Windows Vista Magically disappearing Webcam...

Feature or Defect? I've installed enough OS's in my day to know that when a hardware device is lacking a driver, it comes up as an exclamation point in the Device Manager, indicating a missing driver. Also, if you un-install a driver, that device will go back to an exclamation point since the driver is gone.

I've got a Dell laptop with an Integrated Webcam in the chassis above the LCD screen. Laptop is Vista. Yesterday, the webcam went away. Gone. It's done from Device manager; there's no indication anywhere, that the machine has a webcam at all. Question: Is this what Vista does if a driver is deleted, or something with the driver happens, or am I looking at a total hardware failure of the webcam, to the point that the OS doesn't see it anymore?

Also, I can't find a driver for the Integrated Webcam on Dell's website - this is weird, because I can always find what I need there...

Anyone know what's going on here?

Thanks,!

 

My first thought would be similar to yours, that the hardware has failed. Hopefully not.

Go into the BIOS (startup settings) and check if it is possibly disabled there.

If you know, or can find, the model number, you can try using the Add Hardware wizard to install the drivers manually by finding them in the hardware "list ". That might be somewhat strange though, because it would be treated as though it was something unknown to Windows.

Could it be being treated as some other hardware, like a camera, rather than a webcam? Could there be any software interfering, software for the webcam or some other similar hardware?

Matt

 

Here's what I've tried so far:

Hi all..

I have the issue I've seen that is documented so well --- where the Webcam vanishes from Device Manager all by itself. I've seen lots of fixes posted, but let me show you what I've done.. Webcam still absent from Device Manager....

***Pulled AC, pulled battery. Pressed power button for more than 10 seconds

***Adjusted power settings to ensure HD never spins down

***Tried plugging a USB thumb-drive into the laptop to wake up the USB bus.

***Pulled AC, pulled battery. Pressed power button for 10 seconds. Then cold-booted system with thumb-drive actually attached.

***Tried 'force-installing' driver using Add New Hardware. "Integrated Webcam" appeared, but oddly enough said "The driver for this device is not loaded... ".

***Tried running the setup.exe that comes with the driver package. Driver installs, but finishes with, "An error occured while starting the device... "

Is there anything else I haven't tried, that's been documneted as a fix for the magically-dissapearing-webcam problem on the Inspiron machines?

 

Here's more of what I just tried.. still no webcam...
_________________________________________
Tried Un-installing Skype, as well as WebCam Central. Re-installed WebCam Central, and still no webcam. I re-installed Skype, because at least the audio works.. Is this only a Vista thing? Win7 and XP (on the same HW) don't have this problem.

 

Did you try using Windows' "System Restore" to roll Windows back to a previous state when your computer was functioning correcty?

Microsoft.com > System Restore > Vista

 

The webcam was working fine, then magically stopped working. When it stopped working, it also disapeared out of Device manager. Chipset drivers were re-installed, which had no beneficial effect. I'm going to respectfully resist restoring the laptop back to a previous state. My gut tells me that if the device is absent from Device manager, then no restore/rebuild/re-install will do anything.

The Dell Forum site mentions booting from a diagnostic CD of some sort, which checks all available HW. I'll see if I can do that....

 

In the Dell Community Forums, one person opened the bezel to the LCD display, and did indeed find that the cable had slipped off of the Webcam. He plugged it back in, and his problem is totally fixed. However: Another person said that the microphone on the webcam works fine, but the video portion doesn't work. This sounds like a failed webcam (vid, mic in one unit), or maybe some pins of the connector (which appeared in place) aren't making a connection. Unfortunatly, the only way to make a determination as to what the prvailing problem is, is to have a significant sample of people take their LCD screen bezel apart to see what their individual problem is.

 

Unfortunately, my mother in law returned home, before I could fix the issue.. (her laptop). It's still not working to this day. I think the cable slipped off the webcam, behind the LCD screen bezel, but the laptop is 3,000mi away at the moment, so I guess we have to close this as 'unresolved'....

 

Thanks for the update. If you find a resolution let us know, seems like you have plan. If the thread is closed you can send me a message.

Matt