Webcam Mystery

[ameerat42]

OK, time's up! - I have to ask...

I've been looking at this laptop problem (for a friend, during brief visits) a few times over the past couple of weeks but
have not been able to fix it

What?
On a Lenovo G50-45 running Win 10 Home, the Camera will not work in Skype or Zoom, only the usual mirror image in the
MS Camera app. This has been happening for over a month. He cannot recall any incident that may have caused it, and I
can't think of anything else.

In Skype, for instance, it shows a normal image until you make a video call, then the recipient only receives the user's profile
image, and no live stream. Clicking the camera icon On/Off does nothing. The user can see the other party quite OK. In Zoom
(he says) he can see everyone else but gets a blank screen tab for himself, and others cannot see him.


The usual suspects:
1) Checked all Win 10 settings for Camera and Privacy; Apps that can use the Camera; in Skype, the Audio and Video settings.

2) The MS Camera app alone shows the usual (and weird) mirror-image of the scene.

3) BIOS on this computer does not separately list a camera.

4) Did an update of the camera drivers, and even deleted the camera and had it reinstall - all with the same result.

As a temporary measure, so he can be seen by his OS rels, I put Skype on his phone. It works, but it's pokey, so no Zoom on
his phone yet.

So I'm asking, what else is there to do?
Thinking: next will have to check registry setting; get an external webcam (an old one I have does not work in Win 10 ) but it
seems desperate to have two cams, and what if they BOTH don't work...!!???!!

Ta, and all thoughts welcome.

- - - Updated - - -

PS, add to the above list of checks:

5) Plenty of Internet bandwidth at 50/20 Down/Up...

[farmmax]

Is Avast Security loaded in the laptop?. It has webcam security setting which can stop webcams working. If Avast can do this, no doubt other antivirus and security software can as well, so might be worth having a poke around in the Antivirus. Checked the firewall settings as well?

[ameerat42]

Ta, Fmax.

No to Avast. I haven't checked the firewall setting. It uses Windows firewall, but [next time] I will.
I'll also remove all but the Win security suites briefly.

Yesterday I did a Registry fix that is touted online, but to no avail. I'm starting to think that it may
be the drivers are not playing anymore, and even though we updated them early during this drama,
I can't think of anything else. - Basically, that this model machine/camera/drivers does not support
the likes of Skype and Zoom.

At worst, he said he'd get a modern webcam to use as an additional camera for those two programs.

[ameerat42]

I now have 3 - that's three, III... - older (but not that old) machines which have lost their in-built camera.

One actually says [no camera found] but the camera light blazes.

Fmax, no interfering Firewall settings, no other security suites but Windows Defender.

Two are 32-bit machines and one's a 64-bit, all running Win 10.

An old (like about 10+ years) webcam cannot be made to work on any of these machines,
so it looks like I'll have to try a new external webcam

I have pounded the web from Goa to Woah (no longer a fictional land), trying all the "fixes"
recommended, but to Noah Vale Interestingly, neither do just about all the people who
have posted the same/similar problem report a fix. The warm and inviting message is shown
below.

The takeaway message seems to be: NOTHING TO SEE HERE - MOVE ON!
NoCam.jpg

[farmmax]

What operating system was originally on the computers which no longer communicate with their webcams? Are they laptops? Has it been upgrading to Win 10 which stopped them working, or have the cameras previously worked with Win 10?

Older webcams supposedly don't work well with Win 10.

On some Asus laptops, F10 turns web cam on and off. On MSI you need Fn + F6 to toggle the webcam on and off. Perhaps hunt around for your brand of laptops to see if there is a similar key combination short cut for turning webcam on and off.

[ameerat42]

Fmax. One had Win 7, and the other may have had Win 8 (or 7).

When I upgraded them to Win 10 over a year ago, they both worked -ly.
Now after some run of updates, the cameras don't want to play.

I've run every fix known to geeks. The next step is to attach an external
camera via USB port.

I was basically asking if anyone else had struck this, and, whether they
had found a miracle solution.

[farmmax]

Can VLC player connect to the webcams, or Ispy?

Roll back the updates Has Win 10 changed some of the codecs it uses ?

Someone probably has an answer out there .. you just have to find them

[ameerat42]

I don't have VLC on those 2 computers, Fmax, but they don't show any camera
feed using Win 10's Camera app (or Skype), and one of them says there is no
camera attached at all.