Acer 5051 webcam trouble no capture hardware found?

Hi there
i have an acer 5051 laptop with a built in webcam. However i have lost the use of my webcam because it connot detect the capture hard ware ( whatever that is ) , at times though when i tried the webcam it has operated ok, but again i seem to ´have lost it¨ again i am being told it cannot find the capture hardware, can this be because it is being used by another program unbenown to me? Please help if you can, i am not too hot on this and it´s driving me mad.

Regards

scruff

 

:wave Welcome to Major Geeks! :major
First, go to your Device Manager (right click My Computer > Properties > Hardware > Device Manager) and see if the cam is listed there. Make sure you have no exclamation points ! or question marks ? or red X's listed. What program do you use with your web cam? Does it have its own software other than the driver? I tried to download the driver from Acer but it appears that they have changed their site; they no longer offer downloads to the general public (which is a gross injustice) and you must be registered with a user name and email. But I could find no place to sign in and register so I was locked out. I see this being a huge problem in the very near future for Acer owners and users. I was able to track down a driver for Vista. You didn't mention which version of Windows you're using, so hopefully this is the correct driver:
http://www.acerpanam.com/synapse/data/7117/documents/Acer OrbiCam Driver (Suyin).zip
If not, let us know and we'll try again
(the European Acer site still has open access to drivers, but the Aspire 5051 is not listed)

 

I was able to find the Windows XP driver too after some very creative Googling:
ftp://ftp.work.acer-euro.com/notebook/aspire_5050/driver/Camera Driver Suyin Ver.5.7.8.3.zip

All your drivers for both Vista and XP can be found at this link at Acer Europe. Act fast.... it may be just a matter of time before Acer closes down this site with passwords also. I also tried several other foreign Acer sites (China, Asia-Pacific, Latin America) and they either didn't respond or were password protected also...

 

Hi there thanks for your rapid responce to my plea, I use this built in webcam for screen pics - windows messanger etc. my system is windows xp media centre edition ( do not have vista , although the laptop is vista ready) I have downloaded the driver you suggested , please can you tell me where it has to be placed in order to run? I have tried to re-establish links with my webcam but with no avail..

regards

scruff

 

Uhhhhh.... I'm not sure what this means :confused It's a zip file, so you have to unzip it first, then just run the setup. You don't have to put it anywhere. Just download it to a place where you can find it again (like your Desktop; by default Windows/Internet Explorer usually downloads to My Documents). Then extract it, open the folder and run the setup.exe file. There's no trick to it

 

Thank you for the reply..also about any confusion, I have downloaded the file and extracted it and ran it as you suggested ...but no joy...the install sheild did it´s job and told me the item was installed..however when I tried to open my webcam ..nothing happened..I thank you for your help and patience and I will struggle on until I find that elusive capture device....

regards

Scruff

 

Uninstall any drivers you have already installed for the webcam. Download and install the chipset drivers from the Acer Europe link I posted ealier. Reboot. Then try reloading the camera drivers, but this time, use the Hardware Wizard > Have Disk and point it to the unzipped cam driver folder. Maybe that will work.

Alternatively, USB webcams are really inexpensive. You could always disable the built-in cam, and grab a $30 cam from the local PC store....

 

Just a shot in the dark, but try moving everything but what came with acer out of your Pictures file to a new folder "Pics" (make it a separate folder not a sub folder) then reboot and try the cam. I had problems with my acer web cam and this worked.

 

hi , i have checked , my pictures , there is nothing tere to do with , acer webcam , sorry scruff

 

hi , i have checked , my pictures , there is nothing tere to do with , acer webcam , sorry scruff

 

No I mean move all the pictures and files out of the folder that were not there when you got the PC. You can do this by looking at the date...not on Acer at the moment but its really easy to spot what files. Some type of file corrupts the Webcam and when you move it out it clears the error.