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. Anonymous
    2023-03-24T13:34:12+00:00

    Regarding the Dell link you posted above, I didn't really do steps 6-10 at all because those steps involve downloading a driver from Dell Support site, which I believe is not compatible with my laptop, and also because after the restart at step 5 the two camera drivers with version 10.13.22000.21 already appear in Device Manager. "Scan for hardware changes" at that phase does not change anything. If you think I should do something in another way there, please provide detailed steps.

    The error message is still the exact same one mentioned in my original post.

    Yes, I have this in the optional features (this is the one I uninstalled/reinstalled in steps 1 and 4 of the above-mentioned instructions):

    I may write on Lenovo forum later about this but for now, this issue is taking way too much of my time and I cannot afford more. The reason for me wanting to set this face recognition feature up in the first place is because the fingerprint recognition is so unreliable. I have set up several fingers that are actually the same finger but still its recognition is very unreliable and then I have to type in the PIN code which is really annoying because I don't remember it by heart (and that's how it should be for security reasons). I have removed and set up the fingerprints again, tried setting it up using other fingers and everything but it just doesn't work properly. I keep the fingerprint sensor clean but that has zero effect. Microsoft has implemented the hard limit of max 3 attempts to scan a finger when signing in to Windows / unlocking the screen lock, which is way too little because applications that allow up to, say, 10 attempts, usually are finally able to recognize my finger. Considering that I have no guarantee the face recognition would be any more reliable, I think I will just have to give up now unless there are more ideas that are easy to test.

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  2. JosephT71 9,220 Reputation points
    2023-03-24T16:13:58+00:00

    That's probably the correct choice for now since you are not in a position to reinstall the whole OS for work reasons. Sorry can't help you fix your problem.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-03-24T18:25:02+00:00

    Yep. Thank you for your effort.

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-12-06T15:31:10+00:00

    Hello,

    Not sure if you ever solved this issue or moved to another device. I was following this topic trying to get my device camera to work with Windows Hello and faced exactly the same problems you had. Until I tried to use the Camera app, and got a message saying that I needed to install Windows Media Pack for it to work. In my version of Windows it is added through the Optional Apps in Windows, but I had to add Windows Media Player first, and then Windows Media Pack. After rebooting Windows, surprisingly the Windows Hello was finally detecting the camera. Please give that a go.

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  5. Anonymous
    2023-12-07T14:09:30+00:00

    Hello,

    Thank you for the reply. I gave up back then but now as you replied, I tried it again and something was different than last time. I don't know why or what changed it. First, as mentioned before, my system is Windows 10 Pro. When I started the Camera app, it didn't complain anything but showed my face just fine. My system settings has an "Apps & Features" item, and behind that, there is an "Optional features" item. I'm guessing it corresponds to your "Optional Apps". It shows that I have "Windows Media Player" installed, but I was not able to locate "Windows Media Pack" there.

    This time, also Windows Hello Face setup starts and shows a video of my face. Below the video, there is a text saying "Make sure your face is centered in the frame." and below that, "Cancel" is the only button available. If I recall correctly, that was the case also last time before the setup stopped working entirely. Now, when I tried centering my face in the frame, I noticed every now and then a square (sometimes it's a grid) appears around my face in the video and a line attempts to start drawing along its top border line. Apparently something goes wrong or something, because the line never finishes the entire square (I'm assuming that's what it's trying to do, maybe more buttons would become available at the bottom if the line were able to finish the square). I tried adding more background light but I think it didn't have any impact on how far the line was able to proceed around the square. A lot of times the square or the line does not even appear and all I see is just a plain video of my face, no matter how I try to position my face in the video. I think the plain video was all that ever happened back then last time before the setup broke.

    So, something is different from last time, but there is still a problem. Would anyone be able to help me out from this?

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