Lifecam Studio stopped working after firmware upgrade?!?

Anonymous
2011-02-22T07:17:34+00:00

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

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

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Anonymous
2011-04-11T21:46:02+00:00

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?

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  1. Anonymous
    2012-07-20T18:00:34+00:00

    This is exactly what happened to me. Life cam worked fine on several computers, including a Mac iBook Pro, for an hour or two. 

    I was using the camera on a Windows 7 64bit machine. 

    I did the firmware upgrade EXACTLY according the instructions.

    And the camera is now non-operable, and is recognized by none of my operating systems as a USB device.

    I actually bought this Microsoft logoed camera thinking that there would be FEWER problems of this type. 

    Apple Stock topped 610 dollars a share today.  As a someone who is married to Microsoft systems, I would so like it if Microsoft would pull up their socks regarding these kinds of things.

    It is not a lot to ask is it, that a firmware up-date not kill a brand new device.

    It goes back to the vendor tomorrow.

    Sigh . . .

    Robert in LA

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-02-03T18:14:26+00:00

    Uninstall the device from device manager

    Reboot

    Plug the camera into a non hubbed USB port and try again to load the software, hopefully it will find the device properly this time.

    Many USB devices that use a lot of power have this problem -- they will usually need to be plugged in directly

    Thanks.  This solution is not feasible for me. 

    I have a tablet PC running Windows 7.  I need to have a USB Hub to use it when I am at my desk.  It only has one USB port.  It successfully runs multiple other devices through the hub.  If I use that port for the camera, I can not use anything else (keyboard, mouse, speakers, printer, phone (skype), etc....

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-02-03T14:53:37+00:00

    Uninstall the device from device manager

    Reboot

    Plug the camera into a non hubbed USB port and try again to load the software, hopefully it will find the device properly this time.

    Many USB devices that use a lot of power have this problem -- they will usually need to be plugged in directly

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  4. Anonymous
    2012-02-03T04:12:16+00:00

    Hi - just the standard disclaimer - I am a Microsoft employee but not on a team that has anything to do with webcams. However this exact problem happened to me, and I was able to get another camera and reach out to someone who works on the webcam team.

    In my case the problem was almost assuredly due to the fact I had the webcam plugged into a hub and not directly into the PC. The communication between a brand new cam and my PC was glitchy at best when running through a USB hub. I'd be curious to know how many of you were using a hub, and if that's a common failure scenario.

    Hopefully in the future the firmware updater can check for this condition and block updates when running via a hub. It may save some grief going forward.

    I am running with a hub.  And now my Lifecam Studio does not work.  So what can I do to get it working again.

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