Camera laptop

Laptop camera not working? 9 ways to fix it now

There are many uses for the laptop camera, but most people use it either to take photos, hold video chats like on Skype or Google Hangouts, among other uses.

But the laptop camera may not always launch or work the way it is ordinarily expected to. Here are solutions to help you fix your laptop camera when it just wont work, so read on!

How do I fix my laptop camera if its not working?

1. Run the Hardware troubleshooter
2. Update the laptop camera driver
3. Reinstall the laptop camera
4. Install driver in compatibility mode
5. Roll back driver
6. Check your antivirus software
7. Check the camera privacy settings
8. Create a new user profile
9. How to fix camera issues on specific laptop models

1. Run the Hardware troubleshooter

1. Right-click Start, and select Control Panel.
2. Go to the View by option in the top right corner.
3. Click the drop-down arrow and select Large icons.
4. Select Troubleshooting, and click on the View all option on the left pane.
5. Choose Hardware and Devices, and click Next.

Follow the on-screen instructions to run the Hardware and Devices troubleshooter. The troubleshooter will begin detecting any issues.

If youre experiencing problems with the recently installed device or hardware on your PC, then run the Hardware and Devices troubleshooter to resolve the issue.

This checks for commonly occurring issues and ensures any new device or hardware is correctly installed on your computer.

2. Update the laptop camera driver

1. Right-click Start, and select
2. Go to Imaging Devices and click to expand it.
3. Right-click on the laptop camera or integrated webcam driver.
4. Select Update Driver software.
5. When prompted to choose How do you want to search driver, select Search automatically for updated driver software. If theres an available driver on your computer, select Browse my computer for driver software, then choose the appropriate location for updating it [make sure youre online to do this].
6. Select Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer.
7. Choose USB Video device.
8. Click Next, then follow the on-screen instructions.
9. Restart your PC.

Finding the right driver can be a difficult task. Therefore, we recommend you use an automatic driver tool that can scan your PC for out-of-date or missing drivers and automatically update them.

Dedicated driver updaters, such as DriverFix will match your hardware with its corresponding driver, eliminating additional problems that can occur when using a mismatched driver.

3. Reinstall the laptop camera

1. Right-click Start button, and select Device Manager.
2. Go to Imaging devices and click the arrow to expand the list.
3. Right-click on your laptop camera or integrated webcam, and choose Uninstall.
4. Reboot your PC.

Let it install the driver automatically on PC start, then launch the laptop camera again to check if this resolves the issue.

In order to reinstall the laptop camera driver, especially for HP users, you have to follow the above steps.

4. Install driver in compatibility mode

1. Download the latest driver from the manufacturers website.
2. Save it on your local disk.
3. Right-click on the driver set up file.
4. Click Properties, and go to the Compatibility tab.
5. Check the box next to Run this program in Compatibility mode.
6. Select the Operating System from the drop-down list.
7. The driver will install, then check its functionality.
8. Restart your PC and check if the issue persists.

5. Roll back driver

1. Right-click Start, and select Device Manager.
2. Go to Imaging devices and click the arrow to expand the list.
3. Right-click on your webcam.
4. Choose Properties.
5. Locate Driver tab, and select the Driver details button.

Find a file name with stream.sys. If you have this on your PC, then your webcam needs to be replaced as this shows it was designed prior to Windows 7.

If not, then roll back your webcam by going to Roll Back Driver using these steps:

1. Select Device Manager.
2. Go to Imaging devices and click the arrow to expand the list.
3. Right-click on your webcam, and choose Properties.
4. Locate Driver tab, and select Roll Back Driver.
5. Click Yes.

Once rollback is finished, reboot your computer and try to open webcam again.

If the rollback works, youll need to block incoming Windows 10 driver updates.

6. Check your antivirus software

If your laptop camera doesnt work or open, or you get an error saying that the laptop camera cannot be found or cannot start, it may be caused by antivirus software that is blocking it or an outdated webcam driver.

In this case, check your antivirus software and look for settings related to blocking access or permission to use your webcam. You can also visit your antivirus software companys website.

7. Check the camera privacy settings

1. Click Start, and select Settings.
2. Type webcam in the search field box.
3. Select Camera privacy settings.
4. Check if the Let apps use my camera toggle is On.

Is your laptop cameras privacy settings turned on? Follow the above steps to execute this.

8. Create a new user profile

1. Click on Start, and select Settings.
2. Choose Accounts.
3. Click Add someone else to this PC
4. Fill in the form with the user name and password. Your new user account will be created.
5. Click on Change account type.
6. Click the drop-down arrow, and choose Administrator to set the account to administrator level.
7. Restart your PC.
8. Log in to the new account you just created.

You can also create a new user account and check whether your laptop camera works under the new profile, then change settings to administrator privileges, and check if the issue of the laptop camera not working persists.

If the issue goes away, then it may mean your other user profile is corrupted.

You can try the following in case of a corrupted user profile:

1. On your new account, use it to downgrade your usual account.
2. Click Apply or Ok.
3. Raise back your old account to its default admin level.
4. Rinse and repeat a few times as this will help to remove any corruption.
5. Leave your account on as Administrator.

Check whether the laptop camera works when using the newly created account. If it does, then you can either fix the old user account or migrate to the new account.

As an alternative, you can use an external webcam. Sometimes, this may be the best solution, especially if you want higher-quality photos and videos.

9. How to fix the webcam issues on specific laptop models

1. Lenovo laptop camera not working

1. Turn off camera privacy mode
   • Go to Lenovo Settings, and click on the camera
   • Locate Privacy Mode
   • Disable the privacy mode, and check if the camera is working now
2. Update the camera driver
   • Launch the Device Manager
   • Go toImaging Devices
   • Right-click on Lenovo EasyCamera
   • Select Update Driver to install the latest driver updates
3. Check the settings of the problematic program

If your Lenovo laptop camera is not working in particular programs, make sure the Lenovo EasyCamera is set as the default camera for those programs.

2. MSI laptop camera not working

1. Run the Hardware and Devices troubleshooter from the Settings app [Update & Security > Troubleshooter]
2. Re-enable your laptop camera:
   • Press Fn-F6 to turn on the webcam
   • Click on the TurboBattery + icon
   • Select the Windows icon from the toolbar
   • Click on the webcam to enable it again on the laptop.

3. HP laptop camera not working

1. Make sure your HP laptop webcam is set as the default camera in the program youre using
2. Update the webcam driver using the Device Manager
3. Uninstall other webcam drivers and programs which may cause conflicts with your HP webcam
4. Disable the webcam from the Device Manager
   • Go to Imaging devices
   • Right-click on your HP webcam
   • Select Disable

4. Dell laptop camera not working on Windows 10

1. Check your webcam privacy settings and make sure Windows 10 is allowed to use the webcam
2. Run Windows 10s built-in Hardware and Devices troubleshooter
3. Install the latest webcam driver updates using the Device Manager

5. Asus laptop camera not working

1. Make sure your webcam is turned on
2. Install the latest OS and driver updates
3. Disable unnecessary processes running in the background

Let us know in the comments section below whether any of these solutions worked to resolve the laptop camera issue. Also, leave there any other questions you may have.