Laptop webcam light comes on but the camera is no longer working

[danielhp22]

My laptop webcam light comes on but the camera is no longer working. I tested it after OS restoring, recovery,  and reinstalling the entire operating system, but the camera still does not work. I tested it also using various live CD, live USB operating systems, including Linux, different distributions. When the laptop was new, they all worked, and the camera was working, but now none of them work.  I bought this laptop a few months ago, late 2023. 

Please help ASAP, I needed for my daily video conferencing meetings. 

[LGHY]

Hello, have you tried restoring just the webcam?

This video has the steps on how to do so:

[danielhp22]

Hi LGHY,

I followed the video. My webcam is showing in the device manager but it is not working. The light just comes on but there's no image. Nonetheless I followed the video and restored as the video suggested but it did not solve any problems. The webcam light comes on the webcam shows in the device manager, but there is no image captured from the webcam.

We need to fix this ASAP at it as it is really interfering with my daily work. Please help me fix this problem. If there is a local repair shop I can take my laptop to please let me know where.

[danielhp22]

Hi LGHY,

Any update?  Please help.  My laptop is almost brand new, only a few months old.

[danielhp22]

Here are screenshots of the device manager showing that the webcam is recognized, but the tests on the webcam all show no image can be captured.

[danielhp22]

HP support? Any updates? Please help ...

[danielhp22 · Accepted solution]

Wow, I feel so foolish - there is an actual physical tiny shutter slide switch on top of the webcam, an excellent simple feature that is not labeled, and not documented well in the User or Maintenance manuals or guides https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/setup-user-guides/hp-17-laptop-pc-17-cp3000/2101549716