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How to Cut Down the Power to the Laptop Webcam?

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Danielsan
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How to Cut Down the Power to the Laptop Webcam?

#1 Post by Danielsan »

Hi folks,

my son made fall down the laptop againat school but this time the laptop came out with serious consequences.

Mysteriously the IR camera which nobody has known its existence till today is constantly on, and it is literally burning the chassis. Besides being risky for him or other kids, this will eventually damage the screen; unfortunately I found many guides that disable the webcam but those don't actually turn off the IR Camera since the red led is constantly active.

What I am trying to do is literally to cut the power through some kernel command, if does exist a method to cut down the power to the USB device please let me know! I am pretty sure this excessive temperature is also a symptom of high power usage which meas more power draining and lesser time battery available.

Code: Select all

# dmesg | grep Webcam
[    1.688739] usb 1-5: Product: HD Webcam
[    4.054430] uvcvideo: Found UVC 1.50 device HD Webcam (04f2:b68b)
[    4.128355] input: HD Webcam: HD Webcam as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:08.1/0000:04:00.3/usb1/1-5/1-5:1.0/input/input16
[    4.132094] uvcvideo: Found UVC 1.50 device HD Webcam (04f2:b68b)
[    4.149313] input: HD Webcam: IR Camera as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:08.1/0000:04:00.3/usb1/1-5/1-5:1.2/input/input17
Thanks,

D.

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Re: How to Cut Down the Power to the Laptop Webcam?

#2 Post by Hallvor »

A shot in the dark, but would TLP with USB autosuspend do the trick?
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Re: How to Cut Down the Power to the Laptop Webcam?

#3 Post by Danielsan »

Thanks! This is worth to try!

Actually TLP is already installed, maybe it has enough granular control to disable the webcam, I'll definitely look into it!

🤝

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Re: How to Cut Down the Power to the Laptop Webcam?

#4 Post by Hallvor »

Forgot: There may also be a BIOS setting for disabling the internal webcam.
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Re: How to Cut Down the Power to the Laptop Webcam?

#5 Post by undesign »

...or open the laptop and unplug the cam cable from the motherboard.

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Re: How to Cut Down the Power to the Laptop Webcam?

#6 Post by Danielsan »

TLP disables the webcam but doesn't cut the energy.

Unfortunately there isn't any bios setup for this, so I tried to unplug the camera but the cable is bonded with cable of the screen; this means that my only option is to cut the cable but without schematics is a risk because I may cut the wrong ones... :(

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Re: How to Cut Down the Power to the Laptop Webcam?

#7 Post by oswaldkelso »

I recall years back using my Sony Ericsson K750i & k810 to control mplayer. (Just looked they're still in the draw) so switching on and off the IR with a mobile should be straight forward.
https://lirc.org/

I'm not sure what TLP is but it strikes me that if both the webcam and the screen being wired together plus the fact you've disabled the cam that it issue might be with the screen. I'd be inclined to put the webcam back on and reduce or cut the power to the screen to see if the over heating is affected.
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Re: How to Cut Down the Power to the Laptop Webcam?

#8 Post by stevepusser »

I have the feeling that having a webcam powered on should not pose a fire danger, so there's obviously some other damage that really needs to be addressed instead of duct-taped.
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Re: How to Cut Down the Power to the Laptop Webcam?

#9 Post by Danielsan »

This laptop has this infrared camera that makes the lid boiling, it has already melted the plastic that covers it. The big issues is the battery life that is drop down around 30%. I had to requested to the school a laptop since "mine" got broken because another student.

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Re: How to Cut Down the Power to the Laptop Webcam?

#10 Post by p.H »

stevepusser wrote: 2021-12-10 23:42 I have the feeling that having a webcam powered on should not pose a fire danger, so there's obviously some other damage that really needs to be addressed instead of duct-taped.
I fully agree.

But you can try this to disable a USB device this way :

Code: Select all

lsusb # show bus number X and device number Y for the device
echo 1 > /sys/bus/usb/devices/X-Y/remove
lsusb # should not show the device any more
However I am not sure it cuts power supply to the device.

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Re: How to Cut Down the Power to the Laptop Webcam?

#11 Post by LE_746F6D617A7A69 »

Danielsan wrote: 2021-12-13 03:28 (..) it has already melted the plastic that covers it.
This means that the IR camera has an internal shortcut in its power section - this cannot be solved by any software tricks - if You want to keep this laptop alive, I would suggest to cut the power physically (disconnecting/cutting the cables) OR to replace the camera.
Such solution requires to disassemble the lid and/or the laptop as a whole - if You don't have an experience in doing such things, find someone who can do this for You.

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Re: How to Cut Down the Power to the Laptop Webcam?

#12 Post by clementishutin »

One can also activate/deactivate the webcam.
The technique for enabling and disabling the camera in distributions that include the directory is nearly identical. To open a run box, hold down the Super or Windows key and press R. To launch a terminal, press and hold Ctrl, Alt, and T, or select Terminal from the System Tools menu in the Dash, Whisker, or KDE pop-up. For a quick Application Menu line, Ubuntu users can type terminal in the Dash search box or hold down alt and F2.webcam.

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Re: How to Cut Down the Power to the Laptop Webcam?

#13 Post by canci »

clementishutin wrote: 2021-12-20 10:47 One can also activate/deactivate the webcam.
The technique for enabling and disabling the camera in distributions that include the directory is nearly identical. To open a run box, hold down the Super or Windows key and press R. To launch a terminal, press and hold Ctrl, Alt, and T, or select Terminal from the System Tools menu in the Dash, Whisker, or KDE pop-up. For a quick Application Menu line, Ubuntu users can type terminal in the Dash search box or hold down alt and F2.webcam.
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Re: How to Cut Down the Power to the Laptop Webcam?

#14 Post by clementishutin »

An award is an award none the less.

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Re: How to Cut Down the Power to the Laptop Webcam?

#15 Post by Danielsan »

LE_746F6D617A7A69 wrote: 2021-12-14 21:26
Danielsan wrote: 2021-12-13 03:28 (..) it has already melted the plastic that covers it.
This means that the IR camera has an internal shortcut in its power section - this cannot be solved by any software tricks - if You want to keep this laptop alive, I would suggest to cut the power physically (disconnecting/cutting the cables) OR to replace the camera.
Such solution requires to disassemble the lid and/or the laptop as a whole - if You don't have an experience in doing such things, find someone who can do this for You.

Regards.
This actually makes totally sense, the customer support replied me to get pictures but after I sent those to them I haven't received any further reply yet... :(

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Re: How to Cut Down the Power to the Laptop Webcam?

#16 Post by LE_746F6D617A7A69 »

Danielsan wrote: 2021-12-29 06:12 (...) the customer support replied me to get pictures but after I sent those to them I haven't received any further reply yet... :(
That's how customer support services (helpdesk) works -> they are only able to confirm that they've received the message, and the standard reply is: "all our professionals are working on Your problem" -> of course this is just bullshit: helpdesk just don' give a sh.it about Your problems and that "professionals" simply don't know about it -> that's how it works, sorry.

Find someone who is repairing the laptops - such man will be able to solve this problem in max 3hrs, unless You will demand to replace the camera -> then it depends on how fast the camera can be delivered.

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Re: How to Cut Down the Power to the Laptop Webcam?

#17 Post by Danielsan »

Anyway eventually the IR camera melted down alone and the problem disappeared! 🙄

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