We couldn't find a camera compatible with Windows Hello Face

Anonymous
2023-03-15T10:02:25+00:00

I have a Lenovo ThinkPad T15g Gen 1 running Windows 10 Pro 22H2 64-bit. I am having trouble trying to setup Windows Hello Face.

The initial problem was that the setup proceeded all the way to the phase where it showed my face and was supposed to recognize it, but then nothing happened and the only option available was to cancel the setup. In order to solve that issue I did according to the instructions here https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-hello/facial-recognition-not-working-for-windows-10/0253a932-4313-4536-858d-abebb50bfad9 i.e. removed the camera drivers ("Integrated Camera" and "Integrated IR Camera") and one driver with "Hello" in its name (can't recall the exact name anymore) from Device Manager. The camera drivers appeared back automatically but the Hello driver does not even if I scan for hardware changes.

Now after doing that the Windows Hello Setup does not even start but shows the error message "We couldn't find a camera compatible with Windows Hello Face" (see the screenshot). I contacted Lenovo support and they say the camera is compatible (after all, it showed the video in the setup before I removed the drivers), also the camera cannot be physically broken because no other application has any problems using it. Lenovo's solution would have been to reimage the whole computer, which I obviously cannot do because I have all my vital work related stuff installed in it.

So I'm quite stuck now and afraid to try things arbitrarily as my earlier attempt to do so only made the situation worse. My own guess is this has something to do with the drivers but I don't know where to get drivers that are definitely compatible with my device and will make this work. Help from anyone who understands how this thing works will be highly appreciated. Thank you.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Windows Hello, lock screen and sign-in

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  1. Virginia M 42,075 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2023-03-19T15:24:01+00:00

    More things to check:

    https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/for...

    https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardw...

    Right click Start>Run & enter services.msc find Windows biometric service, right click on this & choose Stop. Navigate to this folder: C:\Windows\system32\WinBioDatabase & copy all the files to another location - say Desktop.

    Once backed up delete the files in the WinBioDatabase folder then go back to services.msc>windows biometric service & choose Start.

    Try registering your face again.

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  2. JosephT71 9,220 Reputation points
    2023-03-19T15:13:00+00:00

    Take a screenshot of the details of your yellow flagged camera firmwire item.

    Here is the latest sonix camera driver from microsoft update catalog that you should try, download the cab file, double click it to turn it into a folder, copy/paste into brand new folder and then update via device manager by pointing to the newly created folder.

    https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=10.13.22000.21

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  3. Virginia M 42,075 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2023-03-19T15:12:53+00:00

    The restore option should create a restore point before it rolls back, hence why a user can undo the restore. I’ve used system restore many times including the undo feature.

    You can also image the drive using disk imaging software if you wish.

    I use this:

    https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree

    Did you restart the PC after installing the driver?

    As Lenovo’s fix resulted in the problem then it should be they who supply the correct driver or offer a solution.

    As none of the suggestions have worked then unfortunately I’m out of options.

    Note: This is a non-Microsoft website. The page appears to be providing accurate, safe information. Watch out for ads on the site that may advertise products frequently classified as a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Products).

    Please do not download any repair tool which may be offered by this site other than the ones I mention/recommend.

    Thoroughly research any product which is mentioned here before you decide to download and install it.

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-03-19T14:55:46+00:00

    If I restore my system to a System Image Restore Point that has been taken on January 31st, it will replace all of my hard drive contents to the state they were on January 31st. In that state, it is not possible for the system restore feature to know anything about the current (March 19th) state as that was a future date on January 31, therefore it is also impossible for the system restore feature to have an undo function back to the current date. So I will have to manually take an image of the current state first if I intent to come back to it later.

    I tried running that software of Dell. It said it installed something but I'm not sure what exactly. Anyway the camera driver version number shown in Device Manager did not change and Windows Hello Setup still couldn't find a compatible camera. So I restored to a (regular) restore point I had taken just before running the installer.

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  5. Virginia M 42,075 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2023-03-19T13:44:34+00:00

    If you use a restore point there is usually an option to recover back to the current state by the undo restore feature.

    Is there a potion to choose older restore points? If not then a feature update has removed the older updates.

    Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be a way of saving restore points, as for disk images then these should be on external drives anyway & will be updated. I use third party disk imaging software so have no experience with Windows own backup feature.

    This is the only one I can find:

    https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-uk/drivers...

    Note: This is a non-Microsoft website. The page appears to be providing accurate, safe information. Watch out for ads on the site that may advertise products frequently classified as a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Products).

    Please do not download any repair tool which may be offered by this site other than the ones I mention/recommend.

    Thoroughly research any product which is mentioned here before you decide to download and install it.

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