If it doesn’t work properly, a laptop camera can become a serious obstacle for someone in holding various kinds of meetings which are now mostly done online.
Therefore, apart from being able to use alternatives such as using a cellphone as an additional camera, those of us who experience this certainly need to try various ways to fix it.
A laptop camera that does not work properly can fortunately occur not only because of a hardware error that requires component replacement, but also due to some technical issues on the software side.
For those of you who are experiencing it, here are a number of reasons why a laptop camera can’t work and various ways to deal with it.
Why Laptop Camera Not Working?
Button Not Turned On
To provide an additional level of security so that it cannot be accessed by just anyone, a number of laptop manufacturers are noted to add support in the form of a physical button to turn off or turn on the camera device.
You certainly need to make sure that the button is lit before taking photos or conducting video conferences because the laptop does not recognize the camera installation in the off state.
The location of the physical buttons is certainly different for each device. You can find out more about this in the user manual or the help page of the company’s website.
Stop Camera Support
Stopped support due to workload buildup, bugs, and even system errors can make the camera not work properly when users try to access it with certain applications.
Reloading the device can be the first solution when the camera can’t work because of this. But if it doesn’t work, you also need to take additional efforts such as updating the operating system and applications used to the latest version.
App Permissions Off
In the new generation of operating systems, all types of applications and services require special permissions in order to take advantage of camera support to activate any of their features.
Operating system updates, app reinstallations, or certain actions can unfortunately revert these permission settings to their original settings so that not all services will gain access to the camera in a basic way.
Of course, you need to check this setting to make sure that the app you’re using has camera permissions. On Windows 10, you can do this via the Settings > Privacy > Camera page .
If you use an antivirus application from a third party, don’t forget to check the settings in it because some platforms also have the ability to block camera access for applications for privacy security.
Camera Driver Not Matched
Camera problems that don’t work properly can also arise due to driver mismatches that serve as a bridge between the hardware and the operating system and applications in it. But like problems caused by drivers in general, you can solve this easily because you only update camera support to a new version or restore it to an older version.
Or directly, you can also search for and download the appropriate driver version which is usually available through the device support page of the company’s website.
Camera Not Compatible
Many components designed for older laptops have limited support. Some of them don’t even support newer generation operating systems. You can also check this although the method required varies according to the type of laptop and operating system where more details can usually be found on the company’s help page.
For Windows 10 users, checking can be done by opening the Device Manager and then looking for related camera support in Cameras & Imaging devices or Sound, video and game controllers .
You can then right-click on the camera support, select the Properties option , go to the Driver tab , then tap Driver Details . Look for a file called stream.sys .
If there is this file, then you can be sure that the camera component in the laptop is actually designed for Windows 7. Instead, you certainly need to buy a portable webcam if you still want to make video conferences.
Component Damage
Just like electronic components in general, camera hardware in a laptop can also be damaged due to user error or age of use. To overcome this, you certainly can’t take any other route except to take your laptop to a service center so that the camera components are replaced or buy additional devices such as a portable webcam.
