Webcam FAIL!

So, I am officialy an IDIOT! I recently purchased a lap top that has a web cam. (Toshiba from walmart.com) I'm all excited about finally getting my own shizz and whatnot, thinking about how many pictures I'm gomna take with this thing and how many awsome Youtube vids I'm gonna make, this is gonna be coolness right? WHOMP! When it gets here I'm jazzed, but when I clicked on the webcam app and all I see is scratchy fuzzyness the fun train stopped there. Tried changing the lighting in the room, didn't work. Tried using it in the daytime thinking it would make the picture clearer. Still didn't work. Then one day last week I see this peice of plastic sticking up at the corner of the top of my computer by the web cam lense. I thought it was broken.... It wasn't.... It was the protective covering of the webcam......*crickes chirp*