WEBCAM PROBLEM SOLVED!! (fingers crossed, here's to hoping...)

I think I solved the webcam problem! I'm still being very, very wary because of how maddening this problem has been. I've now tried my webcam in six different programs, even including YouTube's "quick capture" mode where you can capture video right through the Flash plugin in your browser. I'm very interested to hear what success others have with this (if any). Man, it's so nice to actually be able to USE my webcam now.

Want to know what worked for me? Acer drivers.

I found this driver: Acer Extensa 5210 Chicony Webcam Driver 5.7

(I have also mirrored the file here.)

Here are the exact steps I took.

1. Downloaded the file.
2. Unzipped it to a folder on my desktop.
3. Ran the "Setup.exe" file in the folder that got unzipped.
4. Went through the installer until it got to the end and then let it restart my computer.
5. Waited for my computer to restart.
6. It popped up something saying it was installing the drivers for my webcam. Waited until it was done.
7. Opened the Control Panel.
8. Opened the Device Manager.
9. Find my webcam under "Imaging Devices". I noticed it was listed as "HP Pavilion Webcam" despite having just installed the Acer drivers.
10. Right-clicked on my webcam and chose "Update Driver Software..."
11. Chose "Browse my computer for driver software"
12. Chose "Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer"
13. Unchecked the "Show compatible hardware" checkbox.
14. Scrolled down to the Chicony manufacturer.
15. Chose the "Acer Crystal Eye webcam.
16. Told it to install anyway when it asked me a question about installing that driver.
17. Waited for the driver to be installed.
18. Noted that my webcam was now listed as an Acer Crystal Eye webcam in Device Manager.

And that was it. It appears to work totally fine now! Again, I have my fingers crossed that it won't suddenly break again, but so far so good.

Forgot to note: This is on a DV6000T running Windows Vista 32-Bit Home Premium.

And here's proof:



I took that with Dorgem, an excellent, free, open source webcam application.

 

Must have been risky but I'm glad it paid back.Well done.

 

i will be trying this tonight... it's a lot simpler than the hoops I had to jump through last night to get a bluetooth headset working with Vista!!!

 

I will also be trying to do this tonight

 

A whole day of monkeying around with my webcam. Still no problems. It works flawlessly in every program I've tried. Messenger, muvee AutoProducer, Dorgem, Sony Vegas Video, YouTube, and so forth. All work fine.

 

tested and works fine here, on dv9500 Thanks for your experiment!

 

Working great for me too on a dv9000. Nice job.

 

man you are the best!!!!!

i've tried your solution and works fine.....

note: my webcam is still listed as hp pavilion webcam and works :S


my notebook is an HP PAVILLION DV6386eu

(i've only registered tosay thanks for the tip and of course added to favorites )

THANKS AGAIN!!!

 

The drivers are working perfectly for me so far. Pal talk is working correctly for the first time in months. I am running yahoo messenger, windows live messenger and Pal Talk all at once with no problems. With HP's drivers, Windows Messenger would cause other web cam programs not to see the web cam randomly. So far so good.

Its amazing that HP can't make a driver that works properly for their webcam, but a company such as Acer can.

 

My webcam is working when I use a program such as Skype. But shouldn't I be able to access it through QuickPlay? I can't. I inadvertently deleted the shortcut icon for the webcam, and now I can't even find it in the programs folder.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. I have a new DV2550.Thanks.

 

really? it should be in the program folders..go to program files(x86)>Hp>Quickplay>HpWebcam.

 

100% Tested And Working!!!

 

100% working for me ( i think ) fingers crossed!!!

 

Mine working but in quickplay no audio are saved when recording a video

 

Tested and Working for me thus far! Thanks

 

i dont get it.... i installed the hp drivers and my webcam works just fine.... why did you have to go and find an Acer driver?

 

I'm going to give this a shot over the weekend. Just curious: What led you to think of trying an Acer driver in the first place?

This may be the solution we've all been waiting for. I just hope that an HP software update doesn't wipe everything out.

 

Anyone have this working on Vista 64 bit?

 

If you look through the threads on this forum, you will find there are dozens of people who have major problems with the HP webcam drivers for Vista. They are quite poor and barely work for most of us.

I basically was trying to find other laptop vendors that used the same physical webcam hardware component. I was on a wrong chase before when I thought my webcam was a Ricoh webcam. After determining it was a Chicony webcam, I was able to find the drivers for that same physical hardware component, but from Acer.

 

So far so good! Thanks again for such great detective work. I'll report back if I encounter any hiccups, but I think this will do it.

 

Working good so far. Thanks

 

Working so far on TX1220. Dylan is a hero! Thanks for helping us all out!

 

I tried this and I received an error code (10). Said it could not install the driver and that I should check with the manufacturer!? Bottom line is it didn't work for me. Any suggestions? I am running Vista Ultimate on a dv9010. I noticed that when my computer restarted, nothing popped up saying it was installing the driver. I tried a couple times. I even tried uninstalling the driver first before downloading it and installing it again. I tried installing it as the Administrator as well.

 

I just bought the HP Pavilion dv9500 last month and my built in webcam stopped working. When I look at the devices info it says it was manufactured by Microsoft.

Several weeks ago I had installed Logitech Fusion Webcan Software in my computrer, just to see how it would work (Logitech has some nice options that I liked). It did not do what I wanted so I uninstalled it. Apparently, that is what caused my problem. I found a fix at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929087 and it partially fixed my problem.

Now when I go to Device Manager the Error Code 39 is gone and it says my webcam is working correctly. I can also see it in QuickPlay again. But it still won't work.

I have spent hours on the phone with HP, talking to several techs. and they each tell me I need to reformat the computer. I am not thrilled about doing that. I have backed everything up and am now making a set of Recovery Disks.

Since you appear to have the same laptop that I do, I was hoping you could help me. Any suggestions? I would appreciate it.

 

i have a question my webcam works i can record video and take pictures but when ever me adn my girlfriend try to have video chats through aim we cant see eachother is that an aim problem or my webcam problem?

Edit I downloaded a special version of aim from here works great

http://messageboards.aol.com/aol/en...den=true&filterUnhidden=false&numPageTokens=3

 

Hey I'm new and i just signed up because im in desperate need of help! soo....HELLLLLPPPPPPPP!!!!! Please


k ill try to make this short. i have a HP pavillion dv9410us Notebook PC. whenever i usee its built in webcam and try to film myself when i watch the video its so much faster than how when i actually filmed it. its almost like its in fast forward but its not i checked. and! my audio doesnt even match my movements and stuff because the videos sped up! i can't find any info on what to do with this problem. Does anyone have this problem or have had this problem and know how to deal with it????!?!?!?!? i need help please! help thnx i will always <3 u forever if you fix this problem!!!!

~lilk_27~

 

Hi lilk27: HP has posted a patch which I think may fix your problem (I had the same issue with my DV6265 and the patch fixed it):

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...softwareitem=ob-51291-1&jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN

Hope this works for you!

 

Thank you so much

<3 lilk_27 U rock

 

dear jerry44 um well now im trying to record tv on my laptop and i don't know how. could you possibly give me instructions? thnx

 

I just installed the acer drivers
And it worked liked a Charm! I fired up MSN live and the cam is working great. ( I haven't had the chance to try the audio with the came but I will install skype shortly and give it a go.)

Big thanks to Dylan Bennett! No thanks to HP!

Holy HP sucks - I did this right after calling HP and "escalating" my case. I've been dealing with this nonsense for 3 months. DO NOT waste your time on the phone or typing emails to them. They told me to do a system restore - I did thinking it would help - DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME! - Try the Acer driver -it's working for me!!

Here's a bit of my step by step as it was slightly different than what Dylan has posted. ( I have a dv2000 notebook with Vista BTW )

Downloaded the zip file -( I used dylans mirrored file - ran setup - restarted my computer. It seemed like it wasn't doing much after that so I went into my control panel - in the uninstall a program section - found Acer crystal eye webcam - selected that - hit Change - it then said it was updating the driver - restarted the computer - this time there was a message saying it was installing new drivers etc. I went in control panel - device manager - imaging devices - listed there was webcam( forget excalty what it was called ) - right clicked on it - said update driver software - Chose "Browse my computer for driver software" - Chose "Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer" - Scrolled down to the Chicony manufacturer.- Chose the "Acer Crystal Eye webcam. - Told it to install anyway when it asked me a question about installing that driver. - Waited for the driver to be installed. - Noted that my webcam was now listed as an Acer Crystal Eye webcam in Device Manager.

I hope this works for you! I hope we can all spend our time chatting with loved ones on our cams now instead of being here.

 

Has anyone told HP that the webcam problems are due to their drivers not working properly, and that the Acer crystal eye webcam drivers enables the HP web cam to function correctly if you have the Chicony webcam installed in your HP laptop?

I find it amazing that they have no idea that it is their drivers that are causing all of the problems with the Chicony webcams. They blame other webcam software for the webcam problems, stating that if the webcam works with Quickplay and Muvee Auto Producer than its not a problem with their drivers. Its even more amazing that they tell you to restore your computer to the original factory settings by using the HP recovery partition and losing all of your data to get your webcam to function correctly.

 

HP works as usually...They simply don't care!

 

Hi lilk27: Sorry, but I've never tried to do this. I suggest you contact HP Support ( http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/contact_us.html) They tend to give cookie cutter solutions, but this sounds like something they should be able to give you useful advice on. Also, if you email them you should hear back within an hour.

 

After 5 months of trying to get my webcam problem on my new HP laptop corrected by using the HP helpdesk with no success i was directed to this Fix.I tryed this solution a week ago and it has been working great since.Thanks.(SEE "DYLAN BENNETT" direction how to install new driver).

 

I don't think my webcam is made by chicony since the Acer Driver can't initialize it and therefore the installation always fails. Anyone else get this problem?

 

I'm confused my hp came with perfect working drivers i can use my webcam to do everything. if my dv2500 drivers work fine why don't other peoples? arent they the same drivers?

 

so after doing this fix
are you able to use the quickplay webcam function?

 

Ok guys im new to this whole webcam situation and i recently bought a HP dv6500t and my webcam seems to be busted lol. Sad isnt it lol. ive read some of the post here and they seem to interst me in dling the acer driver. The question i have is i dont know what kind of webcam i got so i dont know if i should download it and this message always pops up now when i i try to use vid chat on AIM 6.1 "Your camera is already being used by another application. Please exit all applications that are currently using the camera and try again." can anyone tell me if the driver would fix this problem. And i tried restarting the laptop and it still said it is still being used. So thank you everyone for helping me out.

 

Didnt work for me dv6500t, well it always worked fine in quickplay, so i was wondering for those whos didnt work before did urs work in quickplay and just not the instant messaging programs?

I installed.., restarted, nothing popped up saying it was installing driver, went to update the drive, said it encountered a problem while updating, then on the bottom it says The device did not start. (10) or something like that, so then i had to roll back driver, and now its called Acer Crystal Eye (whatever), and in Quickplay its called USB Video Device and yea it works fine still in quickplay just not aim .

 

lol #$&% HP!
My goddness, it shouldn't take that freakin long to fix this driver issue!
Anyway I tried installing the Acer drivers... but had no luck with it..as usual cam works for Quickplay but doesn't work for messenger, aim or yahoo messenger,. i tried using dorgem but it can't connect to the device... haha
dv9548ca here.
T_T
yo sulan thanks for the tips man.

 

i have this problem at times on my dv6000t when i try using my cam on msn messenger or skype..jus restart my notebook and it works fine

 

Dylan U Are God It Works Thats A Bunch Love U Man Thanks Alot

 

Working great on my dv9000. Thanks a ton.

 

I'm using an HP Pavilion dv9030us with Windows Vista and this solution worked perfectly. I have jumped in and out of several messaging programs and video editing programs and have successfully been able to use my webcam in all of them without rebooting.

Thanks for posting such a detailed solution. Now if HP would get their act together!

 

ditto. I'd like to know too.

 

Hi Dylan

Thanks very much for your suggestion, ingenious and it works a treat. I have been having immense problems with a HP Pavilion dv2 series, but your solution has solved it.

Thanks
Kevin

 

my friend did this and now under device manager she has acer crystal eye with a ! in a yellow sign next to it and when she clicks on it it says "this device cannot start". the error on aim was ATTENTION (10:06:02 PM): Video session initiated.
ATTENTION (10:06:02 PM): You do not have a camera.

now what?

 

thanks man..
working well on dv6580ee

 

worked for me on a dv9500t thanks

 

So yea I tried this out and it didn't work for me..
I'm running Vista Ultimate x64 on an intel core 2 duo ~1.6
Anyway I uninstalled all the drivers after and I couldn't get my original webcam drivers back..
soo the technician gave me this link from HP to install..and yeah after that.. my webcam started working with Msn live messenger,yahoo, and skipe hehe!
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...softwareitem=ob-52194-1&jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN