Logitech WebCam Video Blank, But Only in Windows 7

Okay, so I'm usually able to solve problems without help, but this one has me at a loss on where to look next. I'm looking for any suggestions and will report back on my results.

1) I have a Logitech C525 USB webcam connected to a computer running Windows 7, 64 bit, SP1, fully updated. The camera appears in the "Device Manager" under "Sound, video and game controllers" as "HD Webcam C525" with "This device is working properly." with either the Logitech driver (13.51.823.0 dated 9/21/2012, the latest driver I could get from their website) or the standard Microsoft driver (6.1.7601.18208 dated 7/12/2013) * I've tried both.

2) Furthermore, when I start a XP virtual machine under VM Workstation running on the same computer, and assign the webcam to it (taking it temporarily away from Windows 7) everything works exactly as expected inside the virtual XP machine.

3) Under Windows 7, both Skype & the Logitech Webcam utility detect & correctly identify the camera, offer controls to pan & zoom, etc. but, no matter what I try, I cannot get anything in Windows 7 to show me the camera video (I only get a black screen with the spinning "waiting" symbol).


I've already asked this problem on another (obviously inferior ) site with no replies. I have no idea what is blocking the video from appearing in Windows 7. As promised, I'll report back any results, and thank you very much in advance to everyone for your help!

Hi Essenbe,

Thank you for your reply and for the welcome! I only assigned the camera temporarily to XP to make sure that all of the hardware/ USB ports were working (which they were). You're right that Windows 7 will not see a device while assigned to the virtual machine, but Windows 7, Skype, and the Logitech utility "see and identify" the camera after I close down the VM -- they just won't show the damn video

Yep, it's the Logitech Windows 7 driver (or the Microsoft driver, I tried both) not the XP driver. This is quite the vexing conundrum. I'm really just fishing for the next thing I should check. (I have and am quite comfortable using the SysInternals tools, Microsoft dev tools (VS 2013, etc.) and various log file/ admin tools.)

If you come up with any other ideas that I should try I would be very grateful, and thank you again for your time!

Since the web cam supports both audio and video you should find a device manager entry for both
> One under imaging devices
> Another under sound

That said, if misery loves company google logitech c525 black screen. This seems a W7 problem for others as well

Try a Win 7 clean boot How to perform a clean boot in Windows. Just enable Logitech services and startups and see if that works