The camera is used by another program Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit

[Vesnog]

Greetings,

My webcam was constantly being used by another program, thus making the use of it practically impossible. After uninstalling the programs which may be associated and reinstalling the drivers the problem persisted. Somehow the problem was solved yesterday, when I tried to have a video conversation with one of my friends the camera launched up and send my video to the recipient. However, today I received a BSOD during Windows boot and did a full recovery to factory settings using the backup DVDs I have. Everything seemed to be fine at first, yet after I installed Team Viewer, Google Talk, Microsoft Office, Nokia Ovi, VLC player the problem showed up again. Is there a method to find which program uses my camera? I do not want a full Windows reinstall again because the problem shows up again. Any suggestion is appreciated, thanks for your contributions.

P.S: Let me know if I missed out any information or if more info is necessary.
Asus N61JQ-JX093V Notebook Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit(Does this have anything to do with it?)

 

[seth500]

Hi Vesnog

Please follow this tutorial it will help in the collection of data that we require thanks.
http://www.sevenforums.com/crashes-debugging/96879-blue-screen-death-bsod-posting-instructions.html

Team Viewer also has a video enabled selection in it you may want to uninstall it and see what happens but to be sure still follow the tutorial..

 

[Vesnog]

I no longer experience BSODs I have done a full system recovery, however the issues with the webcam persists. What can I do about them ? Thanks for the quick reply.

 

[seth500]

Are you still using Team Viewer if so exit the program and make sure the service is stopped or better yet uninstall it completely to see if the issue persists.

 

[Vesnog]

Thanks seth500,
I uninstalled Team Viewer then done a system restore and reverted the system restore, now the camera works again. However, past experience tells me if I install the programs I need I will come across with this issue again.

 

[Vesnog]

Unfortunately the problem persists. After reboot the camera may work or may not work and I do not know the reason behind this. In addition to this after a certain time has elapsed since last boot the camera does not launch. Any suggestions?

 

[seth500]

Does it say it is still being used by another program? Or is it just having an issue launching from time to time? Also go ahead and send up your crash reports by following this tutorial it will contain the events that are causing the issue. Please follow this tutorial:

http://www.sevenforums.com/crashes-debugging/96879-blue-screen-death-bsod-posting-instructions.html

 

[Vesnog]

It says it is being used by another program. I do not experience BSOD errors, the computer itself does not crash.

 

[seth500]

Do you have a scanner or anything else hooked up to the computer that acts like a camera or software that uses like a built in computer camera? I need to know a few things like the rest of your computer specs and a list of the software that is installed.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/180324-system-info-see-your-system-specs.html

 

[Vesnog]

I do not have a scanner connected to my computer. I am including a list of software installed together with system specifications on this post. Also I noticed the camera works on Google talk. I wonder if there is an application to find which software uses the built-in webcam.

 

[seth500]

That would be skype is the software that uses the built in webcam. And it is a good program actually.

 

[Vesnog]

After boot-up when I try to start the camera through Life Frame or Google Talk the camera fails to start. However, if I launch Skype and start the camera there then exit the program the issue is solved temporarily (The camera starts in Life Frame, still failing to start in Gtalk). Thanks for your assistance in advance.

 

[seavixen32]

Navigate to Start>Default Programs>Set Default Programs.

From there you should be able to see which program your web cam has defaulted to and change it if necessary.

 

[Vesnog]

I am grateful for your help. Switching between applications is going to be intimidating task since Windows does not do it by itself. I will let you know if the problem recurs.

 

[seavixen32]

You're very welcome.

Please do post back if you get any further problems.

 

[kjus]

I have the same problem. But I can't see any program defaulted to my webcam. When I start any app that uses webcam it says that the camera is used by another program. I tried to kill the most of the processes with no effect. I also tried to uninstall it and install again but nothing changed. I even tried the system restore and this didn't help either.
Any ideas, please?

 

[mamiki]

I am also experiencing the same problem .Whatever i do I'm getting the same message.It should a windows 7 home premium problem?or Asus N61J problem?
Please we need a help??

 

[stuStu94]

i have problem with sending ofline Video message .
Messenger says some other device useing web cam.
i have been able to us Video Chat no problems.
i have nothing else that cud be using it - Any suggestion ?
Am using win7 bit64