linux

Fixing Webcam black screen on an Asus Eee PC

17 Comments

I’m reviewing the Asus Eee PC, running Linux. I was not the first user of this machine; I guess it was reviewed by someone else and then the OS was restored before it was sent to me. No problem with that; except that the webcam did not work. If I ran the webcam app I got a black screen, though the webcam led lit as if it were working. If I ran the diagnostic it did not detect the webcam, but said “Plug in your webcam” and “Failed”.

Here’s the fix. Reboot the machine and press F2 to go into the BIOS settings. Select the Advanced page and then OS Installation. It’s set to “Start”, right? Press Enter, and select Finished. Then F10 for Save and Exit. Webcam now works.

Seems to be a common problem for Eee PC users who have restored the OS.

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17 thoughts on “Fixing Webcam black screen on an Asus Eee PC”

  1. Thank you, thank you, thank you! You just saved my day. I was thinking that something wrong was happening with the hardware. Great find!

    Regards,

    A desperate newbie…

  4. Thank you very much, I just start to think to burn my eee and by me the new one.

    Thanks again.

  5. Thanks Tim! I’ve been up all night troubleshooting Xandros and had to F9 it several times, and forgot I had “Start” on the OS selected from the BIOS. When I finally got things fixed and realized the webcam wasn’t working, I broke a sweat. A quick search brought me to your site with the solution. Thanks again for keeping this site up so people could benefit from it!!!

  6. THANK YOU THANK YOU! This fixed our Eee webcam from having done an os reset perfectly.

    This is probably the quickest, easiest linux-based fix I’ve ever applied. Why isn’t this info on the Asus troubleshooting site?

  10. Thank you for that.
    What a relief!
    I too thought that something was wrong with my Asus.

    Ancient Asus ethusiast!

  12. SUPER THANK YOU!!! I thought I wouldn’t get back my webcam.. I had the biggest relief today.

  13. looks like this was a very helpful article! Unfortunately, I’ll be the first to say that it didn’t work for me, because when I looked at the OS installation section, it was already on ‘Finished’.
    Any helpful tips on how else I can prevent this black screen from showing up?
    I already tried selecting ‘Start’ and re-selecting ‘Finished’ when rebooting again.
    Get back to me by e-mail or I’ll check back here. Thanks!

  15. I tried the BIOS thing but I don’t see the advanced page on BIOS menu to get to OS installation. can you help me?

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