Everyone has long been accustomed to skype. This is a favorite application of many users. With it, you can make video calls or just talk to other users like on the phone. And it’s completely free. In addition, the application implements the ability to make calls to ordinary mobile phones. But this is for a fee. Like any application, Skype has its flaws. Sometimes when using this program some errors occur. The most popular of them - Skype does not see the camera of a laptop or PC. We will talk about the varieties of this problem and how to solve it.
Possible causes of the error
The reasons for this “bug” can be very different. It depends on what kind of equipment you are using: a PC or laptop. By design, the types of problems associated with the camera can be fundamentally different. The most common reasons when using a regular desktop PC:
- Lack of connection of the device (for example, not fully connected USB cable).
- No drivers needed for webcam.
- The presence of an error is in this version of the application.
- Incorrect camera settings in the application.
All these shortcomings can become the reasons that the Skype application does not see the PC camera. With laptops, things are much more complicated. As a rule, cameras are built-in, so there are not many options. Or the lack of drivers, or an application error. Or maybe the camera is completely out of order. How to deal with these problems, we will analyze a little lower.
Drivers
If you are firmly convinced that the video device itself and its connection are all right, then you need to check the drivers installed for it. Most often, they are the cause of the inoperative "webcam". In this case, they need to be updated, and you can find the latest and current versions on the site.
It also happens that Skype stopped seeing the camera after installing the drivers, although before that everything worked. Or the image from the webcam on Skype turned upside down. In this case, you should return to the earlier version of the driver. On Windows, this can be done in the device manager. To do this, find the camera’s designator among the devices and click the “Roll back” button.
The main thing that is important to remember is that when updating or rolling back drivers, you must also reinstall Skype itself. If this is not done, the program simply cannot determine the new device.
Application error
In the case of an error of Skype itself, everything is somewhat more complicated. Here, very little depends on the user. A similar problem arose due to the oversight of the developers, and until they release a program update with a patch for this error, the only solution is to try to install an earlier version of the software.
However, there is a possibility that Skype does not see the computer’s camera due to a system error during the first launch. In this case, it is enough just to reinstall Skype, and the camera should start functioning normally.
Other reasons
In some situations, this error may occur for other reasons. For example, it is common in ASUS laptops. These devices have standard webcam control software, and very often the system application may conflict with Skype, preventing it from using the camera. The solution is simple - remove the factory software and reinstall Skype itself.
Another reason that Skype does not see the camera may be the "age" of the computer. The fact is that new versions of the program are "heavy" for old and weak devices. There may be several exits. For example, to prohibit the application from updating, but if it was too late and this happened, you should look for the installation file of the program of the previous version and install it. Well, the most expensive and radical way is to update your computer configuration.
The last option is a system failure. It is very likely that Windows cannot detect the camera at the hardware level. This can be checked in the device manager. And when you try to install drivers, the system will inform you that the device was not found. If Skype does not see the camera for this reason, then you will have to change the operating system. Only reinstalling Windows can help in this case. The failure itself could be caused by anything. For example, some problems during the installation of the OS or viruses.
Conclusion
In the world of computer programs, there are a lot of nuances associated with their performance. A small error in the software itself is enough for it to start functioning incorrectly. In this case, doing something is quite difficult. But if an error occurred during the installation and first launch, then reinstalling the application may well help. In this article, we tried to figure out why Skype does not see the camera. Using all of the above reasons, you can identify the problem and with a high degree of probability eliminate it.