Acer aspire one webcam not working

STEELBAS · 2011-05-16 14:13:26

Mmh. Well, that'd be a shame. Summer holidays are near, however, and before I accept defeat I will first check out some different distro's with the webcam. I did nothing to my computer that would explain a broken camera

Besides which, by the way, neurolysis said that he could reproduce. Is this still the case, neurolysis?

STEELBAS · 2011-05-18 19:08:10

Well, first stop, some Xubuntu live usb. Which unfortunately has more of the same results:

ubuntu@ubuntu:/$ dmesg | grep usb
[    6.969942] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbfs
[    6.969942] usbcore: registered new interface driver hub
[    6.969942] usbcore: registered new device driver usb
[    7.780133] usb 1-3: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
[    8.382644] usbcore: registered new interface driver uas
[    8.408478] scsi2 : usb-storage 1-3:1.0
[    8.411057] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
ubuntu@ubuntu:/$ dmesg | grep cam
ubuntu@ubuntu:/$ dmesg | grep video
[    7.040457] pci 0000:00:02.0: Boot video device

Cheese and Camorama, the first two webcam apps that came to mind, both did not work. I'm considering opening up the netbook to check for loose connections or something. I did so recently to add in more memory, anyway. (The camera did not work before I opened it, too. Before you ask.)
Does anyone have a suggestion for a distro that might be more succesful?

Stemp · 2011-05-18 22:23:00

STEELBAS wrote:

Does anyone have a suggestion for a distro that might be more succesful?

Crunchbang statler work on my AAO.

jaco · 2011-05-18 23:02:12

Just to be sure: have you checked your BIOS options?

On my Asus EEEPC, the cam may be disabled with BIOS settings.

mokkurkalve · 2011-05-19 21:35:09

It can be a bumpy ride with a bleeding edge distro, sometimes something works a while, and then suddenly it don't. But this is a strange issue indeed.

I have an Acer Aspire One D150 I bought some year and a half ago. I installed Arch on it back then and with a little fiddling all hardware worked (well, I never tested the buildtin cardreader, but all the rest...). The webcam, which should be this AFAIK, worked straight out of the box with uvcvideo. Back then.

I have not really used the webcam, and I don't know when it stopped working before I recently tested with wxcam and with further investigation found just what STEELBAS reports; the webcam is simply gone. No trace of it with lsusb, dmesg, nothing.... I've tried a couple of live distros on stick, Parted Magic, Knoppix, covering a couple of kernels of 2.6.36, 2.6.37 and 2.6.38 branch. Same result.

It worked back in fall 2010 atleast, which are probably when I last checked. It also crossed my mind that the hardware could simply be dead, but there's really no reason for it, and seeing now that a couple of other guys have run into the same circumstances, I wonder... For now, this is a mystery...

@jaco: There's no such BIOS option on the Acer One's.

STEELBAS · 2011-05-20 18:08:29

Well, it's a consolation that I'm not the only one with this problem, at least.
Crunchbang was actually my upbeat to Arch, so I'm going to give it a try. I remember the webcam working with Crunchbang, at least, although mokkurkalve's report has made me lose my hope of finding a solution in this way, somewhat. It does sound unsettlingly like a hardware problem...

Edit: Tough luck, same results on Crunchbang.

crunchbang@crunchbang:~$ dmesg | grep usb
[    1.702635] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbfs
[    1.703264] usbcore: registered new interface driver hub
[    1.703797] usbcore: registered new device driver usb
[    1.845119] usb usb1: New USB device found, idVendor=1d6b, idProduct=0002
[    1.845129] usb usb1: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=2, SerialNumber=1
[    1.845137] usb usb1: Product: EHCI Host Controller
[    1.845144] usb usb1: Manufacturer: Linux 2.6.32-5-686 ehci_hcd
[    1.845152] usb usb1: SerialNumber: 0000:00:1d.7
[    1.845412] usb usb1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[    1.852279] usb usb2: New USB device found, idVendor=1d6b, idProduct=0001
[    1.852288] usb usb2: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=2, SerialNumber=1
[    1.852296] usb usb2: Product: UHCI Host Controller
[    1.852303] usb usb2: Manufacturer: Linux 2.6.32-5-686 uhci_hcd
[    1.852311] usb usb2: SerialNumber: 0000:00:1d.0
[    1.852525] usb usb2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[    1.852993] usb usb3: New USB device found, idVendor=1d6b, idProduct=0001
[    1.853002] usb usb3: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=2, SerialNumber=1
[    1.853010] usb usb3: Product: UHCI Host Controller
[    1.853016] usb usb3: Manufacturer: Linux 2.6.32-5-686 uhci_hcd
[    1.853023] usb usb3: SerialNumber: 0000:00:1d.1
[    1.853225] usb usb3: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[    1.853682] usb usb4: New USB device found, idVendor=1d6b, idProduct=0001
[    1.853692] usb usb4: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=2, SerialNumber=1
[    1.853700] usb usb4: Product: UHCI Host Controller
[    1.853707] usb usb4: Manufacturer: Linux 2.6.32-5-686 uhci_hcd
[    1.853714] usb usb4: SerialNumber: 0000:00:1d.2
[    1.853896] usb usb4: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[    1.854348] usb usb5: New USB device found, idVendor=1d6b, idProduct=0001
[    1.854357] usb usb5: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=2, SerialNumber=1
[    1.854365] usb usb5: Product: UHCI Host Controller
[    1.854372] usb usb5: Manufacturer: Linux 2.6.32-5-686 uhci_hcd
[    1.854380] usb usb5: SerialNumber: 0000:00:1d.3
[    1.854561] usb usb5: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[    2.213563] usb 1-3: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 3
[    2.350890] usb 1-3: New USB device found, idVendor=0718, idProduct=0069
[    2.350901] usb 1-3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[    2.350910] usb 1-3: Product: Flash Disk      
[    2.350916] usb 1-3: Manufacturer: USB     
[    2.350922] usb 1-3: SerialNumber: AA0070006304700D
[    2.351142] usb 1-3: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[    2.381447] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
[    2.381781] usb-storage: device found at 3
[    2.381787] usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
[    2.589025] usb 2-1: new low speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 2
[    2.757286] usb 2-1: New USB device found, idVendor=1bcf, idProduct=0007
[    2.757297] usb 2-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[    2.757305] usb 2-1: Product: USB Optical Mouse
[    2.757510] usb 2-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[    2.805988] usbcore: registered new interface driver hiddev
[    2.824950] input: USB Optical Mouse as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb2/2-1/2-1:1.0/input/input6
[    2.825321] generic-usb 0003:1BCF:0007.0001: input,hiddev0,hidraw0: USB HID v1.10 Mouse [USB Optical Mouse] on usb-0000:00:1d.0-1/input0
[    2.825389] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbhid
[    2.825399] usbhid: v2.6:USB HID core driver
[    7.380209] usb-storage: device scan complete
crunchbang@crunchbang:~$ dmesg | grep video
[    0.267779] pci 0000:00:02.0: Boot video device

Last edited by STEELBAS (2011-05-20 19:21:49)

mokkurkalve · 2011-05-24 06:42:47

Mmm yeah... Did a broader google search (meaning including postings from people who use microsoft operating systems) and it seems a lot of people have had this camera dying on them.... So pointers are at hardware failure....

STEELBAS · 2011-05-24 08:18:55

Yes.. Well, this sounds similar, for instance: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/554 … am-windows

(Funny how hard it is to find people on these kinds of forums who are actually marginally understandable )

(And this: http://www.fixya.com/support/t1127916-w … ed_working)

So, hm, what can be done? I actually had my laptop open recently... Here's a picture I found of the netbook's interior:

I suppose the error would lie with the multi-coloured ribbon in the top-left corner of the image, as I think I remember that's the only one to go up into the screen part of the machine. The screen (blissfully) doesn't give any trouble.

Oh, I found another one, the most informative and recent yet: http://www.aspireoneuser.com/forum/view … 24&t=18118. They recommend replacing the webcam altogether.

Last edited by STEELBAS (2011-05-24 08:29:11)

mokkurkalve · 2011-05-28 00:45:13

Hm. I don't understand anything what theire going on about in those forums... a lot about uninstalling and reinstalling drivers an such....

I don't think I'm going to risk opening up the box; afterall is not like I've ever needed the webcam thus far, and besides the layout of my AOD150 are different from the AOA150, so I can't use those schematics....

Nah. Think I'll just settle with the notion that it's dead....

STEELBAS · 2011-05-28 10:06:29

Hmyeah, can imagine. It's a shame, I'd really like to use the webcam to stay in touch with my girlfriend this summer.. But like you, I'm not risking actually replacing it. I'll just replace it externally - buy an external cam...

I tried some of those drivers they talk about, by the way, through Wine. Not sure if that was supposed to have worked, but even those say that they can't find the webcam during the installation process. I wonder what effect an actual Windows installation would give...

Arch Linux

#26 2011-05-16 14:13:26

Re: Acer aspire one webcam not working

#27 2011-05-18 19:08:10

Re: Acer aspire one webcam not working

#28 2011-05-18 22:23:00

Re: Acer aspire one webcam not working

#29 2011-05-18 23:02:12

Re: Acer aspire one webcam not working

#30 2011-05-19 21:35:09

Re: Acer aspire one webcam not working

#31 2011-05-20 18:08:29

Re: Acer aspire one webcam not working

#32 2011-05-24 06:42:47

Re: Acer aspire one webcam not working

#33 2011-05-24 08:18:55

Re: Acer aspire one webcam not working

#34 2011-05-28 00:45:13

Re: Acer aspire one webcam not working

#35 2011-05-28 10:06:29

Re: Acer aspire one webcam not working

Board footer