HELP!!!! Webcam companion 3 light comes on but no picture

Hi everyone. I am at my wits end here. I have been searching google forever and even spoke with a few techs, but still my problem persists.

I own a sony vaio vpcf111fd running windows 7 64 bit home. A couple months ago, my webcam just stopped working. I've tried opening just the application, I've tried using it through msn, skype and FB chat, but it always has the same issue. The little green light comes on, but the screen is all black.

Things I've tried:

Adjusting the lighting in the room
Downloading the drivers from sony and reinstalling them
Downloading a different webcam app (Arcsoft 4) My vaio came stock with Arcsoft 3
I sometimes get an error msg along the lines of "This driver is for windows vista" when trying to reinstall the drivers from sony, EVEN though I entered my model number, and it said the drivers I was downloading were for windows 7 64 bit. GRRR
So I tried changing the compatibility option, and installing them as admin, still nothing.

I'm so FRUSTRATED! One strange thing to mention, after trying all the above steps, I finally conceded to take my vaio into futureshop (where I purchased it), and have them deal with it. The tech fired up my cpu, and the camera worked!!! Right away, with skype and everything. I take it home, it works for me, which is great. That same day I decided to do a factory format of my entire cpu after backing up everything I wanted. After the facory format, SAME PROBLEM!!!! GRRRRR!
One more final, strange thing to add. When it did work at futureshop and the short time at home, it did this weird thing that whwnever something got within about a foot of the cam (say, my hand or face), the image would somehow change to what I can only describe as what looked like night vision. The light coming through the window behind me appeared all green, and everything else was dark.

I tried to be as descriptive as possible, and s far NO ONE has a clue what to tell me. I really hope someone can help. Thank you in advance

I have a feeling this could be a hardware problem. Since webcams are usually built into the screen lid, I could imagine that flipping the lid up and down is causing a bad wire inside to make a connection and then break again.

Possibly the camera itself is damaged and/or unable to correctly sensing the amount of light falling in.

Hi..
I had a similar issue as mine webcam also stopped working suddenly. I have windows 7 64 bit on my Sony Vaio VGN-NW270F.
The green light would come up there was no picture at all. Everything was black. What i did was i went to webcam settings and chose Default button and applied those. And trust me , it started working again. Not sure if this would the solution in your case but worth a try :)