Viper issues with Webcam & Mic

Hey everyone!
I got a DS Viper laptop in december of 2013 and it is an amazing piece of hardware, and I love it. However, there has been one persisting issue that I just want to be able to solve before I go off to college in the fall. Even when it was brand new, there was this problem. When on skype or any other video chat app, the image from my webcam was strangely dark. I turned on every light in my room, and it barely was light enough to be called brighter than dim. I turned a 40 watt lamp right in front of my face, and the image was still not completely illuminated. It isn't an internet problem either, as no other computer has had this problem. Also, the built in microphone appears to be barely functioning. Unless I yell and put my face right up to where the mic is, it does not register. Even then, it is very quiet on the other end. I've messed around with the microphone volume and boost, and even then it is quiet, except now with a huge amount of ambient noise. If anyone has a software fix for this I'd love to knoiw it, and if not, maybe Alex can let me know of the process needed to send in the computer to DS for fixes.
Thank you!If any other questions, please ask!

How would I go about reinstalling the webcam drivers Alex? ( <-- windows newbie(ish) here)
I've been messing around with my microphone settings and nothing's changed. Mic volume is at 100 and the boost at 20db and still barely anything.

Edited by Totoro - 24 Jun 2014 at 2:10pm

This is from a long time ago, but I remembered just now to post the results of my work with Alex >.< His emails were very prompt and helpful, and we got the webcam brightness issue largely solved. However, the mic is still spotty despite both of our best efforts, though it may be skype itself that's causing the problem.