Camera opens but shows no image

Question

I have an built-in camera in my laptop (System-Windows 7, 64-bit). It used to work fine usually in zoom. But now when I turn on my camera in zoom it displays the white light besides the camera showing that the camera is switched on but I can not see myself. Also previously when I used to turn off my camera the white light used to vanish but now even after switching off the camera the white light doesn't goes.

I tried to go to device manager and scan the Camera under Imaging Devices for hardware changes and updated it but still cam doesn't show an image. I tried to uninstalled the device then scan for hardware changes and it did get installed back but still no image.

When I tried to run my camera on webcammictest.com it shows

A hardware error has occurred

Although you granted permission to use the appropriate devices, there was a hardware error at the operating system, browser, or web page level that prevented access to the device.

Try unplugging the device from the computer and plugging it back in.

Can anyone please help me what to do?

Answer 1

There is a possibility it is a hardware defect, at least in my experience those symptoms were connected with a faulty webcam in the past (control light is on, but no picture is being transmitted).

If the driver solution as "Saaransh Garg" suggests in his mail does not work, I would try it on a different OS (Linux, Win10, etc.), which, for example, can be run without replacing your current system, e.g. as a life system on a USB stick (as long as you device supports USB bootup).

Answer 2

You need to follow these steps:

1. Uninstall the driver you had.
2. Go here and type in your laptop's serial number or model
3. I assume that you'll reach the page where drivers are listed. Expand All Drivers, look for Webcam driver. Download and install the driver, as instructed.
4. Restart your computer

This will be good enough for most of the problems. However, if this doesn't helps, Install a generic Windows USB video driver:

1. Go to Device Manager > Imaging Devices
2. Right click, select properties
3. Do Update Driver.... > Browse the computer > Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer.
4. Deselect Show compatibe hardware
5. Select Microsoft in left selection, and USB Video Device in the right selection
6. Click Next to install
7. Restart your computer, check again

If none of this works, I'd say damaged hardware is most likely the cause of your problem.

Answer 3

I would ask you to try to uninstall the zoom program and reinstall it. If it works on another site or program but not on zoom and it could be an issue with the program itself.

However if your computer detects it but fails to use it in the browser I would pop off the screen frame and detach and reattach the camera physically..

On your keyboard there is a camera button usually F8 I think, you may have simply just disabled your camera by accidentally hitting that button.

I know you trying to reinstalling the drivers but maybe just try rolling them back maybe an update has them acting weird..

And second to last but not least make sure the privacy settings in your computer aren't set to block your camera on certain programs.

If none of the above work I would recommend getting a new camera sorry.