Saturday, January 14, 2017

HP Envy Touchscreen TrueVision HD webcam undetected [Solved]

I realised that my laptop's webcam (HP Envy Touchscreen TrueVision HD webcam) wasn't working after I had fixed my BSD issue last year. Whether or not it was working fine before that, I am not sure as I rarely use my webcam. The only annoying thing was when I wanted to join a video conference call and everyone else was on video except me, although I had a webcam - a non-working one.


Whenever I remembered this issue, I would Google for a solution and pull overnighters working on it. I tried downloading and re-installing the driver but it just didn't work. Combed through many troubleshooting forum but the solutions just didn't work.

Today as I was looking out for a replacement battery, I figured that since I would be opening up my laptop shell I might as well replace the webcam as well. While searching for the compatible hardware, I tried one last time to see if there were any results for fixing undetected webcam problems. And I found this thread! This really saved me from the risk of ruining my laptop (first time doing all the replacements and via YouTube instructive videos) and my cold hard-earned cash!

So, what I did was to perform a hard reset, where the system is forced to clear and re-establish the connections between the BIOS and hardware. When I read the instructions on how to do this hard reset, I was puzzled on which set of instructions to follow. Technically, I needed to follow the reset for non-removable battery but realistically, my battery was dead so I should follow the one for removable battery. In the end, I just ignored the battery part and did the following:-

  1. Turn off computer.
  2. Unplug AC adapter and ensure no other hardware/cables are connected.
  3. Long press the Power button for 15 seconds to drain the capacitors. I did this twice because halfway through the first time, my index finger got numb and I wasn't sure if the pressure on the Power button was sufficient (silly button design which is so difficult to press).
  4. Plug in AC adapter and then turn on computer by pressing the Power button.
  5. For my case, Windows 10 started up like usual.
  6. Tested webcam function on Skype and it worked fine!
Solved! And need not try the next step.

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