Firefox add-on is not compatible to Google Talk plugin. Upgrade to the latest version of the said add-on.
• Google Talk plugin disables iSight (and external cameras connected through USB) via the Flash plugin. There’s no fix at the moment but a work-around is to update the latest release of the Adobe Flash plugin.

Keeping the computer and add-ons for the computer up-to-date should be done all the time. In most cases, a new build or version of popular applications includes fixes that will help prevent future problems.

Before installing Google Talk, make sure that you meet the system requirements. If a problem occurs, you should start troubleshooting by disabling some add-ons in the browser that may be known as incompatible or those that conflict with the program Google Talk.

If you succeed installing Google Talk, read our getting started guide and some other useful articles:

• Using Google Talk for Voice Conversations
• Send SMS Text through Gmail and Google Talk
• Business users: Google Talk as Productivity Tool

Images and source: Courtesy of Google and Google Help forums.