Surface Pro 7 Camera Problem

Question

Last week I sent back my Surface Pro7 to Microsoft under warranty and yesterday the new one arrived.

I sent my original back for warranty replacement due to the camera intermittently failing to work. What would usually happen would be  Hello would not recognize me so I would have to log in with my PIN. After doing so the camera light and IR sensor would stay lit. If I opened the camera app I would get a solid blue window instead of the camera UI, eventually that would time out and the UI would appear and a message would pop up, pertaining to something else was using the camera. Error was CameraReservedByAnotherApp. A reboot usually would fix it. I worked with MS Surface support for many hours to resolve without success, so I sent it back.

The new surface does exactly the same thing. I can't believe that this isn't all over the internet forums. Maybe people just don't use their cameras?

I'm still on Win10 1909, maybe eventually when the Surfaces finally get 2004 update it will be fixed.

Anyone else having this issue? any one resolved it?

Thanks,

Mark

Answer 1

Hi Marrion,

Please read my post again. I did all of what you suggest on my original Surface. It didn't work so I asked for a warranty replacement, which I got, and which is having the exact same problem. It had the problem before installing any 3rd party apps.

Can you please escalate this now known issue. There are at least 5 other cases of this on this board.

Thank you, 

Mark

Answer 2

Hi Marrion,

Well, I heard that there was a very recent update to the Surface drivers, so about 3 hours ago I executed step 4 again, see below. 

I think this should have given update KB4559004, at least that's what the page said for Surface Pro 7 update.

Since I did the update the Windows Hello has worked every time so far, over the last 3 hours, this is the longest I've gone without the problem re-occurring.

The strange thing is, View Update History says that KP4559004 was installed on 7/31, which was several days ago. And I had the problem up until a few hours ago, so that doesn't make sense.

But for now I'm the most optimistic I've been since I reinstalled the entire OS on my original Surface, and I received an warranty replacement.

Thanks,

Mark

4: 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 7 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.

Answer 3

Hi Homeeey,

Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Community.

Please check on Task Manager first if there are other application that are running using the Camera of the device. If you have any apps using the camera, please select it then click End Task.

Please run these steps on your Surface Pro 7 then see if the issue persist:

1: Reset Camera app

                               Go to Windows Settings > Apps & Features

                               Locate and click Camera

                               Select Advanced options

                               Locate and click Reset

                               Restart the Surface

2: Check Privacy Settings

                               Go to Windows Settings > Privacy

                               Select Camera

                               Make sure that the Let apps use my camera option is On

3: Run Surface Diagnostic Toolkit and check Windows Update

4: 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 7 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.

5: Run System File Checker Tool in Windows 10

If still the issue persist, other cause of this issue will be malicious cyber infection like Trojan, Worm or adware. I suggest that you proceed in re-installing windows on the device using a USB Recovery Image. 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

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.