Pavilion 15-ab YouCam webcam not working

[RodgerBuckley]

EDIT - I have included YouCam in the Subject field to assist those who may encounter the same issue.

I have a Pavilion Notebook model 15-ab098na [personal information removed] with Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 installed. It's been fine for a couple of years, but now the built-in camera just won't work. This is very frustrating as there is nothing obviously wrong. There is an entry in Device Manager Imaging section which says HP Truecam HD, the drivers appear to be up to date (SP71830), and there are no error messages telling me drivers cannot be loaded etc.

I've read loads of posts on various forums on HP / Microsoft, and a few others, but so far have failed to resolve the issue.

To test, I open YouCam, and get a message saying YouCam cannot connect to your webcam (HP Truecam HD). Try selecting another capture device within settings, or close any aplications that may be using this webcam and then restart YouCam.

So far this is what I tried:

Update driver - this resulted in HP Truecam HD changing to USB Video Device on the error message

Update YouCam to version 6 from version5 - same problem

Disable / Uninstall device - same problem after enable / install / reboot etc

Clean Boot - laptop locks up after applying deselections of non-Microsoft services and after half an hour of waiting I can only force power off and restart

Prior to updating YouCam to V6, there was nothing wrong with YouCam 5 as far as I'm aware, but when trying to use the webcam via Skype, Viber,  YouCam, or any other installed software, it just doesn't want to light up the world with an image.

I am troubleshooting this laptop remotely as it is 1500miles away at the moment, so please don't respond by telling me to do things which are just not practical.  I'd also appreciate it if you would refrain from offering a solution if you really don't know what you're talking about - I'm not being disrepectful, but I'd rather not have input which either suggests one of the above actions which have already been performed, or which suggests that I buy a USB webcam for example. That doesn't resolve the issue - this laptop has a built-in webcam, and I prefer to use it.

As far as I can tell, this shouldn't be a difficult issue to fix, but as I haven't yet found an online description of the solution, it's becoming extremely frustrating, and more than an annoyance. HP has been around for many years, so has Windows 7, and so have built-in webcams.

Thanks

[Flower_Bud]

@RodgerBuckley

Thank you for posting on HP Forums,

Flower_Bud is at your service.

As I understand, your notebook webcam is not working, 

No worries, as I'll be glad to help you,

You need to be by the computer to diagnose that the issue correctly. It could be hardware related. The web cam may not be functional.

Please ensure that someone is by that specific computer to get complete assistance.

If that is not an option, then I will send you a private message to assist you with the next course of action. Check your forum private message box in the upper right corner next to the bell icon.  

[RodgerBuckley]

Hello Flower_Bud

Apologies for the very long delay in responding.

I still don't have a solution to this issue, and I can't be at the laptop for a while. Can you provide me with written details of how to proceed with this please? I do need to get that webcam working

Thanks

Rodger

[Echo_Lake]

@RodgerBuckley
I am the Echo_Lake  looks like you were interacting with @Flower_Bud but she is out of the office today, so I'll take over from here.

I see that your experiencing webcam issue with the HP Pavillion notebook 15.
Don't worry as I'll be glad to help, however, to provide an accurate resolution, I need a few more details:

• When was the last time it worked fine?
• Have you made any hardware/software changes?
• Have you tried any troubleshooting steps?
• Are you getting any error message while opening the webcam software?

While you respond to that, I recommend you to perform the following steps to isolate the issue and arrive at a fix:

To test the webcam with Cyberlink YouCam, open the software application.

• In Windows, search for and open YouCam, or click the YouCam icon on your desktop.

• If YouCam does not display in the list of search results, download and install the latest version of the software from the CyberLink YouCam (in English) website.

• When the application opens, the webcam image displays on the screen 

Hope this helps! Keep me posted for further assistance.

If I have helped you resolve the issue, feel free to give me a virtual high-five by clicking the 'Thumbs Up' icon below,

Followed by clicking on "Accept as solution" from the drop-down menu on the upper right corner,

Thank you for posting in the HP Support Forum.  Have a great day!

[RodgerBuckley]

Please read my original post as it does answer all the questions you asked, and confirms that I have already performed all the actions you suggest.

Let me ask another question so that we don't waste time playing ping pong on here. The webcam is listed in Device Manager as HP Truecam HD. I've uninstalled it, re-installed it, used the Update Driver facility in Windows, and still it doesn't work. I note that the driver is a generic Windows USB driver dated 2006, which is VERY old, yet that is the one that comes up time and time again. Surely there is a later driver than this? If so, where do I get it from as I don't see one on the Microsoft Website, nor does it seem to be in the bundled software for YouCam 6. As I've uninstalled YouCam 5 and YouCam 6, it's highly likely that I would have to pay Cyberlink to get YouCam 8, and I'm not going to do that unless I'm 100% certain that the HP camera is working.

So, in very simple terms - HOW do I get the camera working without YouCam? Skype can't use it, Viber can't use it - NOTHING works, yet the camera is ALWAYS detected in Device Manager when I uninstall it and Scan for changes to the hardware. It is impossible to test something which isn't working with YouCam as it will only give me the same error time and time and time again. We need to get more technical here I think.

Over to you, but please don't ask me a question or suggest something which has already been answered or stated previously, as it's highly unproductive and extremely frustrating.

Thanks

[Echo_Lake]

@RodgerBuckley
I'm sending out a Private message to assist you with the next course of action.

Please check your Private message icon on the upper right corner of your HP Forums profile

Next, to your profile Name, you should see a little blue envelope, please click on it or simply click on this link: https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/notes/privatenotespage

[RodgerBuckley · Accepted solution]

READ THIS CAREFULLY BEFORE CONTINUING - DISCLAIMER: The solution I refer to in this post does not in any way give any person warranty, protection against system/data loss, or any rights to make a claim against me. If YOU attempt to access and change the Windows Registry in any way, that is 100% YOUR responsibility, and you are wholly responsible for your own actions. My advice is : DO NOT follow any actions which I detail in my post(s) as there is potential data loss or corruption to the computer operating system and/or software. Hopefully that's covered everything, but if not, please note that I neither offer nor imply any warranties whatsoever. The following is offered for information only, after which it is up to you whether or not you want to proceed further.

OK, so I solved the problem with the YouCam, but this is NOT for the faint hearted or those who are not comfortable/knowledgable with the Windows Registry

After trying everything I could to resolve this issue using the tools, information, and drivers available to me as a normal Windows admin / HP Notebook user, I finally turned to the last resort i.e. overwriting the Windows Registry file. Scary or what

The laptop and camera was working fine in October 2016, which was when I took the last registry backup before adding a piece of software - actually, the laptop and camera worked fine at the beginning of 2018, but then it stopped working, but I didn't have a registry backup after October 2016. I Exported a new backup of the Windows registry file yesterday, saved it to an off-site location and also saved to the local hard drive, then Imported the previous backup file to the Windows Registry.

Although I had a quick peek inside the registry file to see if I could find anything peculiar, nothing immediately popped out as a potential issue with the built-in webcam. I suppose I could have edited the file and removed all the references to YouCam to totally eradicate it from the system, but as I had a previous backup file I decided to take a chance on it. If things didn't work out, I could have reverted back to the latest registry backup which I took yesterday.

Bearing in mind that I was doing this remotely, and my friend at the other end is not in any way technical, this was quite a big risk as she lives 1500 miles away from me. But, fortunately for me, I was able to successfully Import the previous registry file from October 2016, and after a restart of the laptop, the YouCam sprang into life, and I was introduced for the first time to my friend's baby Son who will be 3 months old tomorrow

So, if you're comfortable, have a go, and if not, don't do anything yourself - ask someone with the correct technical skills and experience to assis you.

For now, I'm happy, and the YouCam on my Pavilion Notebook is working. Good luck if you have the same or similar issue

[Echo_Lake]

@RodgerBuckley
I am glad to know that you managed to resolve the issue. Please reach out again for any further assistance.
Have a nice day ahead.👍