The camera just stopped working for no apparent reason. It won't work in Zoom and it won't even work the Win10 Camera app. It just gives me a camera icon w/ a slash thru it rather than a live video image. I checked all the settings, and yes, the camera is turned on, the apps have permission to use it, etc. Last time I used it was about a month ago and it was fine, so I thought it might be related to a Windows update. I rolled back all of them that have been installed since the last time I used the camera and it didn't make any difference. I should also point out that my daughter has the same model laptop and her camera still works.
Tech Support Guy System Info Utility version 1.0.0.9
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 10 Home, 64 bit, Build 19042, Installed 20201115200543.000000-300
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-8130U CPU @ 2.20GHz, Intel64 Family 6 Model 142 Stepping 10, CPU Count: 4
Total Physical RAM: 4 GB
Graphics Card: Intel(R) UHD Graphics 620, 1024 MB
Hard Drives: C: 930 GB (808 GB Free);
Motherboard: LENOVO LNVNB161216, ver SDK0J40700 WIN, s/n PF15TYG7
System: LENOVO, ver LENOVO - 1, s/n PF15TYG7
Antivirus: Windows Defender, Enabled and Updated
No luck... it scanned my computer for hardware and software issues, but it didn't find any problems with the camera. It even updated the BIOS, but that didn't make any difference either.
Yes, F8 is the hotkey for the camera. I tried turning the camera both on and off at your suggestion, but it didn't make any difference.
I should also note that I went to the Device Manager, and it says that the camera is working properly. I tried updating the driver, but that didn't work. I uninstalled the camera and even chose the option to delete the existing driver, and then rebooted so it would reinstall the camera. The reinstall completed successfully, but the camera still isn't working.
And finally, I examined the laptop for any signs of physical damage, but I didn't find any.
There were some differences between the driver versions on the 2 different machines, so I started poking around to see if I could possibly copy the driver from my daughter's laptop to mine. While doing so, I found a folder called C:\Drivers\Camera that includes Setup.exe. I uninstalled the camera in the Device Manager, ran Setup, and reinstalled the camera, and it works!
Looking at the camera Properties tab, I see that the (non-working) driver on my laptop was from 11-2020, while the driver on my daughter's computer was from 3-2020. So when I tried to roll back the driver, it obviously didn't work, or at least didn't find a working version.
The driver that is currently installed is probably the original driver from when the machine was built, as it is dated 11-2017. I hope it doesn't get overwritten in the next update
What really pisses me off is that the Device Manager said the camera was working properly when it clearly wasn't. I don't recall that ever happening with Win 98 or XP, but and I've seen similar issues over the last few years with Win 7 and 10. Driver management has actually gotten worse w/ the last 2 operating systems
It may come down to you having to install an external USB webcam in that laptop.
If you do, a Logitech 1080p model is what I recommend. https://www.logitech.com/en-us/webcams
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