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Hi All.
I bought a new LifecamStudio 2 days ago. I installed the camera, following the instructions of course. In the end of the installation, I could se my self in the Lifecam software window, so far no problems, the camera worked. Suddenly a popup message appeared, telling me that the firmware of the camera needed to be upgraded, so I pressed OK. The firmware upgrade started but was shortly aborted with an errormessage, saying the upgrade was not succesfull. I tryed to reinstall the firmware, but now it tells me hat I already have the most recent firmware installed. So the nproblem is now that, when I instert my camera into the USB port windows finds the camera, but as soon as I start any program the uses the camera it goes from a Lifecam Icon (in the hardware manager that is) to a unknown unit. The Lifecam studio software tells me that no camera is installed. I have installed the camera on other computers without any luck.
/Stefan
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
Fixed it :)
In device manager underneath imaging devices I saw "Webcam" -- before the botched fw update it said "Microsoft LifeCam Studio" and had a diff driver. I rolled back the driver (or if that doesn't work you can force it to use the one inside program files \ lifecam) then re-installed lifecam -- my cam now works. Now -- what's the deal with this update utility and why's it changing what driver the camera uses?
Well, I called today and I think I pretty much got the runaround. He said he'd send me an email, which he did. But the advice is to reinstall drivers and other software and some links to stuff about compatibility issues and what-not. At the end of the email it says if I'm still unable to resolve the problem to visit answers.microsoft.com for help, lol. What's worse is that the email is from an "unattended mailbox", so there's no way to respond and explain that the advice given isn't helpful.
Just do what I did. Just plug the camera into another pc, or Apple Mac or friends pc, if it doesn't work with standard drivers in that pc also, then contact Microsoft on their free tech support number. Make sure you ring Microsoft USA. Far better than British Microsoft tech support. I did get past around quite a bit but everyone I spoke to were nice to talk to and I did get everything resolved within a 30 to 40 minute call. The guy filled in the request form and sent it to a department in England, which sent me a replacement. I haven't had any trouble since with the camera. I also refuse to update the firmware now even though the software is adamant I do.
And advice for anyone who sees the update. Just ignore it. Yeah it's annoying seeing it. But I don't think Microsoft will ever fix this issue. And it is a big shame. How many people are going to be updating their firmware just for it to brick their camera. It's also weird that their new lifecam studios don't already come with the updated firmware.
Well, I called today and I think I pretty much got the runaround. He said he'd send me an email, which he did. But the advice is to reinstall drivers and other software and some links to stuff about compatibility issues and what-not. At the end of the email it says if I'm still unable to resolve the problem to visit answers.microsoft.com for help, lol. What's worse is that the email is from an "unattended mailbox", so there's no way to respond and explain that the advice given isn't helpful.
Thanks, I'll give them a call today. Seems their warranty on webcams is two years, so hopefully I get a replacement without any hassles.
Cheers
I ended up contacting Microsoft support about this issue. They sent me an RMA to return the webcam and then they sent me a new webcam. Mine was over 1 year old but they still covered it. I had a new webcam back in about a week.
Once you try to update the firmware it bricks the webcam. There is nothing you can do from that point on except contact Microsoft for a replacement.
Hope that helps
