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So I'm trying to help someone setup iChat on their MacBook for video-to-video chat, and iChat is now setup, but when we go to iChat -> Prefs -> audio/video and it says:

There is no camera attached to this computer.

But it's a new MacBook (he's had it for a few months), so it obviously has a camera.

Any idea what I need to do to get this MacBook to reconize it's camera?

Update:

I went to the system profiler, and the iSight is not listed in this macbook, so I tried to reset the SMC for a battery you should not remove on your own, but this did not resolve the issue.

3 Answers 3

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Take a look in About this Mac => More Info => USB and see if the camera is showing up there (it should appear as "Built-in iSight").

If that works then make sure you're not running any other apps which might be hogging the camera, e.g. Skype, Photo Booth, etc.

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  • for an app to hog the camera, wouldn't the green light have to be on?
    – erikvold
    Jul 22, 2010 at 18:52
  • @Erik: good point
    – Paul R
    Jul 22, 2010 at 21:37
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I've had that a couple of times on my MacBook Pro.

Simply follow the process described here to reset the System Management Controller.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964?viewlocale=en_US

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  • I followed the instructions to reset the SMC (this is a new macbook that should not have the user remove the battery, so I tried the shift+ctrl+option+power btn method), but that did not help resolve the issue.
    – erikvold
    Jul 22, 2010 at 22:15
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It sounds like there's a camera or a USB issue. If another application was using it (I just tested mine by having Skype grab it), the Audio/Video tab would say "Another application is using your camera" and the camera LED would be lit. But the message you got suggests you're looking for something at a lower level than another app.

Here's Apple's guide to troubleshooting the iSight camera.

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  • so I just tried those intructions and they did not resolve the issue.
    – erikvold
    Jul 22, 2010 at 22:14

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