The symptomsThe symptoms arise when a user double clicks on Acer Orbicam (Desktop icon), and Vista displays the following message: “Acer Orbicam application has stopped working” and needs to be shut down.
First of all, your webcam is still working, the device does not have problems. You can check this quite easily by opening Messenger -> Tools -> Webcam Settings.
Another way is to check the folder:
C:\windows\BisonCam\
There you will find the application “LiveCam.exe”. Run this to check that the webcam device is working fine.
If you don’t have the “BisonCam” folder, this means that your webcam is a different model; I don’t yet have a complete list of all the devices and their relative folders but all notebooks and webcams have some folder so if you look hard enough you’ll find yours.
The problemThere appear to be two factors that can create this problem:
1] The Orbicam application needs the correct orbicam driver to work correctly;
Windows Vista has its own internal driver to install the device, naming it “Acer Orbicam” (great Windows!!) but in this way the application cannot find the correct driver, so Vista returns the error message.
2] If some pictures are present inside “My Pictures” folders, the Orbicam application will fail to start. It seems to be a Vista issue and still needs to be fully clarified.
The problem seems to have been caused by the Vista Upgrade software, which causes the OrbiCam application on certain models to malfunction. However, as explained above, the OrbiCam camera works fine, the software just can’t control it correctly after the upgrade.
Another issue that has added to the confusion here is that there are “more than ten” different types of OrbiCams installed on Acer notebooks. Again as mentioned above Windows Vista has its own internal driver to install the device, and simply calls it “Acer Orbicam” which makes distinguishing the correct driver from wrong one an almost impossible task. If you replace your driver with the wrong one, the application cannot find the correct driver and you get the now famous error message.
Lastly, the problem is restricted to Vista-ready notebooks and NOT native Vista notebooks. By that I mean the problem does not exist with the new Gemstone and TravelMate ProFile models as these were designed specifically to run under Vista.
I know this is no consolation to users with this problem but I just wanted to reassure readers that this issue is not endemic to all Acer notebooks.
Solutions Currently only 2 notebooks have complete solutions available online. This is because - so far - they are the only “problems” Acer support technicians in Taiwan have been able to fully replicate, analyse and repair.
These “fixes” are not general solutions and
ARE NOT OK FOR ALL NOTEBOOKS. This explains why some readers have been getting error messages with the new drivers/applications. The new drivers and applications can be found at the following addresses:
Aspire 9300 at the following link:
http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/notebook/as_9300.html
Aspire 5570 at the following link:
http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/notebook/as_5570.html
If your notebook is not one of the two above, read on:
For all notebooks with Acer Orbicam the repair procedure is the same:
1] identify the specific webcam device you have inside your notebook
2] get the hardware description (hardware id) of your notebook’s webcam
3] get the full serial number of your notebook (long alphanumeric code in the bottom side)
4] send this information to your local support centre who can then walk you through the procedure for your specific notebook.
All steps are important because only with the above information can Acer correctly identify the right driver and application for your notebook. Simply sending “Acer Orbicam” as the description, does not help because all the different webcams Acer installed are called “Acer Orbicam” (again, thanks Windows)…
So how do you identify the right one ?
How to get the webcam device information:Go to “Control Panel”, switch to “Classic View” (the support team still find this way easier and better to work with than the default one) and double click on the “
System” icon; to the right you will find Tasks list and below “
Device Manager”, click on this.
Now you have the full list of devices of your notebook, look for “
Imaging Devices” and double click on this. Here you will find the Acer Orbicam.
Double click on “
Acer Orbicam” and the Acer Orbicam Properties window appears. There are three tabs : General, Driver, Details
Click on “
Driver” tab, the important information listed here is:
“Driver Provider” and “Driver Version”
Copy this info onto a word / txt file or take a screenshot of this window. Just
make sure you write down this information. Then click on “
Details” tab
Under “
Property” you have a scrolling list, click on it and open the drop down menu.
On the drop down menu look for “
Hardware Ids”. Click on this.
In the Value box, you should find something similar to:
USB\VID_5986&PID_0102&REV_0100&MI_00
USB\VID_5986&PID_0102&MI_00
As before, copy these two lines or make a “screenshot” of the window
At the end of all this you will have:
Your Notebook’s Serial Number
The OrbiCam Driver Provider
The OrbiCam Driver Version
The OrbiCam Hardware IDs
Send all of this information to Acer with your support request/telephone call. This should cut down the time it takes them to get you back up and running.
Good Luck, should get your cam going again/Please dont for get to Vote, Thank You.
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