Skype refuses to use Front camera -- works fine for a minute then freezes

[Feoen]

Having a strange issue. I was on a five-hour Skype video conference call yesterday, and the SP3 handled it like a champ.

Today I tried to do a one-on-one video call and after a minute I noticed my image was frozen and the person on the other end said the same. I tried turning the camera off and then on, and it just had a spinning circle the whole time.

Then I tried in Skype settings changing to use the back camera, and the back camera worked fine. I switched back to front camera, and it wouldn't load.

I tried opening the Camera application in Metro and that worked fine with both cameras, but switching back to Skype I still was not getting a feed through the front camera.

A full shut down and start up would get the front camera working for a minute, and then it would die again.

I have made no changes to my SP3 between yesterday and today, and I am in the same room on the same wireless connection as I was when I did the conference call.

Any idea what is going on?

 

[Padi]

Same problem with my SP3 and desktop version of Skype, chat with Skype support they have more complains about that......

 

[Rickard Hansson]

Hey! Same problem here. I got it working for now at least through rolling back the driver in Device Manager for the Microsoft LifeCam Front in the Imaging Devices group.

Any luck with that maybe?

 

[Padi]

Rolled back the driver - camera freezes again, updated driver and restart SP3 now works perfect fine ????????

 

[Feoen]

So it's pretty strange. To clarify, I was using the Desktop version.

Whenever I call my one friend, the front camera freezes a minute into the video call (which is why I made this topic). Whenever I do a video call with my dad, the front camera doesn't freeze at all.

My friend is on the desktop client on Windows 8.1, and my dad is on iOS on his iPad 4.

It is definitely seeming like this is a skype thing than an SP3 thing.

 

[MtP]

Using the desktop version of skype also

camera dies using either front or back cam.
cam just is not on any more. when I turn video off in skype and restart video it cant load cam.
Have to reboot to get the cam back, and then it freezes again.

I had a call with same person (but she had different computer) earlier this week and only had cam die once, and a reboot fixed. This time, I had to ditch my expensive surface pro and use a 6 year old hp.

 

[Feoen]

Using the desktop version of skype also

camera dies using either front or back cam.
cam just is not on any more. when I turn video off in skype and restart video it cant load cam.
Have to reboot to get the cam back, and then it freezes again.

I had a call with same person (but she had different computer) earlier this week and only had cam die once, and a reboot fixed. This time, I had to ditch my expensive surface pro and use a 6 year old hp.

When this happens, could you do the test that I did and open up the Camera app in Metro WITHOUT closing the broken video call in Skype? The camera worked fine in Metro, but still wasn't working in Skype, indicating that it was a Skype issue.

 

[M. Sepo]

i have the exact same issue with SP3 and front camera during skype sessions. the camera app in metro still works fine when skype freezes. i have no issues with skype metro, but i would prefer to use the desktop version. anybody found solution yet or do we have to wait for a skype update?

 

[maloo78]

I do have the same issue. The camera app works fine. Skype works fine with an exernal cam. The MS internal front cam freezes during Skype calls, but audio connection remains. I can restart the video, but it will crash again.

Interestingly, the Skype browser plug-in does not have any issues with the internal cameras. Had a 2 hour conversation without any interruption.
I tried uninstalling and reinstalling Skype Metro. Rolling back the camera driver. Updating all drivers. No change. Skype support chat noted my complaint but does not have a current solution.

 

[cemian]

I had this issue too awhile back but eventual updates to either skype or the sp3 updates fixed it ..do not know which update in particular.

 

[GegeNY]

My front camera also freeze after a few minutes in Skype Desktop.
Is it a fix for that?
Thank you for your help.