Database Users

"Unable to start Camera" "Unable to initialize camera"

After months of trouble free use my camera dies today. When I try to launch the camera I get the following message "Unable to start Camera" "Unable to initialize camera". I saw an earlier post where the fix was to power down and remove the battery for a few minutes. Unfortunately this did not work for me. I waited approximately 15 minutes before installing the battery and powering up again.
Has anyone elese seen this problem before? And where removing the battery has not helped. I have not tried a Hard Reset. I had a similar problem with my Hermes/838 Pro that was fixed with a hard reset. As you can tell I am trying to avoid the hard reset... I am traveling and do not want to take the time to cutomize my phone, at least not yet.
I am running the original shipped ROM 1.23.707.6
Meanining I have not flashed any ROMs to this phone. It is as shipped from Dopod.

hi i have the same problem since months ... something you have explored? do u have some informations to fix this problem?

Extract this package, and copy all files to the windows directory via Resco Explorer(alle files(.DLL) muts be visible, look at the options of this app) and overwrite the existing files, then softreset, Im not sure if this will work for you, so be sure and make a backup first!
http://www.poigps.com/users/emme/CameraGPS.rar

It really seems a software problem, probably some rom files or registries got corrupted. A reinstall may help, if not, you may still need the ultimate hard reset

I wound uptaking my 810 back to the Dopod service center. The guy said they had to replace my camera. What that means and if that can actually be done I am not sure. I would guess they replaced an entire board. They did re-flash the ROM on my phone as well. Prioir to taking the phone in for service I had not tried to re-flash the rom. I had only done a hard reset with no success.
One side light of my camera going down is... They put the same ROM back on my phone that was previously installed. After the service I have noticed that my GPS gets a "cold" fix much faster than before (twice as fast +/-)

Interesting, I had this exact same error, but on my previous phone, a Samsung D900.
They tried everything, including completely wiping the phone, but nothing helped so in the end they replaced the camera in the phone.

i had this on a tornado
eldaria said:
Interesting, I had this exact same error, but on my previous phone, a Samsung D900.
They tried everything, including completely wiping the phone, but nothing helped so in the end they replaced the camera in the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
...turned out to be hardware, too.

mainboard error on mine
htc service replaced the camera module twice before they replaced mainboard and cured my phone. I had this problem the first 6 months with my p3600.
Try taking a softreset with the camera on. this worked for me a couple of times
Regards

Possible solution
Possible solution http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=384854
Simply take out battery for at least 15 minutes.

Having the same problem but on front camera ..
Hi,
I having a similar problem but with my secondary (front side) camera. I'm using Dopod D810 with WM6.0.
So, any solutions on this ?
Regards,
Daneal

I have problem Unable to start Camera in htc desire 500
I reset factory but I have this problem. I don't known.what can I do???? please help me
this my number phone 09192561895 in IRAN

broken camera kjam

I believe my camera is broken - black screen. I'm not sure but I think it's happened after I upgraded to wm6.
Does anyone had the same problem and was able to fix it or the hardware is ****ed up and there's nothing to do?
Thanks

no....
honestly I don't believe that an upgrade to wm6 can "break" your camera...
... and then there is a simple test that you can try: come back to the original shipped i-mate rom (ftp://ftp.clubimate.com) and you see what happens.
but.... why don't you give us some more infos?
like: is a G3/G4 locked or unloked, IPL/SPL version...
hi
tommy

well, I did that. I restore the original rom and the camera still didn't work.
My phone is G3 locked and I installed on top wm6 from faria (a nice one!).
Of course it could just be that my camera gave up. Since I was not using it regularly and at some point after the upgrade to wm6 I saw the problem it was one of the link.
Can the hardware of the camera be affected by the overclocking?

hey~
i think i may have a similar problem (but the explination doesn't go in to deep detail)
when i try to snap a picture, about half the time it will snap....half the time it just goes black (the screen) and no matter what....it WILL NOT SAVE the photo.
i've tried changing where it saves the photos (main memory or sd card) as well as changed all the settings one by one (megapixels, fine:super fine, snapping type [full press etc] etc. etc. etc. i also tried changing settings via the advance config tool often mention onthe forums)
i haven't updated the rom (stock at&t rom is installed....i'm savy but not savy enuf to change the rom lol) nor have i updated windows (it always gives me an error...says it cant connect to the server or something, oh well i don't much care for micro$ucks anyways lol)
it's running windows 6.1 professional...i have plenty of memory free and hadn't installed anything new or tweaked any settings the day it stoped working....
any ideas?
~j
ps.
oh yeah, oddly...the video record function still works....

Camera might be out of the connecting socket - open your device and make sure it's connected. Failing that - the replacement cameras can be purchased fairly cheaply.

thanks i'll give that a try and let ya know if it works!
i appreciate the very fast reply it's nice to know im not the only insomniac out there lol
~j

Moved since problem is not ROM related.

ubuntujason said:
thanks i'll give that a try and let ya know if it works!
i appreciate the very fast reply it's nice to know im not the only insomniac out there lol
~j
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha, I am 18 hours or so ahead of you.

thank you and sorry i placed my question in the wrong area....where has it been moved to though? :s (while ive been a member her for a while, i am still new to posting...ill admit i usually read...but i hope to change that )
~j

No worries. Let us know when you get it fixed and how.

hey all~
enigma....now i see it's enigmaNZ so new zeeland i assume is where you are....so maybe im a lone insomniac lol
jwzg....thanks again
all....as to the suggestion of opening the phone case....well with my nerve disease i'm going to have to have a friend do that since my hands are often no where near steady...ill let ya all know if that works.
mean time i may also look for maybe some other camera software....like i said, it will snap the photo but it refuses to SAVE the photo....so maybe the software is corrupt who knows....ill try it all
~j

hey all~
so i dove into my system registry tonite....i tweaked some things, changed the localtion of where stuff gets saved, changed some 1's to 0's an vice versa an it now seems to work....hope it remains working!
~j

Must have been a bad camera package.

jwzg~
yeah who knows, i'm just happy it's working again
~j

ATT 8525 Camera Issue

I bought an ATT 8525 a month ago. Suddenly the camera stopped working.
I got the message "Unable to initialize camera. Failed to set up the device".
I looked for this in the web and could not find much help... seems that Cingular may exchange the unit as solution...
Some said it may be a problem with the SD card (2gb from sandisk).
I tried soft reset, hard reset, re-installing ROM (the one from cingular USA) and nothing seemed to work.
I almost gave up when I found this
I followed the steps and not only got the camera to work but I got a very fast , stable and spanish!! version of windows mobile 6. And with a lot of available memory !
Thanks so much to Schap !
hope this would be useful for those having the camera issue!
fabian
ROM Version: Schap's 3.30c
ROM Date: 05/15/07
Radio: 1.41.00.10
Protocol: 32.74.7020.18H

False alarm.
The camera worked for an hour or two... then I started getting the same error.
I did not install anything during that time or change any configuration...
I guess it must be a hardware problem...
any ideas?

Good news!!... (again)
I just downloadedthis cab that says it corrects SC bad management.
After installing the cab... turning off/on the phone... the camera works!!
(I don't know for how long it will work... but at least it is alive! )
Good luck and please share your experience with this cab !!
fabian

doesnt matter since our cameras suck anyways
Im just mad cause I parted with my K800i lol

F****'n camera!
I was trying almost everything.... It's still not working at all. Camera just stoped working..soft reset..nothing...hard reset...nothing...I did what Fabian is writing in his posts...nothing...one thing has changed, phone found camera and I have icon of camera in Programs menu, but it still don't work. It don't give me any error raports or something, when I tap on the camera icon it's just don't do nothing so....mayby I should go to church and pray for a miracle because I don't have any other options.
Someone knows any program to find problem? To diagnose or something...
I am sure that problem is in software. I didn't drop phone or damaged him...
I have Sandisk mSD, mayby that is the source of the problem?

Hi,
I know it sounds weird, but I got the camera to work for 2 or 3 days by removing the battery for 5 minutes.
I really don't know which is the trigger that makes the camera stop working, but it seems that removing the battery "cleans" or releases something somewhere.
It's really annoying but at least I found a systematic way to make the camera return to life everytime it dies...
Try this... maybe works for you too...
fabian

...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...
Yo Fabian
That thing with taking off battery don't work on my 8525.
I was trying few combinations of that solution (without mSD cart, with cart in the phone). Life is hard. Nothing helps.
I just looking for software that can tell me what is wrong, but i can't find nothing. Something to check my hardware or something...
Mayby you have any idea how to get any info what to f*** is going on?
NeOrB

Hi
I really tried everything I could...
I've been looking for that tool you mention ... no luck..
Could not find a windows mobile event viewer neither...
I'm thinking on messing around with the c# sdk to debug the camera application ...
I can tell you now after a few days that removing the battery does not always work
My advise... if you're one of those lucky guys that can claim for the warranty... go for it and replace this f... phone!
fabian

Hi Fabian!
I don't have warranty for my phone, I bought it on eBay in USA, I had 7 days to turn it back if there were something wrong with that....camera stoped working after 9 days. Worst thing is that now I am in Poland and I even can't find any place where someone could repair that phone for me.
Thanks for wasting your time for me!
I'll not surrender and I will try to find solution!
Someone must know what to f**** is going on!
Few guys telling that problem could be with Sandisk mSD. And that could be true, because I remember that after I bought that card camera stoped working.
When I will have some more time I will hard reset PDA or something with taking off mSD from PDA before doing that. Mayby that is the solution. We will see...
Thanks one more time Fabian
C U at the next post!
NeOrB

Elf won't start

hi all,
I've a problem with my htc touch, it doesn't won't to start !
everytime i turn it on it turns off right before the HTC welcome screen comes !
any idea what is that ? or how can i flash another rom ?
*it's fully charged
*my rom is Touch_of HD lite 3.0
Thanks

Hi,
Did you flash a new rom or something recently? How old is your battery? If possible....try changing the battery and giving it another shot.

it's a new battery about 2 months or something
yes this is a new rom i flashed it yesterday !
Thanks for your quick response

[email protected] said:
it's a new battery about 2 months or something
yes this is a new rom i flashed it yesterday !
Thanks for your quick response
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm...there you go. That seems to be the problem. Perhaps you'd want to go back to the thread from where you downloaded the rom and check to see if anyone else has had similar problems on their device. Or maybe try to get in touch with the person that cooked it. You can PM them or something. I'm sorry but beyond this....I cant tell you what to do....I've never flashed a rom on my device. Still learning Perhaps someone else on this forum can guide you.
Good Luck

Thank you but i don't think the rom is the problem,
I entered the boot loader and tried flashing 2 different roms and the same thing happens right before the HTC welcome screen "the animated picture where HTC logo appears" the device turns of !
so what is that !!!!
any help please

mine like the fridge!
For troubleshooting, try to cool it in the fridge for some minutes before you turn it on. If this helps, then I have no idea what causes the fault! But you are one step closer by knowing if its a hw or sw issue

If this helps, then I have no idea what causes the fault!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lool
I tried what you said but didn't work too !
I think it might be the RAM or something .. what do you think ?

could be
I've red somewhere that its a RISC controller in the Elf. If so; it contains a RAM itself. So even tough I'm not a specialist on this things I belive that it could be a internal fault in the RISC or the multiplexer to the external RAM or the RAM itself. These things are all a motherboard issue that needs a replacement - in other words a new phone!
If its a SW problem it should work fine with the orignial ROM. On this field I shall keep my mouth shutt 'cus I know nothing about phone/smartphones!! I do think you should make it to the bootleg whit any ROM.. I belive!

have you tried to hard reset
1) Simultaneous press and hold "Power" and "Camera" key.
2) Press "Reset" once with the stylus and then release all keys.

Yes I've tried hard reseting !
These things are all a motherboard issue that needs a replacement - in other words a new phone!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a relief

Have you tried flashing one of the original roms onto your device? If not....give that shot. You'll find a list of all original shipped roms on the wiki.

I'm not sure
If the mailfunction started after you ROM-flashing "upgrade", then its more likely that its the software. But I know nothing about software on this things or what the symptom may be if theres a missmatch on the phone configuration/model and ROM.

guys I've tried everything even original roms
I think i've to change the board !
Thank you all

Cash for help

I will "donate" money to someone, if they can get my camera working?

dB Zac said:
I will "donate" money to someone, if they can get my camera working?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
TC,
What's wrong with your camera? Is it physically broken? I doubt you'd have to donate just to get help. Just post your problem.
Cheers.

I did post my problem. I got a few people who say they have the same problem but no one has a fix. I just cant get the program to initialize

dB Zac said:
I did post my problem. I got a few people who say they have the same problem but no one has a fix. I just cant get the program to initialize
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I noticed your using MIRI ROM 6.5 Manila 2.5
Have you tried another ROM?
Or go back to 6.5 2.1 see if camera still has probs
Manila 2.5 does have known bugs and is not perfect yet
Worth atry then you will know if its the camera or ROM

the problem started with duttys wm6.1 rom with manila 2.1, I also tried a few wm 6.5 roms with manila 2.1

Have you tried to flash an Official ROM? Or install a new camera cab?
D'rath

yes I have tried to do both of those. I even tried the stock blackstone camera

dB Zac said:
yes I have tried to do both of those. I even tried the stock blackstone camera
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You said that the camera gives you an error message that says "Failed to initialize..... etc..."? Did it have anything in there about a certificate error or component missing error?
I know this may be a long shot but have you ever dropped the phone or gotten it wet? If so then you may have jarred something inside the phone or fried an essential circuit for the camera to function.
I would suggest flashing a stock ROM including radio and see if that helps at all.
I have never had a problem with my HD's camera short of it being really laggy under poor lighting conditions. I'll keep a lookout for a fix for this.

dharvey4651 said:
You said that the camera gives you an error message that says "Failed to initialize..... etc..."? Did it have anything in there about a certificate error or component missing error?
I know this may be a long shot but have you ever dropped the phone or gotten it wet? If so then you may have jarred something inside the phone or fried an essential circuit for the camera to function.
I would suggest flashing a stock ROM including radio and see if that helps at all.
I have never had a problem with my HD's camera short of it being really laggy under poor lighting conditions. I'll keep a lookout for a fix for this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am not the 1st owner but it shows no sign of watter damage. It did get set down next to a tool magnet once. I have never dropped it.
I did take it all the way back to a stock SPL and the newest stock rom, didn't help. I have had to diferent people tell me they have the same issue and once more I found who posted before me about the same issue. He had a fix but it didnt work for me.
Last night I did a full tear down and see no damage to any of the parts but that doesnt say much

dB Zac said:
I am not the 1st owner but it shows no sign of watter damage. It did get set down next to a tool magnet once. I have never dropped it.
I did take it all the way back to a stock SPL and the newest stock rom, didn't help. I have had to diferent people tell me they have the same issue and once more I found who posted before me about the same issue. He had a fix but it didnt work for me.
Last night I did a full tear down and see no damage to any of the parts but that doesnt say much
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is really weird... I've personally never had a "Failed to initialize" error before. Usually it is just a certificate error that I get after I screw up a ROM build and it's never related to the camera.
Since you already restored the stock SPL and the whole 9 yards, I strongly suggest contacting HTC's repair department and see if they have any advice or can repair the device for a fee. I have a good friend who dropped his Touch HD in a glass of milk and the phone worked fine afterwards but he was unable to use the actual Touch Screen as the Digitizer was toast. He sent it in to HTC to have it repaired and if I remember correctly, received it back yesterday, like new.
Good luck to you man, hope you can get it figured out or are able to have the device fixed if it turns out to be a physical problem and not software related.
Best of luck,
Dan.

really? even though it is an HD in USA? Did he call the HTC in the US?