Inspiron 1520 Webcam problems

[Tomahawk]

Hey,

Just got a new laptop; the Dell Inspiron 1520.. and I'm having problems with the integrated webcam! I'm running XP.

Basically testing initially out of the box the webcam seemed to work. I then installed several bits of software and came to use it the next day and nothing. I'd run the Dell Webcam Center and just see a black screen, no error message, no picture, nothing! The webcam blue led light came on though.

So I tried the usual, uninstalling drivers, reinstalling, tried different newer/older drivers, searched the web for similar problems but with no solution to be found.

Next I decided to format as I had only installed several pieces of software and thought it would be worth the hassle if it fixed the webcam problem. So after a clean install and with all drivers from the 'resource' cd reloaded, bar the webcam center software. The webcam worked!

I thought that was the end of the problem. But then I plugged in a SD memory card to get some photos from it and my laptop automatically installed an SD host controller driver.. The webcam froze; so I tried opening the software again and now all I see is a black screen. No picture at all the same as before. The led light comes on to show its active, but no picture, if viewed using windows it is also blank; I've now tried everything to get it working again but nothing.

So it looks like a driver problem; but I've tried every driver available this includes two creative drivers, microsoft generic driver and dell's driver.. but with no luck! As you can imagine I don't want to have to format again..

Any help would be greatly appreciated,
Thanks.


Spec ref:
----------
T7250 Core 2 @ 2ghz
2gb DDR2
15.4 @ 1440x900
160gb HDD
8600GT 256mb
Windows XP

[staffsMike]

Sounds annoying, have you trying dell support? Emailling is usually quite prompt as phoning isn't cheap.

[Tomahawk]

Sounds annoying, have you trying dell support? Emailling is usually quite prompt as phoning isn't cheap.

Thanks for the reply.
Managed to get onto their online chat support and get it sorted. BUT how frustrating was that!
The woman asked me some really obvious questions (I expected it somewhat but I mean some were really bad).. even after I explained the situation!

One of my favourites to come out of it was:

"Lewis, please check if you have removed the plastic covering from the webcam."

When she said that I had no belief in them trying to fix the problem!
I replied saying that I thought that after the whole conversation above and me explaining how it worked initally/and now didn't that I found that pretty insulting.

A few minutes later she rang the house and apologised.

[staffsMike]

lol yeah it can get very interested.
I once had a faulty dvd drive and got asked if any rubber feet had fallen off the bottom

They always seem to ask this for overheating issues of course but seriously.. the dvd drive? lol

[bbbobbbo]

so Tomahawk, how'd you solve your issue? i'm having same trouble with my inspiron 1520 - whenever i turn on my webcam i just got a wonderful blank screen.

since you went all that lengthy chat with dell support you might want to share the workaround.

Oh, and i had my plastic covering removed long time ago

[Tomahawk]

so Tomahawk, how'd you solve your issue? i'm having same trouble with my inspiron 1520 - whenever i turn on my webcam i just got a wonderful blank screen.

since you went all that lengthy chat with dell support you might want to share the workaround.

Oh, and i had my plastic covering removed long time ago

Well thats the thing I wish I could tell you how it was solved!
I mean the DELL support woman just remotely logged into my system only to tell me I had installed all the drivers and software correctly.. and then continued to enable the ethernet adapter I had disabled due to not using it.

She then opened the webcam and said its working fine?! I checked it and couldn't believe it. So I asked her what was wrong and what she had done to fix the problem and she said nothing!? So it was a mystery.

So unfortunately I can't tell you! ..but I do recommend trying the online chat system: Here.

But yeah it did annoy me as she said she didn't actually change or update anything and when I was watching her she didn't uninstall/install any drivers etc.

Before contacting them I had tried EVERYTHING.. I even formatted and re-installed.. as mentioned above. I definitely think it was down to a driver conflict between the card reader and webcam.

Good luck with getting it sorted!