For those who bought HP Pavilion (running on Vista doesn't matter what model), you will notice that your webcam only works "once".

I had my share of headache trying to solve this problem, I tried googling it up and it seems HP doesn't have a solution for this annoying bug.

I came across this forum and I tried it's suggestion.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=149463

Guess what? It works perfectly for me.

My model is HP Pavilion tx1221au.

After applying the fix, I can use the webcam for MSN Live Messenger, Skype, QuickPlay, etc anytime I want.


Here are the exact steps I took.

1. Downloaded the file. Go to > http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=149463
2. Unzipped it to a folder on my desktop.
3. Ran the "Setup.exe" file in the folder that got unzipped.
4. Went through the installer until it got to the end and then let it restart my computer.
5. Waited for my computer to restart.
6. It popped up something saying it was installing the drivers for my webcam. Waited until it was done.
7. Opened the Control Panel.
8. Opened the Device Manager.
9. Find my webcam under "Imaging Devices". I noticed it was listed as "HP Pavilion Webcam" despite having just installed the Acer drivers.
10. Right-clicked on my webcam and chose "Update Driver Software..."
11. Chose "Browse my computer for driver software"
12. Chose "Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer"
13. Unchecked the "Show compatible hardware" checkbox.
14. Scrolled down to the Chicony manufacturer.
15. Chose the "Acer Crystal Eye webcam.
16. Told it to install anyway when it asked me a question about installing that driver.
17. Waited for the driver to be installed.
18. Noted that my webcam was now listed as an Acer Crystal Eye webcam in Device Manager.