How do I get my built-in webcam on my Windows 8 laptop to work again?

Question

When I first got my Windows 8 laptop, my webcam (which was built into my Gateway laptop) worked perfectly. I stopped going on my webcam for a little period of time.

I do not remember uninstalling it because after that period of time, it will say "Connect a camera." It did not have anything on the application that said Camera Settings. I have looked on a few methods. They have said to go to Imaging Devices which I somehow cannot find on my laptop. I have tried the method when you go to Settings > Control Panel > Hardware and Sounds > Devices and Printers, but I can never seem to find the next step, as well as other solutions which involve the Device Manager.

But when I use websites like Omegle, it seems to work sometimes which I find very confusing. I appreciate anyone who can share a method to solve this problem. Thank you.

Answer 1

First, it might be helpful if you tell us what you're doing with the webcam. Sometimes, software is just rubbish and will not work the way it should. Despite you being told otherwise. I find skype to be a good reliable testing software for my webcams when doing fresh installs so perhaps try downloading that and seeing if it works.

• If it works with skype, your webcam probably has no problems and 'Omegle' is probably at fault.

• If it doesn't work with skype, perhaps you need drivers.

  1. find and download your drivers and install them.
  2. test only with skype as we know this is a reliable test. If it doesn't work, and you're sure the drivers are the correct ones - perhaps you have a hardware issue with your webcam.

Strange that it works periodically however - that would also point to a hardware issue.

Answer 2

Did you try to check if the camera app works ? Go to start menu and search for "camera". It is the easiest way to check if you camera work.

You can check the FAQ of the camera app. There is an answer about Troubleshooting problems.

By the way, the first point of Josh, it's pretty accurate.

Answer 3

Most laptops can disable camera as there is a growing privacy concern. However some manufacturers make crappy implementations and it sometimes works, and sometimes not.

Try looking into your laptop documentation (or F keys row, there is usually a crossed camera icon) and see if there is Fn + Some F key combination to enable/disable camera. You can look in device manager or use camera app to see if it starts working.

For example my Lenovo uses Fn + F5 key for this.

Answer 4

Use ccleaner to remove all the previous register keys and also clean all the additional memory being occupied, I was also facing with the same problem but it got solved after using the ccleaner