I bought an HP 6780ev with built in webcam. Computer working fine,
but the webcam is not listed in the device manager, and every attempt
to use it says there is no webcam installed. Since it isn't shown as
a device, downloading drivers didn't do anything. Spent 3+ hours with
tech support at HP yesterday with no effect.

any ideas out there?

thanks.

Mike

In
news:0785af3e-82ca-47ff-9987-eadc75a88720@59g2000hsb.googlegroups.com,
madecola@swbell.net typed on Mon, 17 Mar 2008 08:24:04 -0700 (PDT):
Are you sure it isn't listed as an unknown device? Did you reformat and
reinstall the OS to get into this mess? If the answer is no to the
above, it sounds like the webcam isn't connected internally or it has
failed. I dunno, that is all I can think of.

--
Bill

On Mar 17, 10:53*am, "BillW50" <Bill...@aol.kom> wrote:
I went through every category in Device Manager and couldn't find
anything. I didn't reformat or reinstall, but that was the last
recommendation from HP tech support...I don't really want to do that
after spending 4-5 hours loading files and software...and can't really
see how that will resolve the issue.

In news:f2a12653-249d-427c-a9b8-d7eec6d82835@8g2000hse.googlegroups.com,
madecola@swbell.net typed on Mon, 17 Mar 2008 09:02:55 -0700 (PDT):
No, don't listen to HP support. Anybody who tells you this just wants to
get rid of you and keep you busy. I really hate people like that and it
is standard operating procedure (SOP) almost everywhere. And if anybody
does decide to go this route, always use something like the free
DriverBackup first. That way the hard to find drivers won't be lost.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/drvback/

Unfortunately, you might have to return it for warrantee service (is it
still under warrantee?). And they won't talk to you until you reformat
and reinstall (use DriverBackup first though). Yes the recovery disc
should have all of the right drivers, but you can't always trust them.

I would post this question over to the microsoft.com newsgroups. For
example, if you are running Windows XP, try the following:

microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware

--
Bill

<madecola@swbell.net> wrote in message
news:0785af3e-82ca-47ff-9987-eadc75a88720@59g2000hsb.googlegroups.com...

Connect the webcam to a different PC (for which you
have drivers.) If it fails to work, the hardware is probably
broken and should be returned to the vendor.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

<madecola@swbell.net> wrote in message
news:0785af3e-82ca-47ff-9987-eadc75a88720@59g2000hsb.googlegroups.com...

Connect the webcam to a different PC (for which you
have drivers.) If it fails to work, the hardware is probably
defective and should be returned to the vendor.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

On Mar 17, 12:31*pm, "Don Phillipson" <e...@SPAMBLOCK.ncf.ca> wrote:
unfortunately, it's a built-in webcam, so I can't follow that
approach. Thanks.

On Mar 17, 12:05*pm, "BillW50" <Bill...@aol.kom> wrote:
Thanks. For Vista, do I just substitute vista for xp in those
addresses?

In
news:a55d2f58-801c-42e3-bfe8-b0f6530c6ec0@b64g2000hsa.googlegroups.com,
madecola@swbell.net typed on Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:09:58 -0700 (PDT):
No they are a bit different. Here they are:

microsoft.public.windows.vista.hardware
microsoft.public.windows.vista.general

--
Bill

madecola@swbell.net wrote:

It may help your diagnosis to know how the camera is connected, although
it is a major job to open the machine enough to check connectors, and
would certainly void your warrantee.

I have an AMD64 DV6000 with webcam. The webcam is a USB device and the
connects through one of the two USB controllers bridged to the PCI bus.
Explore in the device manager after setting the View by Connection
menu item. You can also turn on the Show Hidden Devices menu item,
which will reveal a few more pseudo devices, although that probably has
nothing to do with the missing webcam.

The number and arrangement of USB ports is different on different models
of DV6000, although most current one seem to have three ports. The
single port near the power connector is on one of the two internal hubs,
and the port or ports on the left side of the machine are on the other,
as is the webcam.

Did the webcam ever work, even back when you first started the machine?
If so, it could have been broken by some botched OS update. Try
System Restore to the earliest restore point you have on the machine.
This is harmless, because you can always undo the restore, unlike a full
system reinstall. That could provide non-conclusive evidence whether
your problem is hardware or software.

Finally, the service manual for the DV6000cto is downloadable from HP
here: http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c01035677.pdf
It is mostly a compendium of step-by-step directions for repair/replace
of any particular module in the machine, but it contains a lot of
indirect evidence how components are packaged and connected.

Again, I warn against opening the machine yourself, and certainly not if
it is still on warranty.

madecola@swbell.net wrote:
Is there possibly a BIOS setting. I haven't had to repair one with a
webcam, but I had a customer go through the same kind of thing with his
wireless card on an HP laptop. There was a BIOS setting to turn on
wireless / bluetooth.

--
The RIGHT REVEREND G.G. WILLIKERS
(formerly) Monsignor Boddom

Go to the HP forum at Notebook Forums and you will find multiple threads
with various solutions. This issue has been discussed a lot there.