Problem: You are getting a blue screen error, your camera fails to initialize, or a program tells you to check if the camera is being used by another program.
Solution: I uninstalled all the drivers for my camera listed in the Device Manager, and I installed a new factory version of the camera from Sony eSupport
As I am sure you want to get right to my successful solution to the Vaio Camera Capture problem, SCROLL DOWN TO THE TROUBLESHOOTING SECTION Below.
Hey fellow frustrated Vaio user. Do you have Vista? Is it Business? Well if you don't, I'm surprised. From my own desperate internet searches, everyone with my problem seems to have a Vista Business version of Vaio.
For months, I've been restarting my computer as a makeshift way of getting my camera to work. Finally this week it just stopped working. I TRIED IT ALL. I did system restore. I downloaded all the updates in the world. I disabled and re-enabled my drivers...all to no avail.
The ugly truth is that everyone seems to have this problem. I used Google Trends out of curiosity to see how many people are searching for solutions to this problem (like me). Check it out:
Now to the steps I took to finally solving the issue...
TROUBLESHOOTING SECTION:
1) I first downloaded and installed the factory version of the camera driver. Here is the link. Remember, you might want to check for a similar download for your model.
2) Once I installed the factory version, my computer told me it did not install correctly. I ignored this for the moment because I did not want to re-start my computer.
3) Once I was sure I could obtain a factory version of the driver, I proceeded to delete all other versions of it in Device Manager. I will explain next how I did this.
4) I went to Start. Control Panel. I clicked on the link that says "Update Device Drivers."
2) I looked for an item called "Imaging Devices." I had to press the plus sign to expand this item.
3) I looked for "Sony Visual Communication Camera." I found several listings, a total of five in fact! One was "enabled," whereas the others were all "disabled."
**Quick Add-In Note: if you can't find the camera under Imaging Devices, perhaps you don't have it installed at all. Or if you think you do, try looking in other places in the Device Manager, maybe mine is just "Imaging Devices." If you don't have it, I would try just installing the factory version for your computer off the Sony site.
4) I knew whether they were enabled or not by right clicking on each of the listings, then clicking on Properties. It said disabled for several, and the one that was enabled said "This device is working properly." Yeah right...anyway, moving on.
5) I right clicked on all these listings for the Sony Camera and uninstalled them. I tried simply making them all disabled. This did not work. So I removed them all.
6) I re-started my computer. On start up, a window told me that my recent installation was complete and that my camera would now work.
7) To verify my work, I went back to Device Manager and found that there were no longer several camera listings, but only one. I assume this is the one I installed. This is how it looks now:
Hope this helps. Remember, I made sure that I would be able to install my camera once I uninstalled it from my computer. By camera, I mean the drivers for the camera as listed in the Device Manager.
*Caveat*
This information is provided to you to utilize at your own risk. I have done the following on my own computer, and in no way does that guarantee it will work for yours. I am not responsible for any consequences that result from the use of the information I provide on this blog.
