Windows 10 camera problems. Troubleshooting webcam problems on a laptop. Camera activation buttons on various laptops

The webcam is a piece of hardware, but you can also download it for Windows 10. More precisely, you can download a utility that will allow you to work with this component. For example, take pictures, record videos or even make calls. But for everything to work correctly, you need to download the drivers - it's free, but extremely necessary.

Some users, having successfully updated to the latest version of the operating system from Microsoft, begin to notice certain problems with their computer. For example, some peripheral equipment may not work. The web camera often starts to turn off, some flash drives cannot be read without installing additional drivers, etc. In order not to change the equipment to new ones, on our portal you should download special programs for free that will allow you to update the drivers of your devices for Windows 10.

It is important to distinguish between two situations: the device worked previously, but has now stopped, or it never worked and you only recently installed it. As a rule, the problem is hidden in the absence or incorrect installation of drivers. Of course, you can download and solve all problems literally in one click, but there are other solutions.

There is an installation option when the web camera is installed using the operating system itself. To do this, you need to go to Device Manager and look for the “Image processing device” item there. Right-click on it and delete it along with the drivers. After a hardware update, this device should work fine.

But it will also be possible to try installing some other drivers suitable for your webcam. To do this, select the “Update drivers” item in the context menu and enable the option to search for drivers on your device. Sometimes the installation wizard suggests a suitable driver, which you can try to install.

What webcam programs can be downloaded for free?

Our resource offers you to choose utilities, after installing which the web camera begins to be used much more efficiently. There is a whole galaxy of solutions that we can advise you:

• – for calls and communication;
• WebCam – for pictures;
• Test Webcam – to check the functionality of your hardware;

We have a large collection, use the search to take advantage of it. Surely you will choose some fairly popular program, the installation of which will allow you to communicate with friends and relatives and at the same time see each other clearly. Agree that standard calls are gradually becoming a thing of the past and today more and more people are trying to use video calling.

Now you understand that it is impossible to download a webcam since it is a physical thing. But for Windows 10, you can download other software solutions that will expand the capabilities of your hardware.

Many users, after installing the latest version of Windows, began to notice some malfunctions in the operation of their programs or devices. This may include failure of web cameras. Most often this occurs after updating the operating system to the latest version, but it can also occur during a clean installation.

Usually, users try to eliminate the cause by reinstalling the driver to one suitable for the given system. But the fact is that most often it is already installed on the computer, but problems arise for completely different reasons.

Failure to work without updating

In the event of a sudden failure that is not associated with updating the operating system or reinstalling it, you can simply restore the drivers. To do this, go to the “device manager” and select your camera there by right-clicking on it. It will be located in the section with image processing devices.

After this, you need to select the “properties” line in the drop-down menu. Then the user will see a separate window, where on the “driver” tab, pay attention to the “roll back” button. If it is active, you must use this key.

Device rediscovery

This method helps in almost half of the cases, so it’s worth using it. To do this, you first need to go to the “device manager” and in the section for processed device images, select your camera and delete it from there. Also, if necessary, the drivers for it are also removed. If the camera is not found in this section, then this method will not work; it is better to use the next one.

So, after removing the device, you need to install it again. To do this, you do not need to exit the dispatcher; right in it, select the “action” item at the top, and in it “update equipment configuration”. Now the camera will be reinstalled, you just need to check its operation. This is done through a standard OS application located in the “start” called “camera”.

Of course, if it works here, but not in other programs, then the problem is not in the camera settings, but in the programs themselves. If everything is in order, you don’t have to use anything else, but otherwise, you need to read the next point.

Reinstalling the driver

Perhaps the camera really needs to update its settings, or maybe not at all, in which case a full installation will be required. To do this, again, there is a camera in the device manager and a drop-down menu is called up on it. Here you need to select the “update drivers” option.

The user will open a separate window where he should select to search for drivers on the computer, and then point to the list of already installed ones. It is better to select a driver that has not been used before, but if there is only one, install it or use device removal.

Camera not detected

If there is no camera in the “device manager”, then you need to use the “view” tab at the top and display hidden devices, perhaps it is there. Now on the camera icon that appears, you need to right-click and select “enable” from the menu for it to work. The camera may also be in the list of unknown devices; you should view that too.

If this problem occurs on a laptop, then first of all you should contact the official source for drivers. Some models may require not only a camera driver for correct operation, but also a whole set of them, which should be downloaded from the manufacturer’s website.

Using parameters

If the camera fails, it is possible that the drivers were installed incorrectly or were not suitable for the new operating system. Also, this device may use a certain program that began to fail after the update, so it should be replaced. This is done through the control panel, only now you should select the “programs and features” item. It will be visible when you change the panel view to “icons”.

In this list, you should find the software related to your webcam and then remove it. After this, the program must be installed again using the “parameters” menu. It is displayed in "start". In the required menu, select a list of devices and a list of connected ones. There you should find the camera and, by calling up the drop-down menu on it, select the “get application” item in it. After downloading everything should work.

Additional options

In addition to those listed, there are several more recovery methods.

If the camera has never been used before or after reinstalling the operating system, and it does not appear in the device manager list, you should turn to the sources of the operating systems, or rather the BIOS, for help. But you should immediately note that this method is only relevant for built-in video communication devices. In the BIOS, select the Advanced or Integrated Peripherals tab and check whether camera activity can be enabled.

In the case of working with a laptop from the Lenovo campaign, everything is individual. That is, you need to download the special Lenovo Settings application to your device from an official source. If it is already installed, then go to the camera control section and find the privacy mode. If it is active, turn it off.

And one more option suitable for everyone. If the camera appears in the list of connected devices, but does not work, you need to pay attention to its drivers. Select a camera in the list and right-click on it to open the “properties” window. In it, in the “driver” section, click the “details” button, which displays a list of all files used to operate the device. In this list, you need to look for the presence of stream.sys, which indicates the “antiquity” of the drivers used. If this file exists, then the drivers should be replaced with newer ones, otherwise the camera will not work.

These are, perhaps, all the possible options for resolving the problem with the webcam.

Logitech C920 is one of the webcams that starts glitching after installing the Windows 10 Anniversary Update

On the Windows technical support forum, numerous users report problems with the webcam after installing the latest Anniversary Update (Windows 10 version 1607, OS Build 14393.10 "anniversary). After installing the update, webcams can no longer transmit video encoded in MJPEG or H. 264, but only work in the uncompressed YUV video transmission mode.

Skype in HD video mode, Open Broadcaster Software (OBS), various video surveillance software (CCTV), etc. begin to fail. The problem has been confirmed for many models of USB web cameras, including the very popular Logitech C920 and C930e.

The Anniversary Update was released on August 2, 2016 and introduced many new features, including the ability to use the convenient Bash shell in a Windows environment.

Unfortunately, for all its advantages, the Anniversary Update has one significant drawback - it disables the webcam.

Based on responses from tech support staff and a discussion in a forum thread, Microsoft has specifically limited the behavior of apps in Windows 10 to address performance issues with app access to the webcam and MJPEG or H.264 encoding processes. The fact is that traditionally in Windows only one application is allowed access to the video stream from the webcam. If, for example, you start a call in Skype, then other applications can no longer access the webcam. To optimize access sharing, in the Windows 10 v.1607 update, Microsoft added a new component called Windows Camera Frame Server, which processes video streams from webcams. Now applications do not connect directly to the webcam, but connect to the Windows Camera Frame Server. It supports multiple connections simultaneously and distributes the video stream from the camera to several connected applications. This was supposed to solve the problem of "exclusive" use of the webcam by one program. And, by the way, the Windows developers should have solved this problem a long time ago, but they decided only now. More precisely, they tried to solve it.

As a result of this “optimization”, when trying to encode a video stream to MJPEG or H.264 from a webcam, the device now turns off after a while. For example, an HD video call on Skype freezes about a minute after it starts, or freezes immediately after it starts.

Audio calls work fine. As before, there is no problem with simultaneous access of several programs to the webcam. There are also no problems when connecting the webcam via USB 3 rather than USB 2.

Webcams connected via USB 2 are forced to encode video to MJPEG or H.264 because USB 2's 480 Mbps bandwidth is not enough to transmit uncompressed video at 1920x1080 resolution at 30 fps. Therefore, MJPEG or H.264 encoding is a standard option on almost all modern webcams.

For some reason, Windows 10 v.1607 frame server only supports uncompressed video stream. This is likely due to performance issues in Windows 10 when multiple applications start performing MJPEG-to-YUV or H.264-to-YUV conversion at the same time. That is, theoretically, it is more efficient to carry out such a conversion once before the server distributes the video stream to applications. This scheme does not work if the program expects to receive a compressed MJPEG or H.264 video stream. In this case, the program cannot work normally.

For example, Skype progressively improves the quality of video calls whenever possible, if bandwidth allows and the processor is not overloaded. So, a video call may start out with lower quality (no video compression, for example, 640x480 YUV), but after a while Skype decides that the resources allow for better quality - and switches to 720p or 1080p. This could happen within a few seconds of starting the video call or within a minute. On older versions of Windows, such a switch occurred painlessly and unnoticed, but with the Anniversary Update installed, the switch does not work - the video freezes for a few seconds, and then the connection is interrupted.

Many users may think that webcam glitches can be solved by updating the drivers; they look for new drivers on the manufacturers' websites. But in fact, the problem is not in the drivers, but in the operating system itself.

On a tech support forum, some outraged corporate users say the video calling feature is critical for their employees. It is constantly used at work. With such problems, they have no choice but to prohibit employees from installing the Anniversary Update or even prohibit them from installing Windows 10 and change the operating system to OS X, where there are no problems with video communication.

Engineer Mike M from the Windows Camera division said that all comments in the thread are being recorded, and a fix for this bug has been queued for developers and may be released with the Windows 10 September update. Perhaps only MJPEG processing will be added to the frame server at first. because it's easier to deal with and the fix for H.264 will come later. The promised patch is good news. The bad news is that until September there is no official workaround to enable normal processing of MJPEG and H.264 video streams (see below for an unofficial method).

Another bad news is that starting with the Anniversary Update, Microsoft has reduced the allowed update rollback period from the standard 30 days to 10 days, so most users are stuck with this update. It’s strange that Microsoft didn’t even officially announce that it was reducing the period of allowed rollback to 10 days; nothing like that is reported in the OS update section.

So, Windows 10 owners only learn after the fact on the 11th day after the update that they can no longer roll back the update.

Microsoft also did not announce anything about updating the stack for processing video streams from web cameras when it rolled out the update. Therefore, no one imagined that any problems might arise. As you know, Microsoft does not release detailed release notes and does not talk about all the changes made to the OS, limiting itself only to marketing press releases with a brief description of the new exciting features.

This greatly distinguishes Windows from open source operating systems, where for each new version of the kernel, absolutely all changes made to the kernel are described in detail and you can even view the source code of each patch. There such problems are impossible in principle.

Now about the unofficial way to disable the new frame server in Windows 10. One of the users

Webcams used for video communication have long ceased to be luxury items, and today they are available on all laptops. But it also happens that the camera on a laptop with Windows 10 does not work. Why? There can be quite a lot of reasons, as well as methods for eliminating them. Below are the basic situations and solutions for turning on the webcam or troubleshooting if it does not work. The options described below are perfect not only for the tenth version of the system, but also for all other modifications.

Why Windows 10 does not see the laptop camera: possible reasons

First, let's look at a few main reasons why a user cannot access a webcam. This may be a simple failure of the device, but issues related to this will not be considered.

Among the most common situations when the camera on a laptop with Windows 10 does not work are the following:

• the camera is turned off at the hardware level;
• the camera is disabled in the software environment;
• Required drivers are missing.

Based on the above reasons, we can recommend several basic methods for activating the device, which will be discussed further in as much detail as possible.

How to turn on the camera on a laptop with Windows 10 from the keyboard?

So, first of all, pay attention to the laptop keyboard. Laptops have one main feature, which is that some built-in devices are turned on exclusively through the use of keyboard shortcuts, one of which is the Fn button (this can turn on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth modules, screen projection, sound, etc.).

It is quite possible that the camera on a laptop with Windows 10 does not work just because it is turned on not automatically, but in manual mode.

You can also check the functionality of the device quite simply by launching, for example, the Skype program. Setting up a webcam on a laptop with Windows 10 can be done not only in this application, but also using the main control applet, if one is provided for it, or by online testing.

Activating the camera in Task Manager

If none of what has been described is suitable, you should call the “Device Manager” (devmgmt.msc) and find the camera there, having previously specified the display of hidden devices. Typically, the camera will be labeled as an imaging device.

If it has an icon with an arrow pointing down, this indicates that the device is disabled. Through the RMB menu, you just need to select the “Engage” line and look at the result.

Driver installation issues

If after this the camera on a laptop with Windows 10 does not work, it may very well be that the drivers for it are not installed or they are simply outdated. In the first case, the camera may not be recognized and will be present in the list of unknown devices marked as a yellow triangle with an exclamation mark. In the second option, it can be seen as a working device.

For both cases, you need to select the driver update line via RMB or use the properties entry for this. If the system fails to update, you can remove the driver and then try to install it again. If this does not help, you need to install the software from the original disk or find suitable drivers using the VEN and DEV identifiers from the list of hardware IDs.

As a last resort, you can even remove the device from the system, and then ask Windows Installer to install the downloaded driver from the specified source by selecting the folder with the saved file through the browse function.

Enabling the camera in BIOS

If everything is fine with the drivers, but the camera properties indicate that the device is disabled, most likely it needs to be activated in the BIOS settings.

In the settings you need to find the Onboard Device Configuration or Advanced section, in which the camera will be present (Onboard Webcam or Camera). This device must be set to Enabled. If the camera is not listed, the problem may be that the BIOS shows a shortened version of the settings. All parameters will be displayed when using the combination Ctrl + F1, after which you need to enable it again.

Pay special attention to the Install OS item. If this parameter is set to Start, the camera will not work. To enable it, set the value to Finish, save the changes (F10, then the Y key) and restart the laptop.

Microsoft developers have introduced a special service in Windows 10 that is responsible for the operation of video communications on the device. Let's look at all the nuances associated with this program and look at the key issues related to the topic: how to turn on the camera on a laptop with OS Windows 10, how to turn it off and how to set up the visualization equipment.

How to run a webcam on Windows 10

The Windows 10 operating system is capable of effectively managing and monitoring the operation of all devices and elements that are responsible for video, sound, image quality, etc. To do this, you must adhere to the following rules. Here we will look at the details regarding video communications.

How to open the camera on a laptop running Windows 10? You need to perform the following series of sequential actions:

1. Expand the Start panel.
2. In the list of all applications, if they are already displayed on the initial Start screen, find the group with the letter “K”, select the “Camera” service and select it.

1. If the list is hidden, click on “All applications” and search the list there.

1. The system service card will open. If the imaging equipment is configured, it will turn on and display an image on the screen.

The question of how to enable a webcam on a computer with Windows 10 has been resolved. Now you can use video communication, record videos and take photos.

Setting up a webcam in Windows 10

The main parameters of the built-in video device can be configured in the window that we opened above. There is a quick switch to photo or video shooting, a photo timer and switch to professional mode.

How to configure webcam details on Windows 10 laptop? To perform advanced settings, click on the corresponding icon in the upper right corner.

Here you can set the button hold options for taking videos and burst photos. You can select a framing grid and slow-motion mode for your photo. For video, you can select the recording quality and flicker suppression.

Check and disable

How to disable the camera on a Windows 10 laptop? To resolve this issue, you need to go through Start - Settings - Privacy - Camera.

Here you can quickly turn it on and off.

How to check the camera on a laptop with Windows 10 if you have problems opening and turning on using the above methods? To do this, follow the following path: Start - Settings - System. In the card that opens, in the left list of system parameters, select “About the system”. In the right block, go down and find the related parameters - “Device Manager”.

In the card that opens, select the “Image processing devices” field. Expand this item and right-click on the device name. Select disable/enable.

Here you can update drivers, hardware configuration and go to device properties.

The quality of video communication and image recording is affected by the parameters of the graphics hardware installed on the laptop. If you have problems with picture clarity on high-speed Internet, you should check the characteristics of the devices responsible for graphics. The instructions can be found here.