Theaetetus wrote:
I tried re-setting the SMC once again - still no iSight picture, although the green light still comes on. Again I tried several programs, with the same result.
I logged off as administrator, then logged on as Guest. Same result. It's looking like a hardware problem, isn't it?
Having tried all Apple's troubleshooting suggestions, if your Mac's
System Profiler does not recognize your built-in iSight as a USB Device, yours is particularly likely to be hardware related. In that case, contact your AASP for professional help.
Whether or not your problem is hardware, an AASP will be able to help you.
If your
System Profiler
can see your built-in iSight, and if you are willing to spend some more time trying to resolve the problem yourself before taking your iMac to an AASP, you can
backup all your important files and then try some software reinstalls.
How many of these things you want to try before seeking professional help depends on how determined you are to try to solve this problem yourself versus the time and expense that may be involved for you to contact an Apple Service Technician, transport your Mac, and possibly pay for the AASP's service. You can try any or all of the software possibilities below in any order you like:
(1) If you have added non-Apple A/V apps or plugins before your iSight stopped working, uninstall (do not just trash them - follow their instructions and "uninstall" as directed,)
all of those items. Then restart your Mac, and test again using the iSight Troubleshooting procedure. If your iSight works now, you can reinstall any necessary third-party items. Add them back one-at-a-time and test your iSight before adding the next one to determine whether one of these items might be causing an iSight conflict.
(2) Apply the latest (current 10.5.7) Combo Updater using the following procedure:
•
Backup all your important files (if you have not already done so.)
• Use your Mac's
Disk Utility to
Repair disk permissions (different from repairing the "disk").
• Download and apply the Mac OS X 10.5.7 Combo Update.
http://support.apple.com/downloads/MacOS_X_10_5_7_ComboUpdate
• Repair permissions again immediately following the restart that completes the install.
(Don't worry about corrections if Disk Utility reports that all repairs have been completed.)
• Then try Troubleshooting again to test whether the problem has been corrected.
(3) Reinstall your Mac OS using "Archive and Install" and the "Preserve user and network settings" option explained here:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1710
After you have performed your A&I, use the process above to apply the 10.5.7 Combo. Then test iSight to see if the problem has been resolved.
(4) While A&I "Preserving" all your settings saves considerable install time over other OS reinstall methods, unfortunately, it sometimes also preserves the cause of your problem, too. The only way I know to test whether that is true if your problem remains after A&I is to try a different method of reinstalling your OS.
If A&I does not resolve the problem, or if you merely want to immediately start with a clean disk, you can completely
Erase and Install all your Mac's software.
Be certain that you have backed up all important files before you reinstall.
Erasing your iMac's hard disk and reinstalling all software as described in the
Erase and Install section of
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1545 might correct a problem that remains after an Archive and Install.
In fact, to erase, I would use the Disk Utility on the install DVD to securely erase my disk with at least one zero pass as explained in this article:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=DiskUtility/10.5/en/duh1011.html
After you have complete the
Erase and Install, you then must apply the 10.5.7 Combo, reinstall and update all necessary applications software, and restore your important data from your backups.
As you can see,
Erase and Install is a
lot of work, but sometimes it is the only way to get rid of something on the disk that is causing problems.
(5) If none of the above helps, my only remaining suggestion is to contact the AASP for service.
EZ Jim
G5 DP 1.8GHz w/Mac OS X (10.5.7) PowerBook 1.67GHz (10.4.11) iBookSE 366MHz (10.3.9) External iSight
