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[Q] Front camera is broken?

Hey guys,
My front camera on my transformer just started to act funky. The front camera no longer works and only shows a green screen/other weird artifacts. I've used the front camera to video chat before and it was working fine. Anyone have any ideas as to what is wrong? Should I RMA it?
Android: 3.0.1
Kernal: 2.6.36.3-00004-g069b8b5 [email protected]#1
Build Number: HRI66.US_epad-8.2.3.13-20110511
Any ideas?

Did you try going into your settings->applications and force closing the camera app and maybe clearing the data. It seems like it might be a software issue. Try that and see if it fixes your problem.

Reverence12389 said:
Did you try going into your settings->applications and force closing the camera app and maybe clearing the data. It seems like it might be a software issue. Try that and see if it fixes your problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried it but it didn't fix it.

xreflection said:
Tried it but it didn't fix it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I definitely think it is a software issue. I thought they stated that it was fixed in the .13 update, but obviously not. While in the camera app try switching from the front camera to the rear several times. That used to fix it for me when this happened. I have not had it in some time, at lease not since the last update.

Does it mean anything if I don't hear the mechanical click of the camera switching back and forth? I hear it when it switches to the back camera, but not to the front? I've already tried to switch it back and forth multiple times, all I get is artifacts.
Things I've tried:
Factory Reset
Clearing camera data and force stopping it
Switching back and forth between front and back multiple times
Another thing to note is that the camera was working AFTER I updated to the latest firmware. I only just noticed it doing this the past day. I'm debating on RMAing it because I don't really use the camera much, but it would be nice to be able to web chat with my girlfriend once in a while with my tablet. I have another tablet coming in today. Depending on the shape of this one, I may or may not decide to RMA.

xreflection said:
Does it mean anything if I don't hear the mechanical click of the camera switching back and forth? I hear it when it switches to the back camera, but not to the front? I've already tried to switch it back and forth multiple times, all I get is artifacts.
Things I've tried:
Factory Reset
Clearing camera data and force stopping it
Switching back and forth between front and back multiple times
Another thing to note is that the camera was working AFTER I updated to the latest firmware. I only just noticed it doing this the past day. I'm debating on RMAing it because I don't really use the camera much, but it would be nice to be able to web chat with my girlfriend once in a while with my tablet. I have another tablet coming in today. Depending on the shape of this one, I may or may not decide to RMA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My front camera works and I only get the click when switching to the back as well.
Good luck, one way or another I hope you get it to work/replaced.
I definitely would not live with it though. I did not think that I would use it all that much, but I have found myself chatting with family a couple times a week on it, its very handy.

rockcrawler said:
My front camera works and I only get the click when switching to the back as well.
Good luck, one way or another I hope you get it to work/replaced.
I definitely would not live with it though. I did not think that I would use it all that much, but I have found myself chatting with family a couple times a week on it, its very handy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is a bit off topic, but what app are you guys using to do video chatting?

Reverence12389 said:
This is a bit off topic, but what app are you guys using to do video chatting?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Google Talk/Gchat

So the tablet that came in today is like near perfect condition. No creaking, no alignment issues, the camera works after updating to latest firmware (will have to keep an eye on this) and NO backlight bleed. I'm going to just return the other one. Walmart returns should be easy.

Replacing rear camera module

On rooted Developer Edition Ultra:
Is there any additional procedure needed after replacing the rear camera module? The phone has random camera busy/restart errors. Attempting to isolate apps via SafeMode was inconclusive. So, I decided to disassemble the phone and re-seat the camera ribbon cable - after reassembling, the camera works for a day or two - then the error appears for a while.
Thinking that it might be a failure of a camera component itself I replaced the module with a new one (bought from eBay) yesterday and when reassembled/rebooted - the new camera did not appear. I reinstalled the original camera which is currently working.
FYI - all ribbon cables are aligned, clips tight etc.
When I have some time I will reinstall new camera again and reflash with 4.4. Does anyone know if a new module needs to be 'initialzed'? My assumption was that installing the like component would simply 'work'.

Here is my experience when my rear camera started failing. The cause was from a drop, landed face down with a case, no visible damage, not a single scratch. After a few days, the camera start failing to initialize. I can get it to work by squeezing on the back case just right. Opened it up and started playing with the ribbon, taking the entire motherboard out, etc. Ended up replacing the camera and still the same. The cause I believe was a hairline fracture to the motherboard caused by the drop. I was still under warranty and Motorola replaced my phone no questions asked. I used the website so I never even spoke to anyone. So, that was my experience with this issue.
Sent from my iPad using Crapatalk

Thanks Johnny - that sounds familiar - my XT1080 took a hard fall once. Camera problems started after but I always attributed the issue to the move from 4.2 to 4.4. Camera is working well right now though I do have to restart the phone every day or so. Before I used to have to press on the phone back below the camera. Your symptoms are almost identical to mine.
The issue I had after replacing the camera was that the rear facing camera did not appear in the app after reboot - only the front facing camera. When you tried the new camera was it recognized immediately by the phone?
This Ultra D.E. is my 'daily driver' it does everything I need - it's out of warranty and sending it to MOTO for repair will cost $183. If I don't sort it out with another camera, I will assume that the motherboard is at fault (that of course was my next assumption). Thanks for confirming the problem.
I'll post a follow-up as soon as I either fix it or send it to MOTO.

It should just pick it up. There usually ins't anything you need to do. My guess is that there is some type of micro fracture, and when you installed the new camera it affected it just right, not letting android detect it. Try it again. Either that, or the camera you received was DOA, or has its own problems with the cable etc... hard to tell.
Try taking a good close look at the motherboard, maybe with a magnifying glass, see if you notice any small lines or breaks.

dead camera....twice

Dear all,
A few days ago, my N5's camera stopped working and none of the usual solutions (reboot, clean data and cache of camera app, even complete wipe and change of ROM) did anything to fix the problem. So I went on ebay, and bought a replacement back camera, fitted it and all was well...for a day!!! It looks like after just one day (and nearly no use at all) the new camera has already stopped working. Is anyone aware of what may be causing it, and of a way to fix it? or is it time for a new phone?
Thanks for your help!!

Is it possible the camera connction on the motherboard is a bit flaky?

audit13 said:
Is it possible the camera connction on the motherboard is a bit flaky?
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Click to collapse
Thanks for your reply. I thought that too after the second camera went wrong. I re-opened the phone and checked the connection, and from what I can see it seems quite solid. I am not sure what could possibly be going wrong that causing 2 camera modules to go bad in quick succession though. While the rest of the phone works perfectly.

Maybe it's just coincidence. I guess you could try a third camera to see what happens.

Can't connect to camera
My camera quit working the day I updated to 6.0.1
At first it would work for a few hours after a fresh boot. Now it won't work at all. I replaced the camera module with a working one and it worked for a few hours then died. Now all I get is "can't connect to camera". I'm convinced its related to the marshmallow update.
Safe mode doesn't help. Factory reset doesn't help. Third party apps still let me use the front camera but the rear is dead. I think I've reached the end of the road buying nexus devices and beta testing OS releases.

Maybe it because of your sd card

dixie600mhz said:
My camera quit working the day I updated to 6.0.1
At first it would work for a few hours after a fresh boot. Now it won't work at all. I replaced the camera module with a working one and it worked for a few hours then died. Now all I get is "can't connect to camera". I'm convinced its related to the marshmallow update.
Safe mode doesn't help. Factory reset doesn't help. Third party apps still let me use the front camera but the rear is dead. I think I've reached the end of the road buying nexus devices and beta testing OS releases.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Initially I thought this may be a normal issue of age of the phone, but the fact that a few of us are bumping into this so shortly after the marshmallow upgrade makes me think maybe the 2 things are related.
I suppose I could try and install a lollipop rom and buy yet another camera module.

The only component that should face problems in a persons lifetime would be the battery. It is a shame that companies and people treat this stuff as disposable.
OP and others who cannot fix this through software, or a small hardware change, this must be a hardware issue. Something on the mainboard is messing with the camera. Others are running stock marshmallow fine, to rule out any software issues, wipe all and flash new (manually wiping and flashing each partition from fastboot would be best). Report back.

wangdaning said:
The only component that should face problems in a persons lifetime would be the battery. It is a shame that companies and people treat this stuff as disposable.
OP and others who cannot fix this through software, or a small hardware change, this must be a hardware issue. Something on the mainboard is messing with the camera. Others are running stock marshmallow fine, to rule out any software issues, wipe all and flash new (manually wiping and flashing each partition from fastboot would be best). Report back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your reply. Done, but to no avail. Infact when you flash from fastboot the camera app is not even installed and the torch does not show up in the notification bar.
It is definitely a hardware issue, which is not resolved by simply replacing the camera module, as that seems to break again in a short amount of time. Not sure if I feel investing in a new mainboard and a new camera module.

Camera rattling noise

I now had the Galaxy S6 for several months and I found this phone totally awesome, but a few days earlier it started a rattling noise from the camera. Most of the time I open the camera app, it makes a strange sound (like it is trying to move the lens and the motor fails it to do so). When the camera is open and I try to refocus anything from very near to very far at once, it sometimes make that awful sound too. I am bothered, because I rooted my device some months ago, installed custom kernel and so on. Can I take this to the warranty or am I screwed? Should I bother about this sound? Will it get worse maybe?
Thanks for any help.

Fusseldieb said:
I now had the Galaxy S6 for several months and I found this phone totally awesome, but a few days earlier it started a rattling noise from the camera. Most of the time I open the camera app, it makes a strange sound (like it is trying to move the lens and the motor fails it to do so). When the camera is open and I try to refocus anything from very near to very far at once, it sometimes make that awful sound too. I am bothered, because I rooted my device some months ago, installed custom kernel and so on. Can I take this to the warranty or am I screwed? Should I bother about this sound? Will it get worse maybe?
Thanks for any help.
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Click to collapse
I own a galaxy S6E+ and I also experienced this same strange camera behaviour, but I haven't figured it out yet...
Sent From My SM-G928F via Tapa

zizon65 said:
I own a galaxy S6E+ and I also experienced this same strange camera behaviour, but I haven't figured it out yet...
Sent From My SM-G928F via Tapa
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Click to collapse
i had that issue, you can't do anything, you have to get it to the carrier to fix it, it's a hardware issue...i hope i don't get it again...because in 3 weeks my waranty ends

All this time i thought it was camera getting ready, opening lens and stuff like on digital cameras which make the same sound when started. Is this not the case?

archzz said:
All this time i thought it was camera getting ready, opening lens and stuff like on digital cameras which make the same sound when started. Is this not the case?
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Click to collapse
I really don't know if there is a camera focusing problem or a hardware issue, but for to get rid of this, I decided from now to use the Pro manual focus mode rather than the Autofocus mode, and will let you know if this helps...
Sent From My SM-G928F via Tapa

It's the OIS being slightly broken. Need to take to repair. I have same issue on s6 edge and need to get mine fixed.

Fusseldieb said:
I now had the Galaxy S6 for several months and I found this phone totally awesome, but a few days earlier it started a rattling noise from the camera. Most of the time I open the camera app, it makes a strange sound (like it is trying to move the lens and the motor fails it to do so). When the camera is open and I try to refocus anything from very near to very far at once, it sometimes make that awful sound too. I am bothered, because I rooted my device some months ago, installed custom kernel and so on. Can I take this to the warranty or am I screwed? Should I bother about this sound? Will it get worse maybe?
Thanks for any help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had exactly the same issue... It got progressively worse, to the point where sometimes I'd have to shake the phone to get the camera to focus when the camera was open. Initially they told me nothing seemed wrong with it... But second time round, I filmed it using the Mobizen app (often used to record gameplay - no root required). I found trying to get the phone to focus on text from a book exaggerated the problem.
I showed them the video at the Samsung Express Repair store and they couldn't really deny it (or attempt to). They swapped the camera out in a couple of hours whilst I waited with a newspaper and coffee. Oh, and they didn't even check KNOX (I asked out of curiosity... Mine wasn't tripped anyway)
*But some amount of rattling is normal. I tried it on two of my friends' S6 phones, and even mine now rattles... Not when opening the camera, but when you physically shake it next to your ear

2ZE said:
when you physically shake it next to your ear
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Click to collapse
When shaking it's normal, but when I let it alone and it make weird sound, then I'm bothered.

zizon65 said:
I really don't know if there is a camera focusing problem or a hardware issue
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Click to collapse
This seem to appear only to people who updated Android 5.0 to 5.1.1 or newer. I think Samsung made a firmware update to the camera, which focusses faster, but that lead to this problem.

same issue here. happens rarely and goes away when I shake the phone.

Annoying camera restart problem

Not sure why but recently this is happening a couple times a week now.
I'll go to open the camera and its just a black screen and says the phone needs to be restarted or ill open snapchat, instagram, etc. (Any app that uses the camera) and, same thing, black screen and it says restart camera/phone.
Anyone else experience this ? Should I factory reset The phone ? It has never been dropped or anything out of the ordinary use. I don't have many apps installed either.

Factory resets are a waste of time unless it's an old load or a virus, trojan etc.
If you do a hard reset to cure this issue and it's not due to the above reasons it will likely reoccur.
Take the time and trouble to track down the root cause... to save time and trouble.
Try clearing the system cache on the boot menu.
Try a hard reboot.
Try clearing cam data.
Disable Bixby and any automation junk.
Look closely at all 3rd party apps that use the cam... that may well be the trouble.
You can try resetting settings but this is pretty drastic global action as you will lose all your settings... try not to do this! Plus it may not work.

It's a samsung bug that has to do with camera access, mine happens when switching to live focus video but works normal after camera restarts.
There's nothing we can do to fix it except write to internet publications to shame samsung into cleaning up their code.
My best friend is a regional manager for tmobile and they have tons of calls about it.

coilbio said:
It's a samsung bug that has to do with camera access, mine happens when switching to live focus video but works normal after camera restarts.
There's nothing we can do to fix it except write to internet publications to shame samsung into cleaning up their code.
My best friend is a regional manager for tmobile and they have tons of calls about it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If not all phones of that tmobile variant are effected it's probably related to settings too.
Try disabling all power management except for the screen. Don't set that to it's max power saving setting (set to medium or high performance).
Power management causes a lot of issues.
All buckets in standby apps should show as active otherwise power management is active.

blackhawk said:
If not all phones of that tmobile variant are effected it's probably related to settings too.
Try disabling all power management except for the screen. Don't set that to it's max power saving setting (set to medium or high performance).
Power management causes a lot of issues.
All buckets in standby apps should show as active otherwise power management is active.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ugh search the forums, all variants have been affected, I think most people don't report it because it's so rare, or want to justify the illusion of their perfect $1000+ phone .
It's Samsung's software being half baked and not cleaned up as usual.
Literally the problem probably is the difference between the TOF and Laser autofocus systems because samsung in their lazynes have code and references to the s20 series in their n20u (n10+ too) systems.

coilbio said:
Ugh search the forums, all variants have been affected, I think most people don't report it because it's so rare, or want to justify the illusion of their perfect $1000+ phone .
It's Samsung's software being half baked and not cleaned up as usual.
Literally the problem probably is the difference between the TOF and Laser autofocus systems because samsung in their lazynes have code and references to the s20 series in their n20u (n10+ too) systems.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The laser AF is cool... took Sammy over a year to finally fix the Buds firmware but they did.
Samsung products aren't solid like Denon or Canon products. No support either compared to a top shelf company like Canon or Denon.
Though unlikely it could be a hardware issue or a bad flash especially if no one else has this issue.
Had a $6G Canon pro cam like that; no one could believe it had random glitches (including myself at times). It did. Canon finally replaced it.
It was a little bugger.
Most likely though it's settings, 3rd party app, cache or app corrupted.
If you have any cam updates try going back to the factory load version. This regression repair can work alarmingly well.
Play with it, and more than likely you'll find the cause. Androids wuv attention...

blackhawk said:
The laser AF is cool... took Sammy over a year to finally fix the Buds firmware but they did.
Samsung products aren't solid like Denon or Canon products. No support either compared to a top shelf company like Canon or Denon.
Though unlikely it could be a hardware issue or a bad flash especially if no one else has this issue.
Had a $6G Canon pro cam like that; no one could believe it had random glitches (including myself at times). It did. Canon finally replaced it.
It was a little bugger.
Most likely though it's settings, 3rd party app, cache or app corrupted.
If you have any cam updates try going back to the factory load version. This regression repair can work alarmingly well.
Play with it, and more than likely you'll find the cause. Androids wuv attention...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, weird..

I never faced that issue on my N986U1 since I bought it. Maybe it's an factory issue.