Surface Pro 7 Front Camera Not Working

Anonymous
2019-10-29T19:25:09+00:00

I'm not sure when it started, since I hadn't used the front camera on the device at all, but today I noticed in the Device manager that the "Surface Camera Front" has an error:

This device cannot start. (Code 10) STATUS_DEVICE_POWER_FAILURE.

Sure enough, upon opening the camera app, it acts as though I only have the back camera installed.  I am predictably unable to bring up the front camera.

Is there possibly a driver issue, or is this a hardware flaw?

Thanks!

**Edit**: Problem persists through reboots, disable/reenable, troubleshooter, etc.  Notably, I realized the front camera worked for at least the first hour that I had the device, since it shows you the camera feed when setting up Windows Hello.

Surface | Surface Pro | Sound and camera

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  1. Barb Bowman 80,810 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2021-03-14T09:22:04+00:00

    Thanks for confirming, Jeff.

    Will everyone else in this thread please reply:

    1. Did you ever use a third party utility to install drivers on your Surface or download drivers from a non Microsoft site? Yes or N. If yes, which utility or web site.
    2. Did Jeff's fix work for you, yes or no (see below).
    3. If anyone has a screen shot of the issue showing the error state before applying Jeff's fix, I'd appreciate it if they could post it (I'd like to try to get this to enngineering). Here is Jeff's fix:

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  2. Anonymous
    2021-03-11T16:36:12+00:00

    Dude. You are a God. Microsoft should hire you, fire all their support and pay all the money to you. 

    You solved this issue which lasted for over half a year now, which Microsoft wasn't able to provide an update for and this issue is also not something minor. 

    Thanks man.

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  3. Anonymous
    2021-03-09T08:30:56+00:00

    Sooo it dint work immediately when I restarted but after like 15mins, the system gave the an alert saying new device installed, restart required.

    As soon as I restarted.... the camera was back in action!!! :)

    Thanks Jeff!!!

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  4. Anonymous
    2021-01-21T16:57:05+00:00

    Thanks for the help. 

    However, I don't have a 2019 or 2018 version. 

    I have two versions, both from 2020. One from August (42.18362.3.2451) and one from September (60.19041.1.3035).

    Any other solutions?

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  5. Anonymous
    2021-01-03T17:32:15+00:00

    So again on my Surface Pro 7, with the System update today (Dec 15,2020) now the front camera is not working again...I had this problem when I first purchased it in April 2020 and was finally "fixed" with the system update that occurred around 8/19/20. Of course I had extensively tried all the things mentioned in this blog, include uninstalling this update back to the update on 12/12/20. The camera still doesn't work and unfortunately I am unable to install that update to go back further when my camera was working... So, need a new "fix" in the system or what to try next?

    I zoom for work everyday and as a teacher, I present to my students...this is a HUGH problem...please fix the change in the system that took out the front camera ... again...

    Instruction followed and completed. But the problem remains.

    This is after downloaded 

    window 10, version 20 H2.

    The front camera under device manager still showing the yellow color label. This means not fixed. Also when using zoom meeting, under select a camera, do not have option, only suface camera rear. The camera function screen choosing still not available for which camera to choose. Reverse camera option not available.

    Please advice

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