Dell built in webcams
Posted by LordPurloin@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 28 comments
Mostly asking a general question here.
Has anyone else had an increase in built in webcams not working recently?
In the past week alone I’ve had at least 5 people come to me saying that their webcam has stopped working.
These are all Dell laptops, annoyingly different models which makes it even more weird.
Along with all the other problems that have seemed to plague us with our laptops in the past month (all different issues, which makes it even more annoying), this seems to be the cherry on the top.
Interestingly only seems to be affecting our intel model of laptops, the AMD machines have not (yet) had any webcam issues.
I’m wondering if it’s the most recent bios update as that’s the only common factor I can think of. Just curious if anyone has noticed the same?
I’m going to dig deeper into this and if I find a fix I’ll keep this post updated.
MeatPiston@reddit
Dell build quality has been going downhill. The repair tech that services our area has badge access he’s here so often. He’s here fixing two laptops right now.
The built in microphone arrays seem to die a lot too.
dai_webb@reddit
Yes, in the past 12+ months we've had so many fail on our fleet of Latitudes I've made the decision to stop buying Dell and pay the extra for Microsoft Surface laptops. We've had camera issues as well as microphones stop working. We always get a Dell engineer to resolve it under warranty (it's always hardware, not software) but sometimes it can take days for them to get here or they turn up at night when the office is closed.
cmorgasm@reddit
We're looking at the same, for the same reasons. With the cost increases Dell has hit us with, the Surfaces aren't the expensive option any longer.
GeneralCanada67@reddit
surfaces lol. jfc those things are utter trash
TheJesusGuy@reddit
By extra you mean double the cost
Warmachine-@reddit
Yes. We have had over a dozen "fail". Turns out it's an issue with the cable getting disconnected from the webcam. As long as you have warranty or a support contract, Dell will come out and take care of it.
huntertony@reddit
Dell Laptops (and the support that comes with them) have been going downhill for the past few years. We've switched to Lenovo for the most part, better quality and more reliable & support is way better!
No_Yesterday_3260@reddit
I've had some issues with cloning a machine with veeam agent, then bare metal restoring it, then the webcam and sound might work, then after a week or more it would suddenly stop working.
Had to reinstall drivers to fix, no problem after that.
But also sometimes it just worked with no problem.
shits cooked yo
St0nywall@reddit
I had a rash of people tell me their webcams weren't working. It turns out the privacy slider was being used on all reported webcams.
When I told them to slide it back to use the webcam, more than a few said "that makes the webcam insecure and people can monitor me remotely".
Hopefully the resolution is as simple for you.
LordPurloin@reddit (OP)
I wish it was :( Did have that one time though which was kind of funny! On Monday I’ll take a look at a couple in the office, hoping for a software bug but wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a hardware issue…
St0nywall@reddit
Another possibility is a driver conflict. Had something similar happen with mice and keyboards when we used a golden image decades ago.
Suggest try downloading the Webcam full driver package installer from Dell's site and try installing it again but this time manually.
CeC-P@reddit
Yeah, Dell support tech confirmed the failure rate is insane. The lid's bezel is too thin and people grip right where it is. However, most of the time it's the ribbon cable being unplugged so you can fix it with nylon tweezers in 30 seconds.
chronostasis1@reddit
Yap. We have been dealing with these issues since the 5440 came out , it’s worse with the 5450 and same with the pro 14s. The webcam dissapears from apps and in windows settings and then from device manager . Then we gotta go to bios to see if it goes disabled in there if now and we can’t resolve it then dell has to come out and replace the webcam. We had the same laptop webcam replaced 3 times in a year .
Scaraban@reddit
It's almost only happening to remote users for us. It's been huge pain in the ass.
Scaraban@reddit
Over the last year+ we've had at least 10 webcams experience issues on Latitude and post-Latitude laptops. Some have been able to be resolved by reinstalling the device or toggling off then on in BIOS, but multiple have had hardware replacements from Dell.
Secret_Account07@reddit
So question regarding dells…
I worked helped for 9 years and had an understanding what dells model numbers meant. The 4 numbers in the model each identify something, but I’ve been in an infra role for years now so out of the loop…
Just got a new Dell laptop that doesn’t have the model on the back in big numbers, just says pro, and has model PB1599 or something like that. Did they change something?
raffey_goode@reddit
yeah they went from dell latitude/precision to pro/pro max and then decided now they're going to go back because they first needed to change everything to realize it was a bad a idea. anyone with eyes could have seen that coming.
raffey_goode@reddit
We have had warranty repairs done, but the annoying thing is we've had a guys go in, get replaced, returned, stops working again, found opening it up and "plugging it back in" (per my co worker) it worked and today they reported its not working again. We let dell know but they seem to be completely clueless about it despite threads on their forums with plenty of posts.
rioht@reddit
Like others have been saying -- on Dell Lat 5540's, webcam failure can be somewhat common as a hardware failure.
On XPS models (Pro now, right?), I've seen it be either a hardware failure, or a driver issue where Dell's own driver files conflicts with the Intel drivers, so it appears that the OS runs into issues when both of these are loaded. Stripping both out and reinstalling seems to fix this.
ikbenganz@reddit
We've got the same with XPS 13 9350 and Dell XP Dell Pro 14 Plus PB14250. Luckily not all of them but incidentally a few. Can't pinpoint what the source is for these problems. Could be the Windows updates (as u/bit0n) mentioned.
We delete the device (camera) in Device Manager and the rescan hardware and then suddenly camera is back.
Only in one case we had Dell to replace complete display (with camera) on-site. Other cases we could fix it.
I'm curious what the problem is and if it ever will be sorted out by Dell and/or Intel.
GlassDonkey1803@reddit
I've had a few 3550's go randomly. No pending updates for OS or Driver. Cameras enabled in BIOS, reinstalled camera drivers but still no luck on our side
chronostasis1@reddit
Then you gotta have dell replace the webcam . There is nothing else you can do . If you can’t fix it with my 1st message I posted up top .
seannyc3@reddit
5440 models the cable becomes slightly disconnected from the camera/mic module in the bezel. The connector appears to be not fit for purpose, we’ve been having Dell replace the module and cable.
sakatan@reddit
We've had one or two tickets like that where the webcam was disabled in the BIOS, but without any clear indication who or what might've done that (the user's don't have BIOS access).
LordPurloin@reddit (OP)
Thanks! I will check the bios. The last one I looked at, it was still enabled in the BIOS though. But hopefully this time is different :)
TaiGlobal@reddit
Seen this in Dell Pro models
LordPurloin@reddit (OP)
Yeah most of ours have been the Pro models. Though have an latitude model doing it now :(
bit0n@reddit
Yep seen it a few times normally following Windows updates. A restart to complete the update normally fixes it.