The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    webcam cover

    Discussion in 'Other Manufacturers' started by barspi, Jul 19, 2006.

  1. barspi

    barspi Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    174
    Messages:
    102
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Is the webcam cover just to guard it from the dust or does it electrically disconnect the camera also? (similarly to the wifi switch)
    Has the problem with Windows and USB devices been solved? This was an issue a few months ago, that drained the battery. I didn't keep up on the news about this issue so I'm asking now.
    I remember that a problem with notebooks that had integrated USB wecams was that they couldn't be turned off/disconnected so you were stuck with maybe 30 minutes less of battery than what you could get.
     
    barspi, Jul 19, 2006
    #1
  2. Justin@XoticPC

    Justin@XoticPC Company Representative

    Reputations:
    4,191
    Messages:
    3,307
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    105
    Hi barspi, The cover solely serves to protect the camera. It doesnt disable it when closed. When ours boots up you should see a balloon pop up saying the camera is initialized. I believe you can un-initialize the camera and turn it off.

    What problem were you speaking of with the USB's, I am sorry i am not familiar with a USB problem on the HEL80 :(.
     
    Justin@XoticPC, Jul 19, 2006
    #2
  3. barspi

    barspi Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    174
    Messages:
    102
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    It wasn't exactly a problem with USB but the drivers in Windows (only for Yonhas? XP SP2? that wasn't clear to me...) that somehow kept using more power than normal when you have something plugged into the USB. The related problem was with systems such as those with integrated USB camera... you *always* had something plugged into USB because there's no way to disconnect it!

    I remember some claims that it shortened the battery life for as much as 30 minutes in some cases.

    All these discussions where a few months ago (let's say... February plus/minus 2 months)
    Microsoft was supposed to update drivers and/or the problem could be fixed with updated BIOSes... I don't know.. google for it hahaha.. there were lots of posts in the forums, a couple of articles in places like tomshardware, anandtech, etc.

    But nobody talks about it anymore so maybe it has been "fixed"... but I don't know where the fix might have come from (MS, new chipsets, new bioses, nowhere...)
     
    barspi, Jul 19, 2006
    #3
  4. aurawolf

    aurawolf Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    22
    Messages:
    121
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    I am aware of the problem your asking on, Microsoft finally released a patch something like 2 months after the problem was first discovered so you shouldn't have any problems with that now, my Compal gets close to 4 hours with screen at 80% brightness running MP3s and working on it with word and publisher I didn't have to disable the Camera but I did disable the wireless to get that.
     
    aurawolf, Jul 19, 2006
    #4