Cam being used by another application

My laptop doesn't work with any camera. I get an error:

"Camera being used by another application"".

I don't known which program is using it. I tried using software like "SplitCam" or "ManyCam". I also reinstalled K-lite codec to the newest version, but am still getting this error.

I get the same error when I turn my Canon video camera to laptop using firewire cable.

• OS: Windows 7 64-bit
• Camera: Creative (I didn't find which model)
• Laptop: DELL inspiron 1520

Error when I tried open SplitCam:

SplitCam error when repair it:

ManyCam just not responding.

Solution 1:

The errors you are showing are pretty standard. Any application that ties to a webcam gets exclusive control over it.

Quick fix

There is no real easy way to know what current application is using the webcam, but when most applications loose the webcam, they do not automatically reconnect. If I was you, I would go to Device manager and simply disable then enable the webcam which should release it from whatever program is grabbing it.

Solution

The real solution is a lot lengthier!

I would launch Device Manager again and go to the webcam, click the Drivers tab then the Driver Details button and make a note of all the files.

Now, download Microsoft / Sysinternals Process Explorer and try doing a search against these files, it should be able to show you what file/process is hogging the camera.

Next, use Microsoft / Sysinternals Autoruns and locate then disable (don't delete yet) the program from starting.

Next time you start your machine, hopefulyl there will be no problems and you can use any program with the webcam in which case, you can delete the entry that is disabled. If however there is a problem, reenable it, however you may be out of luck - in which case, please write in comments and I will try to help further.

Solution 2:

If you are getting the infamous "video camera in used by another program" error then follow the instructions from here: http://datamagga.com/Technology/dell-xps-m1530-laptop-web-cam-not-working-in-windows-7-64-bit-qweb-cam-in-use-by-another-programq-error.html

I followed that procedure and it 100% fixed my problem with my access to my built-in video camera and my logitech orbit cam.

Solution 3:

For what it's worth, I had this problem with a Creative HD webcam on XP SP3, and in the end (after much trial and error), I managed to get rid of the problem by some combination of doing all the following, probably doing all of them would be a good starting point for XP users.

1. Uninstalling all Creative WebCam Starter Pack software including the Webcamdriver and driver updater.
2. Reinstalling only the webcam driver, not any of the other Starter Pack software.
3. Installing ManyCam to get its 'Virtual WebCam' driver.
4. Reinstalling Direct X 9.0c, possibly it gets corrupted.
5. Uninstalling the latest version of Skype and going back to version 3.8.0.188, available from oldapps.com etc.
6. Setting Skype to use the ManyCam virtual webcam driver as its video display.
7. Everything will be OK now over reboots if you keep the webcam connected. If you reboot without the WebCam connected, you just need to go into ManyCam, without doing anything, and then closing it again, before you can use video in Skype again.