BSOD every time webcam turns on

Nearly everytime I switch on my webcam (be it dell webcam center, msn, anywhere), I get a blue screen of death. Rarely it doesn't (about 1 in 10).

OS: Windows Vista
Notebook: Dell XPS M1530

I've not done anything recently that should have affected it and it all worked fine before. Any ideas what could possible be causing this? it's baffling me.

Code:

Problem signature:
  Problem Event Name:	BlueScreen
  OS Version:	6.0.6002.2.2.0.768.3
  Locale ID:	2057

Additional information about the problem:
  BCCode:	1000008e
  BCP1:	C0000005
  BCP2:	AB745A59
  BCP3:	B652A8D0
  BCP4:	00000000
  OS Version:	6_0_6002
  Service Pack:	2_0
  Product:	768_1

 

Look C:\Windows\Minidump for the most recent file and attach it....someone will take a look and give you a better idea.

Generally, that's a kernal mode error which means an incompatibility of some sort. Could need a bios update or driver update. Your problem maybe that a Windows update from last week is incompatible with old webcam driver

 

BSOD 1000008e is a kernel mode driver exception. Usually fixed by paying very close attention to all device drivers as well as BIOS updates.

 

Thanks guys, attached is the most recent minidump

I can't think what could of caused it to stop working, I don't recall installing anything or any windows updates and I tried a system restore to a few days ago and no change.

Happy holidays

 

http://support.dell.com/support/dow...typeid=-1&dateid=-1&formatid=-1&fileid=222145

Download the above driver, which is newer than the one you have.

Very likely the webcam driver. The debug is pretty vague because the driver was not written correctly. According to the minidump, a hard
coded breakpoint or assertion was hitbut this is not supposed to happen as developers should never have hardcoded breakpoints in retail code--only during beta testing.

 

Thanks for the help gerry, during installation I got this popping up:

The existing installed driver version is the same or newer than the source driver. The installed driver version is 1.04.01.1011

so I stopped as it didn't seem right

 

No, go ahead. Your current driver may be corrupt. Should overwrite.

 

Well it gave an error on uninstallation but I ran it again and it didn't complain. Now rebooted and the camera worked first time so fingers crossed.

Many many thanks for your time and assistance, much appreciated.

Merry Christmas

 

Great to hear!

 

orrrr, maybe not

This is the only line that changed from my first post:
BCP3: 956ED8D0


Attached is the minidump file of the BSOD that just occured when I tried switching on the webcam.

 

Not much else in there.

What bios version are you running on your laptop?

 

oops, bookmarked the thread but didn't see this had gone to a second page already.

Bios Revision A12

 

your up to date...how many sticks of Ram do you have, 1 or 2?

 

I am way too tired to open it up and check but its 4gb so I'd guess 2x2gb is much more likely than 1x4gb. Will look for sure in the morning.

Thanks again for your assistance

 

Shut down. Remove one. Turn on the PC. Turn on the webcam. Crash? If so. Turn of the PC. reinsert the ram you removed and remove the one that you left in there. Turn on. Turn on the webcam.

 

I haven't tried the above yet but when I switched on just now, the dell loading screen with the bios information (like below, but the image isn't of mine) took about 3 minutes rather than 3 seconds.

Could that be a clue? I have symantec antivirus and have ran ad-aware and malwarebytes anti-malware

 

Well, it is interesting. What your computer is doing during that phase is checking hardware ...Windows and drivers are not even an issue yet. Most of the time that occurs, in my experience, it is either a failing harddrive or a USB device hooked up to the computer and your computer thinks it should try and boot to that first.

Disocnnect any USB devices and reboot. If it loads quick, check the webcam again

 

Well it's booting up faster again now. But trying the webcam just caused another BSOD.

Very frustrating, this laptop is only 3 months old. No other signs that the harddrive may be failing and unless it's trying to boot a mouse then there's nothing else plugged in

The webcam worked earlier this afternoon (could switch it off and on happily), just most of the time it doesn't.

 

did you switch the memory out?

 

Curiously after installing windows updates I now have a "Laptop integrated webcam driver" installed on my laptop (see pic below). I tried the webcam, all worked well.



Half an hour later, same session, the "safely remove hardware" icon appears in the system tray with "laptop integrated webcam" listed in there, but then it disappeared. I tried the webcam, and BSOD

It's all very odd.

Not tried switching out the memory yet.

 

do that.

If no luck, go into device manager > imaging devices, right click your webcam, choose UNINSTALL and DO CHECK the box delete the files associated with it.

Reboot. Visit Windows update again, look for webcam drivers. Do not use the Dell ones.