Dell XPS 9440/Premium - camera issues

Hopefully I’m not the only one experiencing this, but I’m running into a recurring camera issue on Windows 11 25H2 where the camera will suddenly stop working entirely.

It hasn’t failed while actively in use, but rather when attempting to start it again — for example after sleep, login, or re-enrolling Windows Hello. Typically the camera works the first few times (login, wake, app launch), and then at some point it just stops responding. At that point it’s unpredictable when it will fail.

I’ve tried the usual troubleshooting steps with no success:

• Reinstalling camera drivers

• Re-enrolling Windows Hello

• Ensuring all drivers are current via Windows Update and Dell

• Reinstalling the Intel 2D Imaging / Vision / USB Bridge Driver for Camera per Dell support

None of these have resolved the issue.

When the problem occurs, the camera is unusable system-wide and the only way to recover is a full reboot. I can’t even disable the camera — attempting to do so causes Settings and/or Device Manager to hang indefinitely.

I did find a similar Dell Community thread for a different system here:
https://www.dell.com/community/en/conversations/dell-pro-laptop-computers/pro-14-plus-pb14250-freezes-when-using-webcam-with-teams-or-zoom/68f17ba5a3935b753dc08618

In that thread, some replies mentioned disabling Intel AI Boost / NPU and ensuring the latest Intel 2D Imaging/Vision/USB Bridge driver are installed.

Is anyone else seeing this behavior on Windows 11 25H2 (or recent Dell systems), and has anyone found a reliable fix or workaround?