The Awful truth about Apire One 110's webacam drivers

Hi to all,

I've been working on this for more than a month now:

Quite a few people have run into problems trying to install the windows XP drivers for the webcam on the Aspire One 110.

I've had a good look at the inf files for both Suyin and LiteOn and they BOTH look for the wrong hardware PID.

What we need is an inf file which points to what windows XP sees as a generic "USB Video Device" with a PID of 0402&5608 which mean this:

Manufacturer: 0402 (ALi Corp---Which is Acer Labs International)
Model: 5608 (which is actually M5608 Listed on Ali's Website HERE: http://www.ali.com.tw/eng/products/list.htm)

I've tried tricking XP by modifying the PID in the INF just to make the installation go through and see if it would finally make something work but it did'nt change a thing!

I can get both drivers to install but the webcam just won't work.

This is probably because the drivers were NOT made for the M5608 but for the M5606 instead (looks pretty obvious from all the reference to M5606 in the Inf files)

I would think that the next step is to try and download different drivers for other Acer Crystal Eye Webcam from Acer's site to see which one points to the correct PID (M5608).

The next thing I'm going to try is to dismount the camera module from the 110 and stick a USB cable on it from my Logitech Quickcam for Notebooks Deluxe to see if it behaves the same way on the other 3 machines I have running different flavours of XP.

I will also try to hook up the logitech webcam to the Acer 110's internal USB connector (the one the original webcam module is connected to) to see if it's a matter of that particular USB connection misbehaving.

Once i've done that, If I find that the original cam module is non functional, I'll probably resort to buying a new cam module from www.pchub.com which carry a whole lot of cam modules (used and new) at low prices.

If anyone has the same problem please let me know so we can work this out together and help a bunch of people out there besides myself who are having a hard time to get the webcam working under XP.

To check the PID go into the hardware manager, click on imaging devices, double click on USB Video Device, then on advanced and check the PID.

Greets to all

DEEJAY
Acer 110 with 1,8" Samsung ZIF 60Gb Hard Drive
1.5 GB Ram
Windows XP Pro SP3
and NO WEBCAM! ((

 

What I was planning was taking webcam from EeePC from asusparts. This camera is better quality (1,3Mpix) and there are no reported problems with this unit on EeePC forum... I believe size of asus unit is not different then AA1 webcam...

 

WOW!!!

Thanks for the info.

If all goes bad I'll try the one you are saying.

Where did you find it again?

Regards,

DEEJAY

 

This website: http://www.asusparts.eu/index.php?cPath=1880 I thing camera from 900/901 suppose to be OK. I already send them an email asking to give me size of module but they are only reseller. They do not stock parts and that time they could not provide this information... All I actually need is someone who is willing to spend money and test asus camera in AA1...

 

Just a quick question.... what's wrong with XP's own generic driver? It seems to work on my AAO... although I only use the webcam for YM. But it seems to work.

 

I installed from a Windows XP CD with SP3 slip-streamed into it and the webcam worked "out of the box", I didn't need to load any driver at all.

 

Likewise.... I used a Windows XP Home SP3 OEM installation... and the webcam worked out of the box. No drivers needed at all.

 

Guys,

First of all let me thank you all for chipping in with your info.

The problem is that with my XP SP3 Pro full install when I click on the "USB Video Device" in "My Computer" it just shows a black screen where the image should be. This also holds true for the snapshot option, I click on it but nothing happens.

According to the device manager all is ok...

Just trying to understand if I have to trash the webcam and get a replacement cause its dead or not.

It was working in Linux by the way.

So I'm now guessing that its just a matter of the cam module being "dead"?

DEEJAY

 

Hi,

I have a similar problem with my A150. The webcam was working fine out of the box. After one month use and installing multiple programs the webcam started showing a darker image, like a negative picture. I imagined it could be a driver issue (due to many programs installations) and performed a eRecovery. Then the nightmare started.
First of all the webcam, that before was identified as an Acer Crystal Webcam, after restore showed up as a USB Video Device (standard XP SP3 driver); the webcam was not showing any image at all (only a dark screen) and I tested with many different programs. I tried to push the suyin driver (the one used before) but it simply did not recognize because of the PID identified on the Device Manager (0402&5608). Tweaking the file didn`t help also neither the Liteon (the other option).
I looked for several files on the internet but could not find any with this PID. I`ve found one Bison driver that was accepted and changed the device name to Acer Crystal Webcam but the image was still in blank.
Now I`m not sure anymore if this is a hardware issue or if it`s just a driver issue since many people report that the standard XP driver works out of the box. Having it work before with Windows XP and the fact that it started having problems that made me perform a restore makes me think that it can really be related to a cam module issue....

I posted this same message on another topic but this one seems more detailed. I`m not a technical guy and have no idea on how to check if the hardware is still working so I would appreciate if anyone with this problem can tell me if this is just a matter of finding the right driver or if I will need to look for a replacement. Since I live in Brazil and the acer was bought in US this means a lot of work for me (need to wait until I go back to the US, ask Best Buy for another receipt - lost the original - then look for a technical assistance and hope that it gets fixed before I need to come back to Brazil...)

I`m really frustrated, this is the first time I have a problem with an Acer laptop and the first time I can`t solve myself...

Thanks,
Gustavo

 

Try to restore your original linpus DVD. See if the cam still works.

 

Yes Deejay, please try to restore to Linux, I'm really interested on understanding if this is a hardware issue or just a driver's problem.

 

Deejay, have you had time to test restoring it? I really need to know if this problem is related to the cam module or just a driver issue. Does anyone else has the same PID for the webcam? If someone has, please confirm which driver are you using.
Thanks,
Gustavo

 

Acer is secretly popping an third unsupported webcam into some of the AA150s! It works fine at first, but has NO DRIVERS provided in the System Recovery or List of Drivers! This means if you do a system recovery, or otherwise uninstall your driver, there is NO WAY to reinstall this webcam!

See: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=6243

 

If the camera is that easy to change out (would think it would be the same on my 150), is there anyone out there that has tried to swap the webcam out for a higher resolution? If so, is there a how to guide and where to find the parts? I will admit it, I am kind of attached to my One, so I take my time before attempting anything and make sure one of the techie gurus has made it work. Any inputs are appreciated.

 

Great thread here guys.

I tried a similar idea using a webcam from asusparts. The parts were compatible for my model although I had to do a lot a tweaking to get it to work.

Has anyone ever tried this with 112 drivers? I found the existence of this driver on a modder forum. I found the driver available for download here: http://www.priorityelectronics.com

Glad to finally find a helpful Acer forum!

 

I also have a problem with my acer crystal eye webcam. Everything was fine but today I went to skype and my webcam only shows black. The snapshot does not work anymore. I tried to uninstall and reintall but device manager says everything is fine. Is there a button I may have hit on the netbook that acts as a privacy screen on the built in webcam so that it only shows black? This is an Aspire one netbook 523h. Anybody have advice?

 

well if all fails like my webcam did just switch out the webcam itself because it may not be software but instead the hardwares fault