Acer built-in webcam missing

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I have an Acer laptop model V5-471G which had windows 7 Home Premium factory installed; it also came with lots of bloatware. I have deleted all of the partitions (including the hidden recovery partition), reformatted the 500GB HDD and reinstalled Windows. Windows has been updated via internet up to the most recent updates.
I have reinstalled all of the original drivers and then most of the Acer applications. When I attempt to install the Acer Crystal Eye webcam, it eventually errors with a message “no webcam found”.
In Windows Device Manager, there is no “Imaging Device” section, nor is there anything image-device-related in the “USB controller” section.
A multitude of Google searches reveals nothing except a multitude of other folks searching for the same solution (on Acer, HP, Toshiba, MSI, etc.). Invariably responders say “install the correct driver”, but there is no driver existing either in my backup disks or any Acer website. I believe that a driver can only be installed if Windows has found the hardware (which it appears to have not). I have searched for “Hidden” hardware, to no avail. Any fresh ideas??

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Did the webcam work at one time? Are there any yellow question marks in Device Manager?

Have you checked the BIOS to make sure nothing is disabled?

Joe

--Joe

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Hi Joe,
Yes the webcab worked originally (out of the box), but not since I did a fresh windows install.:o:
No, there’s no yellow question marks in device manager. Everything there looks fine, except that there’s no references anywhere there regarding anything resembling a webcam.
Yep, everything in BIOS is enabled (not that there’s much there, though).

JJ

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I would go to the Acer web site and download any web cam apps they might have available. I know Sony includes these device drivers as part of their support and I would assume most manufacturer’s do.

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JJ,

Go to Device Manager, under the View menu item, select Show Hidden Devices. If you then find your camera, right-click, select Uninstall and reboot your computer.

Zig

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Go to the Acer Website and click on downloads and drivers. Input your model number and the appropriate OS. Download and install the camera app.

Jerry

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Thanks all for your replies.
Zig – Thanks, but sadly there’s no hidden devices
Medico – Thanks, I’ll try any other webcam drivers I can find for other Acer models; nothing to lose, eh?
Jwitalka – The Acer site only lists the Crystal Eye webcam app for the V5 models, and when loaded it eventually states “no webcam found”

The “no webcam found” message is making sense to me, ’cause there’s no video (?) device listed under USB controllers where it should normally be listed within Device Manager. The trick will be in somehow getting Win 7 to find the USB webcam.

JJ

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On my HP laptop, the built in webcam is officially called a USB video device.

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Again, thanks for the responses.
Jwitalka, I had tried removing all USB deivers and then restarting Win 7. On restart, it reinstalled all USB devices. Still no Joy. I’ll install the chipset driver & see what happens.
Medico, I went to the Acer website and installed drivers for Suyin, Chicony & LiteOn webcams. All three successfully installed the Acer Crystal Eye webcam application, but each version then states “webcam not installed”, “no Acer video capture device fitted” or similar message.
Michael37713, sadly no USB video device is listed.
JJ

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This is one reason why you should not delete the recovery partition unless you have a good image backup made prior to the deletion. You don’t gain all that much disk space anyway. If you contact Acer support, they may be able to point you to a driver and/or supply a recovery DVD.

I have an Acer Laptop that I replaced the hard disk with an SSD. I made a disk image of all the partitions and then restored them to the SSD including the recovery partition. This gives me two recovery options – factory restore and image backup. I then clean installed Windows 8 RP to the main partition using Windows easy transfer to copy over my data and drivers. Web cam works fine.

Jerry

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I do not think windows supports webcams natively and it is wondering why you keep banging it on the head with this new driver thingy it does not have a clue what to do with.
I believe you will need some type of webcam software plus the proper driver to tell windows what to do.
Skype is one type of webcam software I can think of off the top of my head.( Its a free download) You may also remember the name of the one you were using before and can get a copy.
Plus I am sure there are others here who can recommend more for you to chose from.

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Bite the bullet and pay Acer for a Recovery disc. Install Windows using the Recovery disc. Then run PC Decrapifier to remove some or much of the bloatware. Then run Revo Uninstaller to remove any other unwanted programs. Then run Ccleaner, and make sure you run the regular cleaning part as well as the Registry cleaning part. You should be able to complete all of this in about one hour.

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Maybe the webcam is not actually connected on the motherboard.
I had this problem with a Dell and had to get a Dell engineer to visit, he replaced the webcam itself and fixed the problem.
Luckily laptop was still under warranty. If it is not actually connected then device manager will not detect it.

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Many thanks to all who have responded.
I discovered that the webcam would VERY occasionally work and then stop – all randomly and withough apparent rhyme nor reason.
I have now been through the trauma of backing up all data to an external drive, reformatting the complete HDD and then used the Windows rescue disks (which I made when the ‘puter was just a few days old) to perform a fresh install. Still no joy.
Last night I reformatted the HDD, used the Acer Rescue disks (again burnt when the ‘puter was a few days old) and reinstalled everything to just-born factory original condition (including the bloatware – no choice). 5 hours later it was up & running, but no webcam.
A reboot later and the Acer “Crystal Eye” webcam program found the webcam. Great, I thought! I left it running for 15 minutes or so, to be greeted by a message from Crystal Eye that there was no webcam present.
Enough’s enough; off to the Acer workshop it goes as soon as I return back home in a few weeks.
It’s a pity as the V5 is the 5th Acer laptop I’ve owned, all of them having been carted around the world in a backpack and it’s the first ever fault. Can’t win everytime.

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More than likely it’s either a bad/loose/dirty internal USB connection, or corrupt USB driver. On my Dell E5420 the webcam is attached via USB Enhanced Host Controller:

32223-Webcam

With my E5420 I did basically what you did with your Acer; image of partitions, delete partition, recreate partitions with my partitioning scheme using BootIt Bare Metal, and clean reinstall of Windows 7 using the Dell OS disk. (I always get the media when I buy Dell).

I used the Dell Drivers disk to install drivers for the webcam, and everything works fine.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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Many thanks to all of the Loungers who offered thoughts and advice – much appreciated.I finally gave up and took the laptop back to the shop where I bought it about 3 months previously. They tested it for about 1/2 hour and then sent it off to Acer for repair. A week later they called us to go back to the shop and collect a brand new Acer replacement. Thanks to Chi Chang computer store and Acer in Chiangmai, Thailand for the great service – it’s one reason why Acer is the top selling brand here.

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