HCHTech
Well-Known Member
- Reaction score
- 4,213
- Location
- Pittsburgh, PA - USA
Ok, show of hands, who here has ever seen a keyboard hot-key combination to disable/enable the webcam on a laptop. Be honest, now.
Needless to say, I haven't and my tech from whom this story originates hasn't either.
New laptop sold at the end of February this year. Asus Vivobook. Admittedly "over engineered". The touchpad on this thing is actually a screen that you can drag a program window to. For some reason.
Anyway, client calls at the end of March - "My webcam quit working after a Windows update". We remote in and sure enough, no camera detected by Zoom, Skype or the Windows Camera app. Hmmm. My guy does the normal things, looks for a driver update, uninstalls from device manager & lets it redetect, does a system restore to before the update that borked the camera, nothing works. Went to Asus's website, and there is a tech note that if this happens, it is an incompatibility and that you should uninstall the Windows update (unstated, until we fix our sh*t).
So, after no joy, has said customer bring the computer back to us, and ultimately, after no luck on the bench, we nuke & pave the thing. There was all of 5GB of user data, so this process didn't take very long. Camera works again, huzzah. We shut off driver updates, warn the customer that it might happen again until there is a new driver from Asus. Customer pays the bill & off he goes. We chalk it up to "he did something he isn't admitting to".
Time passes until today, when customer calls back -"It happened again!" There was a Windows update on Monday and now my camera doesn't work!". I take the call. I remote in, sure enough, no camera detected by apps, I check for a driver update - it's still on the latest Asus driver. I delete it from device manager & let it redetect - no joy. I did a system restore to before Monday's update, again no joy.
At this point, I figure I'm going to get Asus involved and get a support ticket open so I can get an RMA. I get a web chat going, and we start going through their checklist. 2nd item after the check for the current driver is "Has the webcam been disabled by keyboard hot-key?". Wait, what? there is a hotkey to disable the camera? "There sure is - Fn+F10 - smiley face". Ugh. I call my customer back, I'm still remoted in. "Can you hold down the function key and hit F10 for me, please?" Up pops the camera view showing his smiling visage. I try to hide my ::facepalm:: reaction, tell him to check this if it happens again, then start the process of refunding his money for the nuke & pave.
So, how's your day going?
Needless to say, I haven't and my tech from whom this story originates hasn't either.
New laptop sold at the end of February this year. Asus Vivobook. Admittedly "over engineered". The touchpad on this thing is actually a screen that you can drag a program window to. For some reason.
Anyway, client calls at the end of March - "My webcam quit working after a Windows update". We remote in and sure enough, no camera detected by Zoom, Skype or the Windows Camera app. Hmmm. My guy does the normal things, looks for a driver update, uninstalls from device manager & lets it redetect, does a system restore to before the update that borked the camera, nothing works. Went to Asus's website, and there is a tech note that if this happens, it is an incompatibility and that you should uninstall the Windows update (unstated, until we fix our sh*t).
So, after no joy, has said customer bring the computer back to us, and ultimately, after no luck on the bench, we nuke & pave the thing. There was all of 5GB of user data, so this process didn't take very long. Camera works again, huzzah. We shut off driver updates, warn the customer that it might happen again until there is a new driver from Asus. Customer pays the bill & off he goes. We chalk it up to "he did something he isn't admitting to".
Time passes until today, when customer calls back -"It happened again!" There was a Windows update on Monday and now my camera doesn't work!". I take the call. I remote in, sure enough, no camera detected by apps, I check for a driver update - it's still on the latest Asus driver. I delete it from device manager & let it redetect - no joy. I did a system restore to before Monday's update, again no joy.
At this point, I figure I'm going to get Asus involved and get a support ticket open so I can get an RMA. I get a web chat going, and we start going through their checklist. 2nd item after the check for the current driver is "Has the webcam been disabled by keyboard hot-key?". Wait, what? there is a hotkey to disable the camera? "There sure is - Fn+F10 - smiley face". Ugh. I call my customer back, I'm still remoted in. "Can you hold down the function key and hit F10 for me, please?" Up pops the camera view showing his smiling visage. I try to hide my ::facepalm:: reaction, tell him to check this if it happens again, then start the process of refunding his money for the nuke & pave.
So, how's your day going?
