Acer 311 .. CB311-9H external web cam problem

rafaelapt1011

Hello, we recently purchased the Acer 311 along with a Logitech C920s usb camera. Our problem is no matter what we do the C920 is overridden by the built in front camera, we have gone into the settings, camera , selected the logitech cam ( it turns on ) but when we go on hangouts or skype the front facing cam is operating ( at times both "camera on" lights are lit up but the picture is coming from the built in. Also tried to switch cameras from the camera app but same thing the front facing is broadcasting. is there a plug in or anything like that. Any information would be helpful because we don't want to use the crappy front faing camera this model has.  Thank you 

Commodore_1995#

What happens when you disable the notebook's onboard camera, through the device manager?

billsey

With any of those apps there is a way to switch cameras, and they will default to the first camera in the list. In Skype it's:

Click "Tools" at the top of the Skype window and select "Options" from the drop-down menu to open the Skype Options window. Click "Video settings" in the left navigation pane to view the video settings in the right pane. Click once on the "Select Webcam" box and select a different webcam source from the drop-down menu.

rafaelapt1011

egydiocoelho said:

What happens when you disable the notebook's onboard camera, through the device manager?

Sorry I should have said its a Chromebook... do they have device mangers?

rafaelapt1011

billsey said:

With any of those apps there is a way to switch cameras, and they will default to the first camera in the list. In Skype it's:

Click "Tools" at the top of the Skype window and select "Options" from the drop-down menu to open the Skype Options window. Click "Video settings" in the left navigation pane to view the video settings in the right pane. Click once on the "Select Webcam" box and select a different webcam source from the drop-down menu.

Thank you for the response, but the weird thing is the C920  doesn't show up on skype. Its just weird because both cams show they are on, but the Chromebooks cam is broadcasting.

billsey

So it is not so much that Skype isn't switching cameras but that Skype isn't seeing the external camera at all? There are a couple of possibilities: the camera might be in use with another process which is not releasing as it should, Skype might not understand how to access an external camera in the ChromeOS, or Skype might expect a different behavior from the camera drivers than the driver developers have implemented. I'd start with seeing if the Skype people have any insight into the issue. It wouldn't hurt to also contact Logitech to verify they are supporting ChromeOS.