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I tried making a facetime call on my macbook and it shows the view of my camera to just be black. The green LED for the camera turned on when I opened facetime but now will not turn off, even after completely exiting all open programs on the macbook. The only way to get the LED to turn off if to restart the computer.

I also tried searching for "VDC" in utility and killing the "VDCAssistant" process to no avail.

Any ideas:

  1. How to get the webcam to work? I.e. show an image rather than black
  2. How to get the camera to "turn off". Stop the green led?

To my mind this seems like a hardware problem but I'd appreciate any advice.

Update:

The green LED is now on even after a restart. Facetime is reporting that no camera is available. Killing VDCAssistant does nothing.

Update 2 It seems a full shutdown, turn on turns the LED off, unlike a simple restart. Opening any app that uses the webcam reinstates the problem.

Update 3 After running Apple Hardware test, it has been confirmed that there is a hardware issue. Will be taking it in to Apple to get serviced.

Allan
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harryg
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    Malware? Good time to cover your camera with tape probably. – owlswipe Jun 28 '16 at 11:58
  • A camera’s green LED turning on for nothing is certainly not good news... After investigating I’d simply wipe the drive and make a clean install (kind of an overkill but who knows what kind of malware you could have) –  Jun 28 '16 at 12:02
  • I thought malware as a possibility but I think it's unlikely. This is a company computer used only by me. It's a few weeks old and has only had dev software installed. Minimal web browsing also, no dodgy sites/attachments – harryg Jun 28 '16 at 13:37
  • @harryg if it's only a few weeks old, why can't you bring it to the Apple Store? – At0micMutex Jun 28 '16 at 13:40
  • @IronCraftMan I think that's the next step. Was just checking if this kind of behaviour is known of – harryg Jun 28 '16 at 13:42
  • Have you tried Apple Hardware Test? Hold D while booting from a powered off state with AC adapter connected. I am suspecting you have a malfunctioning iSight camera. – Allan Jun 28 '16 at 14:07
  • @Allan You're correct, having run a diagnostic it's confirmed a hardware problem. – harryg Jun 28 '16 at 17:11
  • If you provide some details like your Macbook model and year, your OS as well as the error that you received, I'll see if I can type up an answer for you and get you pointed to some resources to get it fixed relatively inexpensively. – Allan Jun 28 '16 at 17:45
  • @Allan thanks, It's the latest model of retina macbook pro 13" (2015 I think) running el Capitan. It's only a few weeks old so I Apple should fix/replace on warranty. I'll get it taken in. – harryg Jun 28 '16 at 22:07
  • Ok great! It's good that it's still covered under AppleCare no no out of pocket. – Allan Jun 28 '16 at 22:51

1 Answers1

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Based on the description and the comments, this sounds like a hardware failure, not malware. The iSight camera and/or cable has most likely failed. Replacing it should be a fairly simple task to a tech to accomplish

The first thing to do when having hardware difficulty of any type is to run Apple Hardware Test (AHT). Simply hold down the D key while booting from a powered off state and the AC adapter connected.

Since AHT diagnosed an issue and you are under AppleCare, it's best that you take it in.

Allan
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