SurfaceBook 3 Camera

Question

My Surface Book 3 Camera has stopped working. I have updated the driver and still not working. Can this be caused by the antivirus settings and if so, what settings would cause this?

Answer 1

Hi BensonWright2021,

Thank you for the response and details provided.

Please follow these steps below to re-install 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

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Dear Marrion_Y,

Thanks for this advice however it did not solve the problem. I have also updated the operating system to Windows 11 and this has not resolved the problem with the camera. I think that I now need to reset my SurfaceBook 3 back to the settings and drivers when I first purchased the computer.

Can you advise exactly how I can do this?

Regards

BensonWright2021,

Answer 3

Hi BensonWright2021,

Thank you for reaching Microsoft Community. I'm sorry to hear about the issue you are having with the camera of your Surface Book 3.

May I know what specific error message do you get when you try using the camera?

Does it happen on all the cameras including the Windows Hello Face camera?

Please check in Device Manager if there are any error on the camera drivers of the device. If there are, please provide us with the error.

To troubleshoot, please try first to boot your Surface to its UEFI screen. See: How to use Surface UEFI (microsoft.com). Once you are on the UEFI screen, go to Devices. Check if the IR camera, Front camera and Rear camera are enable. If they are already enabled, disable them first then go to Exit > Restart now. After the restart, boot back to the UEFI screen to enable the cameras back.

If still the issue persist, please run these steps on your Surface Book 3:

1: Run Surface Diagnostic Toolkit

See: Fix common Surface problems using the Surface Diagnostic Toolkit (microsoft.com)

2: Check for Windows Update

Go to Windows Settings > Update & Security and select Check for updates

Make sure all updates need are installed including Optional updates

3: 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 Book

Then click the link next to Surface Book 3 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. 

4: Run System File Checker Tool

See: Using System File Checker in Windows (microsoft.com)

Hope this helps.