TZ camera problem! HELP please!!!

Hi guys,

I have a TZ17GN (purchased from Hong Kong's SonyStyle store) which I only own for TWO WEEKS from new, and found out the camera is NOT working anymore! (It works previously!)

Three days ago I found out this problem when I launched the Vaio Camera Capture Utility, and I saw nothing on the screen in both Still and Movie mode. Then I thought it could be a driver problem, so I uninstalled the camera driver and reinstalled its original driver (the one pre-saved in C drive by Sony). But after reintalled the driver, without luck, the camera still not working and shows nothing in the Camera Capture Utility software! It shows a completely black screen, in Still mode I 'can' take a black picture in 640x480 size. However, if you change it to 320x240 resolution in Still mode, it doesn't even let me 'take' the picture, and shows an error message 'Failed to save data'. In Movie mode, also complete black screen, and it records only 1 second of Green colour screen with sound.

So I decided to use my Recovery Disc to do a complete recovery for my TZ, but after the complete recovery, the camera still NOT working!

For your information, my machine is installed with the original Vista Business OS, all drivers and softwares are original from Sony, i.e. I never did any semi-clean or clean OS installation, and also never did any XP downgrade. So I don't think in anyway I f**ked up the camera hardware (?). Also, I love my gadgets and am always very careful with them, the TZ is kept with the Sony protective case.

I own many Sony Vaio laptops over the years and this is the 2nd one with problem, and what an coincidence both are the ultra-portable Vaios. My first one with problem was the TR2MP ultra-portable, the DVD drive died in 2 weeks time! And I have to send it back to Sony-Europe to fix it. Now, I have this camera problem in the TZ, I am getting very frustrated with it as I only own it for 2 weeks (not again!!!)! I can't bring it to the HK store for an exchange becasue I'm now in the UK.

If anyone could please give me some advice regarding this camera problem, I would be very much appreciated! Please help!!!

Many thanks!

 

By the way, whn I launched the Vaio Camera Utility program,the little green light next to the left of the camera does actually light up, i.e.the camera is in ON mode, but just doesn't capture anything to the screen...

 

Go to the Device Manager and disable the camera. Few moments after enable it again, open camera capture and should work.

 

We had the same exact issue with our TZ, the disable/enable seems to work.