Inspiron 14r 5437 Integrated WebCam Issues

Question

For the past year, my laptop has had trouble connecting to my integrated webcam. It thinks that there is no camera connected at all.

It gives me this error in the camera app of Win10:

Error in the Camera app

In Device Manager, there is no mention of a camera either. However, it shows a bugged-out USB device that it can't use.

In Device Manager

So I went through the effort of opening up my laptop's bezels and disconnecting & reconnecting the physical cable that connects into a port on the webcam's PCB. Nothing changed.

Upon disconnecting the camera, the bugged USB device disappears from the Device Manager but reappears with the same error/failure after I reconnect it.

Can anybody please tell me what I can do about this? Is it a driver issue, an issue with Win10, or an issue caused by physical damage to any component?

I need this resolved as fast as possible as I have to give proctored online exams in the coming week that requires me to have a working USB webcam connected.

JOcean · Accepted Answer

This web page at makeuseof may help. The fact that disconnecting the cable causes the webcam problem to disappear may mean a hardware failure. On a hunch try reinstalling the chipset drivers. If none of this helps and your exam gets closer, you could always purchase an external webcam such as one of the following here at Amazon.

galaxygamerman · Answer

Thanks for your answer. Turns out that there was a problem with just the webcam part of the webcam module of the laptop (The microphone on the module always worked without any problems)

Repairing it would have been more expensive than buying an external usb camera, so I just went out and bought a camera from logitech for the exam.

JOcean · Answer

Happy to help out!

Inspiron

Inspiron 14r 5437 Integrated WebCam Issues

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