Why is my camera not working?

First thing I always check is the shutter - add-on, or built-in to the notebook. The G8s added a non electrical shutter that was properly integrated (G5-7 used a magnetic cover) on the 600/800 series, then made it electrical on the G11 and G1x (i/a/q) series - this might have the "soft shutter" if it does not include this message:

Shutters became commonplace years ago - first on commercial PCs (Think/Pro/EliteBook/Latitude) then consumer models. Some people use such a good matching tape you can't tell if you aren't the first owner/3rd+, even cameras which never shipped with shutters like old Logitech cams now include one that was shoved into the box that clips on to accommodate the shift since they were designed without it.

The other common location on the 1040 series is the keyboard has a button vs shutter - the full fledged (not a travel) models like the 600/800/G1 use a mechanical shutter vs HP SureShutter.

If it continues, it might be an application issue where one app is borrowing the camera and reserving it - this is more common with work PCs they use the camera for things like SecureCX class tools though, but it can happen with consumer apps too - the exception seems to be the camera effects as it's a filter. Test in the camera app and a few others. If it's black in all apps and it's not covered by a shutter or SureShutter isn’t enabled all the time in BIOS, the module failed unless the module is fine and they put the shutter on the bezel vs on the module and that is bad. Replacement on these is kind of a pain as they use pull adhesive on these units you need to replace, so unless you can work the module out without pulling the LCD, you will need to dismount the LCD.

If you see this the module is dead:

SM can be found here: Pdf 12607223 En US 1