Unusual Webcam problem sony vaio VGN-AR41L

[nymlord]

Hi, i hope that someone can help me figure out this problem. I have been looking
everywhere on the internet to solve my webcam problem. I have reinstalled the drivers a couple of times, uninstalled them and reinstalled them, i have also tried to update them, and installed vaio camera capture utility. the problem started yesterday, after quitting the game burnout paradise, the game malfunctioned and said there was an error quitting the game. right after, a note came up saying, new device driver found trying to install,. which i thought was weird because i had not inserted any USB device or installed anything at the time. however it said that it had successfully installed the driver and was ready to use. a few minutes later when i went on skype, i realized my webcam wasnt working,. i thought it was just a skype problem when i realized my webcam wasn't working at all. opening up the vaio camera capture utility, it gives me a blue screen and says no-input. i find this quite odd because the webcam has been working for over a year, and the only other time i experienced this problem was when trying to install Ubuntu 7.10. however, i have reinstalled drivers and updated them as well, and nothing seems to work, even tried hotfixes, and it just tells me, that this update doesn't apply for my system. im hoping someone will have an other solution because its really starting to annoy me :S... thanks in advance!

[Blencogo]

Hi nymlord and welcome.

Is the camera installed correctly in Device Manager under Imaging Devices? It should be installed as Sony Visual Communication Camera VCC6.

The camera is a USB device - make sure it has not been installed as a Generic USB Camera.

[nymlord]

hi thanks for answering
well, thats what seems to be the problem, i cant seem to find the device in
device manager, the only odd thing i find is an unknown device in the Universal serial bus controllers. so im guessing what happened it must have installed it self on the generic USB camera :S is there a way for me to change that ?

[Blencogo]

There are two ways to install the VCC6 driver - you may need to try them both!

FIRST WAY.
Navigate to C:\Drivers\Camera\VGP-VCC6 and run DPInst32.exe by double-clicking on it.

If that does not work then: -

SECOND WAY
1. Find the unknown device in Device Manager and double-click on it.
2. Go to Driver tab and select Update Driver.
3. Select Browse my computer for driver software.
4. Select Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer.
5. Select Have Disk....
6. Select Browse....
7. Browse to your back-up driver .inf file. (C:\Drivers\Camera\VGP-VCC6\R5U870FL.INF)
8. Next ..........
9. If you get a warning screen, select "Install Anyway".
10. Close & Re-Boot

If successfully installed it will show as "Sony Visual Communication Camera VCC6" in Device Manager.

Good Luck

[nymlord]

Amazing!! simply amazing!! it works! i followed your instructions plus found a Bio's update for my model, both of those together did the job! thanks for the help i really appreciate it! wish you all the best!

Philip

[Blencogo]

That's great Philip.

Glad you've sorted it.