Difficulties with Webcam

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Level 1

0 points

Difficulties with Webcam

Hello.

Late last year I started to find that when I Facetimed or Skyped I coud see the person I was talking to but they could only see a black screen. If I pointed the camera at a light the person on the other end could see the light dimly so that led me to believe that some signal was getting through. I then found that opening and closing Facetime and Skype a number of times would sometimes "fix" the camera and it would work properly but it was hit and miss and not guaranteed to work.

I've always thought that the problem was the webcam, a Rocketfish HD (Mac Pro user, no built in camera), but today I booted my machine up as a PC and installed Skype and I've found that the webcam works perfectly. I've booted up the computer in Mac mode and PC mode a number of times and tried it and found that every time I boot as a Mac the webcam doesn't work properly and every time I boot as PC it works perfectly.

Does anyone have any idea why this would be happening? I've looked for drivers for the webcam but have not been able to find any that rectify the issue. Is there a setting of preference file that can be adjusted? I have a Mac Pro (early 2008) and the latest version of Mountain Lion.

Thank you.

Posted on Feb 26, 2013 9:22 PM

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Answer 1

ssls6

Level 4

2,879 points

Feb 26, 2013 11:46 PM in response to iso250

I can't give a specific reason but when I boot my mac pro from a clone, I can lose my usb webcam (hp 920). The only way I can get it back is to reset the SMC. It stays fine if I reboot to the same drive each time but changing volumes is doing something weird.

If you do reset the smc, select your boot drive again from system prefs.

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Answer 2

The hatter

Level 9

60,990 points

Feb 27, 2013 2:48 AM in response to iso250

is that model being supported?

did you try using 10.6.8 assuming you hopefully kept it around to see if that might make a difference?

Model: RF-HDWEB

some that I found are 10.4.x or later meaning over 5 yrs old and could be a support issue but Windows 7 supported (does not mention Windows 8)

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Answer 3

EZ Jim

Level 7

22,590 points

Feb 27, 2013 10:14 AM in response to iso250

iso250 wrote: ... last year I started to find that when I Facetimed or Skyped ...

(1) You were wise to test both OS X and Windows®! Strange behavior...

• Can you connect any change in internet service, system components, software, or other problems with the general timeframe of onset of camera trouble?

• Have you tested your camera with any apps that are NOT chat related (iMovie, QuickTimeX Player, Photo Booth, etc.?

iso250 wrote: ... I then found that opening and closing Facetime and Skype a number of times would sometimes "fix" the camera ...

(2) Does your cam have a "shutter" or privacy curtain that might not be opening completely?

Also, are you certain that you have ONLY one OS X app using the camera at a time?

• Be sure only one app is open. Restart Mac if necessary and launch only ONE.

• Check for camera POSSIBLY running in another user (switching) account.

• Check for login items or dashboard widgets that might be using your camera.

iso250 wrote:... Does anyone have any idea why this would be happening? I've looked for drivers for the webcam but have not been able to find any that rectify the issue....

(3) Perhaps some camera app or driver software you added is causing a conflict. If you added anything, follow the developer's instructions on how to uninstall it.

Do NOT install any software that may come with any Mac-compatible camera you intend to use with OS X. Every version of Mac OS X since 10.4.9 already includes all necessary software for every Mac-compatible camera.

This added software caution applies only to Mac OS X. For use with Windows® on your Mac Pro, feel free to install any compatible Windows® software your external cam may need.

iso250 wrote: ... Is there a setting of preference file that can be adjusted? ...

(4) Not likely. There is no system wide camera preference file in OS X. Because of the wide variety of possible camera functions, camera preferences are stored separately in each camera app's preference file.

You can check preferences and the other Apple Troubleshooting suggestions for your external (standalone) camera by using the tests suggested here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2090 .

Be sure to check more than one camera app in more than one user account.

Message was edited by: EZ Jim

Mac OSX 10.8.2 Mac Pro Quad Core (Early09) 2.93Ghz 24" LED Cinema Display External iSights

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Answer 4

iso250 Author

Level 1

0 points

Feb 28, 2013 7:37 AM in response to EZ Jim

Hello people.

I tried resetting the PRAM. When I opened up facetime the picture was still black. I closed facetime and then opened up photobooth and the picture was perfect. I closed photobooth and then reopened facetimeand the picture was perfect. Looks like it was a PRAM issue although it was strange that I had to open a couple of pps before the picture worked correctly. That's very odd as part of my original fix when the issue started was opening those two apps one after the other.

I can't think of any change that occured around the time the issue started. I upgraded my graphics card about two months after the trouble started so that couldn't have been it. Fingers crossed if it happens again all I have to do is reset my PRAM again!!

Thank you all for your help. It's very appreciated and now I can skype with my Mum overseas gain. 🙂

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