Q: FaceTime HD camera not working at all?

Click -> iSight camera failure after OS X 10.9 Mavericks update

Erinkrista wrote:  Tried it all and it still doesn't work... Any other suggestions?

Having tried it all, when you used the final suggestion from How to Troubleshoot iSight, do what the Apple technician told you to do when you contacted Apple or an Apple-Authorized Service Provider for service.

I'm having the same problem on a Mid 2012 MacBook Air that had previously been working just fine. I used FaceTime all the time.

My symptoms are exactly the same as yours; green light, but no camera image.

I have a question for you.

If you select the Apple menu, then about this mac, then click more info, then click on system report.

When the system report appears, click on USB. There are going to be several USB hubs, keep opening them (Clicking the little triangle) until you find an entry that says

FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)

Click on that entry.

From there you'll see detailed infor about your camera. It should look similar to the list below.

Product ID:          0x8510

  Vendor ID:          0x05ac  (Apple Inc.)

  Version:          80.25

  Serial Number:          û ž—ÞÄpõ]v™j

?—?

  Speed:          Up to 480 Mb/sec

  Manufacturer:          Apple Inc.

  Location ID:          0x1a110000 / 3

  Current Available (mA):          500

  Current Required (mA):          500

What I'm curious about is the Serial Number:   You'll notice mine has no numbers, just characters. These characters change at almost every reboot of the computer.

A wokring camera has a string of numeric values.

I think this too is a symptom of the failure but I want to be sure that I'm not the only person seeing this.

Thanks.

Thank you for the reply.

Here is what I've learned as of this morning's phone call with Apple.

Just to recap

I've reset the SMC/PMU.

I've reset the Parameter RAM

I've reinstalled Mavericks

I've done Permissions repair from within the normal bootable OS.

I've done Permissions repair from the recovery partition.

After all of this and spending about 2 hours on the phone with a knowledgeable Apple Care representative poking around under the hood of the OS, we've discovered the following;

1 One or more OS processes that are expected to be running are not and wouldn't start.

2 My system will not allow access to a set of diagnostic tools that are accessible by pressing the "D" key during boot, instead my system displays a spinning globe and asks me to wait while some kind of Internet recovery takes place.

This behavior is incorrect, in addition to my camera not working.

The representative, told me that I should make an appointment with an Apple store, and allow them to run an external diagnostic suite of some kind.

Pending the results of that diagnostic they should be able to determine if this is a purely software issue or if hardware is malfunctioning.

In either case corrective action will be taken,

Either the Apple genius bar will correct a software fault OR they'll facilitate the machine being sent to a service facility.

My suggestion is that you contact Apple and open a case number, then make an appointment to see your local Apple Store.

I'm sorry that I don't have better news.

I'm glad I could help a little.

Simply knowing I'm not alone usually helps me.

I'll post my experience when I get my machine to the Apple Store.

Right now there's some things I have to complete (and move off the system) before I can leave it with Apple if that's what happens.

Don't forget to make a backup before you take yours in! 

All the best.