Issue with Webcam

[3Flames]

I have a pretty old webcam, PCLine P13GWCB09, which has just randomly stopped working. It appears in devices & printers, appears in the device manager, says nothing is wrong if I try to troubleshoot it, says it successfully installs drivers; and yet if I use it with any kind of video program, the feed is just completely black and nothing will change it. It have tried opening it with different software, (skype, the windows video, custom webcam viewers,) and on different computers - on Windows 7, XP, and Vista; but it will always just show a black screen. I tried installing different drivers, that according to forums were compatible with the cam, but no difference. Is there anything I can do? It used to work on Win7, but it now no longer does.

 

[TVeblen]

It's most likely broken!

The camera on many of the consumer grade webcams is not all that "robust" and it can blink out like a light bulb. The fact that it behaves the same on any computer sort of confirms this idea.

Don't be distracted by the driver/device part of this. As far as your OS is concerned the Device is connected and communicating that it is OK to work with the system, and the driver for the device is recognized and works for the device. That is the end of the story for Windows Device Management. If the device itself does not function as intended after that then it is another story.

We see this often with defective optical disk drives where the laser blinks out. The drive is recognized and listed as OK, and it shows up in Windows Explorer- it just won't read or write anything!