Surface Pro 6: Persisting white light on right side of front camera

Question

Since a couple of weeks there's a white LED lightning on the right side of the front camera. I already deactivated the camera in the device manager, but thats not helping.

Therefore I would be curious to find out what this white LED is exactly indicating and how to turn it off.

I would really apreciate some good advices....

Answer 1

Hi Matzomat79,

Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Community.

Please try these steps to troubleshoot the issue on the Camera light on your Surface Pro 6:

1: Run Surface Diagnostic Toolkit and check Windows Update

2: Update drivers and firmware

                               Check what is the current OS Build of your Windows version by going to Settings > System > About.

                               Go to Download driver and firmware for Surface, choose Surface Pro 6 then click Download on the next page.

                               Choose the .msi file that matches your current OS Build and click Next.

                               After downloading, run and install the .msi then Restart.

3: Run System File Checker Tool in Windows 10

If this answer your question, we highly encourage you to inform our Community by clicking on Yes or marking my post as an answer. This will help other members who may have the same issue as you. Otherwise, don't hesitate to update us so we can further assist you.

Kind Regards,

Marrion Y.

Answer 2

Hi Marion,

thanks for the quick reply and recommendation.

Unfortunately your recommended procedure isn't solving the issue with the white LED. It's still always on and only stops when the device is turned off. Once I turn it on again, it directly enlights.

Regards

Matthias

Answer 3

Hi Matzomat79,

Thank you for the response and I apologize for the delay. I'm sorry to hear that the issue persist with the white light beside the camera. I suggest that you proceed in doing a Reset on the device to fix the issue. Here are the 3 kinds of Reset you may choose from:

Fresh Start:

            Fresh Start is the least intrusive form of reset.

            You will not lose any files or personal information.

            You will need to reinstall desktop programs.

            Fresh Start also ensures you have has all available updates once complete.

            If there is an issue with Windows itself, the issue may still occur after a Fresh Start.

Reset from Within Windows:

            This option uses the devices Hard Drive Partition to reimage the device.

            This option can delete personal data (You can choose Keep my files or Remove everything).

             You will need to reinstall desktop apps.

             You will need to run updates upon completion.

            If there is an issue with the partition, the issue may still occur after the reset.

 USBRecovery:

         This option will reimage the entire device and reload Windows including the drivers and firmware. It is the most complete form of Reset and it will wipe out everything on the device so you might need to back up your files first. You will need also a 16GB/32GB of flash drive that must be formatted into FAT32 prior to downloading the Recovery Image. If you like to try, you can follow the steps provided below:

How to Download, Create and Use a USB recovery drive

To download the Recovery Image:

• You'll need a PC running Windows 7 or later or Surface Device.

1. Visit the page to Download the recovery image for your Surface
2. Sign in with your Microsoft Account
3. From the list of Surface devices available, select the device that you need a recovery image for

Please note that while you will only be presented with devices that are currently registered on your account, you will also be presented with the option to get an image for a different type of device. If you try to use this option, you will be prompted to enter the serial number for that device 4. Download the recovery image using the button on the page 5. When the download bar pops up at the bottom of your screen, save the file in a location you will be able to find it.

 Format USB Drive:

• Note: Formatting a recovery drive will erase anything that is already stored on your USB drive. Make sure to transfer any important data from your USB drive to another storage device before using it to create a Surface USB recovery drive.

1. Insert your USB drive into the USB port of your PC.
2. From the desktop, open File Explorer
3. Tap and hold or right-click on the USB drive and choose Format
4. Select FAT32 as the file system and enter a Volume label to name the USB drive, such as RECOVERY, and then tap or click Start
5. Tap or click OK to erase the contents of the USB drive
6. Tap or click OK when the format is complete

Create a recovery drive:

1. On your Surface or PC, open recovery image that you downloaded by double-clicking it or right click then select Extract and then Extract all.
2. Select the USB drive you formatted earlier for the location and click Extract.

Use a USB recovery drive to reset your Surface:

1. Shutdown the Surface
2. Insert the USB recovery drive into the USB port
3. Press and hold the volume-down (-) rocker
4. Press and release the power button
5. When the Surface logo appears, release the volume-down (-) rocker
6. Surface will start the recovery software on the USB recovery drive
7. When prompted, choose your language options and keyboard layout
8. Select Troubleshoot
9. Select Recover from a Drive. Choose Remove Everything and Fully Clean the Drive. Recovering this PC.
10. If prompted, select Repartition the drives
11. If prompted for BitLocker Key, tap Skip this Drive

Kind regards,

Marrion Y.

Answer 4

Dear Marrion.

thanks a lot for the detailed response and detailed instructions. 

But at the moment I'm hesitating to follow your recommendations to reset the whole Windows system.

To do that I need to spent a lot of time and I need to install all the apps again (and do a backup of my data before).

Since I'm "only" experiencing a white light at the moment, this effort doesn't seem reasonable to me.

Besides I'm not sure that this is helping in the end.

The white light appears directly after turning on the device and before Windows is starting to boot. Therefore I see a pretty high probability that the root cause is hardware based and a new Windows setup isn't helping. 

As long as you can't offer another potential solution I'm considering to make use of the garantue and to replace the device (its less than 2 years old).

Here I would have a question: Is there an international garantue? I bought the device in Germany, but actually I'm living in China. Can I make use of the garantue in China as well? If yes, how?

Kind Regards

Matthias