My laptop does not detect my webcam

Okay. So I have a Samsung laptop model #: np300v5a-a05us. It is only about a year old and I have never tried to use the webcam until recently. Every software I try says that it does not detect a camera, and I cannot find any drivers for it on the samsung website. I am running Windows 7. Please help me ASAP :/

The camera driver could be part of the chipset driver. Are there any yellow exclamation points in the device manager?

only thing with exclamation points is "Multiport Communications Port (COM10)

This is a multiport Bluetooth communications driver. Are you running any Bluetooth devices? Do you understand what a chipset driver is?

No. I am not running any Bluetooth devices. That is just the only thing in the device manager with and explanation point.

Any luck with the camera?

None at all.

Wow...I wrote "explanation point" hahaha

I knew what you meant... Have you tried using the camera in Skype?

Haha.. That was pretty funny

Brief background info re: this problem
1. Windows doesn't need a driver to detect plug and play (PNP) hardware (like your web cam). Windows only needs drivers to use the device functionality (I.e. getting the cam to work as a cam)
2. By default, only detected devices appear in Device Manager.

• If a pnp device is not detected, by default, it won't be listed in DevMgr. Detection failure can be due to: a) device powered off, b) device disabled or not configured in BIOS, c) device hardware failed or is not seated properly in its socket.

• If a pnp device IS detected, it will be listed DevMgr. However, if no device driver installed or its driver isn't working correctly, the device appears with a yellow icon. Further, when device detected but no driver installed, the device may be appear named Other/Unknown or with a generic sounding name (for example: SIF Single Chip Cam).
• To change DevMgr default view by see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315539. (This KB is about XP it applies to all versions of Windows)

So...

1. Might your cam have an on/off switch? (Also, check your Fn keys. Some cams, not all, can be turned on/off by a Fn key combination).
2. Since no cam driver is listed on your mfg support site, probably means the cam is designed to work with the generic Windows cam driver that comes with windows.
3. Web cams are USB connected devices (even internal cams, like yours) We can take a "forensic" look at all your USB Device Manager data
   • Run USBDeview.
   • Click Edit->Select All. Then File->Save Selected. !!Change the Save As Type pulldown option to save as Tab Delimited Text!! Save the file to your desktop and upload to your next post

Confused Ecahseb?

Sorry it took so long! ive been slammed with work lately and unable to worry about the webcam issue. I am about to post the diagnostic from usbdeview.

Here it is.

Bad news I confirmed what I had suspected. Your video cam hardware has failed

As fyi... and to see the data yourself:
> Rerun USBdeview
> Click on the third column header Device Type. (This alpha sorts the entries by their Device Driver type)
> Scroll to the bottom where Device Type= Video. That's the last entry in the registry for your USB web cam
> Look in the next column over (labeled Connected). You'll see it says NO. That means the cam hardware isn't connected (I.e. the cam is not being detected). That would happen if
==> Web cam powered off (do you have on/off switch for the web cam)
==> The cam can be disabled/enabled in the BIOS setup menus (you can look but I've never found a cam option among BIOS options)
==> The cam hardware failed