Activating inbuilt webcam on Acer Aspire 1810TZ

dalin362

I have just given a very young relative of mine  my old Acer Aspire laptop  1810TZ  as a present. However, she discovered that the built in camera was not working. It did work some years ago, I did not need it so I didn care. Now the camera does not work and she wants to use the laptop for Skype, so I´d like to activate the camera. On UNITS - ASPIRE, it shows as a USB Camera, unit status says it works correctly and there are drivers (Windows\system32\drivers\ksthunk.sys   and the second one : Windows\system\drivers\usbvideo.sys.  However, Skype does not detect the webcam. Apparently the camera nedds an activation. Any idea how to get the built in camera to working status?

Commodore_1995#

You already tested the camera in this link: https://pt.webcamtests.com/

Commodore_1995#

You already tested the camera in this link: https://pt.webcamtests.com/

dalin362

Obrigado egydiocoelho. I can read some portuguese (as I can speak spanish). I understand from the webcam test, that there is a camera, but it is EITHER used, or it is BLOCKED by another application. So it is probably blocked, but the problem is how to detect which application blocks it? Anyway, you advice about the webcam chec k was very useful.

Commodore_1995#

OK! But did the camera work properly on the site? Have you tried activate the camera here?

dalin362

I am afraid that I do not get any further. The CAMERA icon does not show on the start menu, webcam test says there is  a camera, but it is blocked by another application, but it does not say which. So I am at a loss.

Commodore_1995#

Do you have any antivirus installed? It is possible that it is blocking access to the camera!

dalin362

I have Microsoft Security Essentials, I´ll uninstall it and see what happens, then I´ll let you know.

dalin362

Uninstalling MSE did not help, something else seems to be wrong. An acquintance of mine who has some computer literacy told me I should check if imaging devices missing from device manager and try to rectify that, so I´´ try that and then let you know what happened.Again, muito obrigado for your kind effort to help

Commodore_1995#

Check and post the result here!

dalin362

The mentioned imaging devices missing fix only works with WIN 10, my old laptop has WIN7 ULTIMATE. You wrote check and post here, what shall I check?

Commodore_1995#

Have you checked that? https://www.isumsoft.com/windows-10/allow-or-block-windows-app-use-camera.html

dalin362

Thanks for your suggestion, however, the fix you suggest is good only for WIN10 and not for WIN7 as it states, because WIN 7 lacks the necessary icons to do this fix.
I´ll probably give up, have tried all kinds of solutions till no avail. My niece´s daughter is not happy about it, but I´ll probably buy her a cheapie webcamera. It is possible that the laptop camera is damaged. Thanks for all you effort to help

Commodore_1995#

You said that an application is blocking webcam access, correct? If so, try this tip: https://www.thewindowsclub.com/which-app-using-webcam-windows

dalin362

Well, again, the fix you mentioned  is only for WIN 10, my laptop runs WIN 7 Ultimate

Commodore_1995#

The process explorer program works on windows 7 too! This program will identify which application is using the webcam!

dalin362

I´m afraid I am at a complete loss how to work the process explorer program in WIN 7. Under "run" I type gpedit.nsc, eventuallu after some clicking I arrive at Windows Components on the left hand menu, but there is no menu for App Privacy under windows components, I get stuck here. Any ideas about how to run it completely in WIN7?

Commodore_1995#

The processor explorer program is just an executable file, ie you do not need to install. It should work perfectly on windows 7. See I've run it here and it worked:

Commodore_1995#

Then you must inform the program that is blocking the webcam!

dalin362

Thanks again. How do I start the process  explorer on WIN 7?  It is getting late here, so hopefully see you tomorrow.

Commodore_1995#

So my friend:

dalin362

Following an advice from another source, I tried the clean boot, the camera should show after clean boot in case it was blocked by another application, as the original webcam test said. However, the camera does not appear on the menu even after the clean boot. A new webcam test says the camera was discovered, but "A faixa de video está pausada". My portuguese is not good enough to understand this, I know it has to do something with the video software, but have no idea. Tried various other webcam tests, most of them just don´t give any reason why the camera does not work, a test in my own language (swedish) says (probably wrong translation from english), that there´s  some sort of a video problem.
I´ll now try to follow your advice regarding the process explorer and see if it helps.