Why does my webcam turn on when I play ED?

Phazon Xenomorph

Phazon Xenomorph
Clearly the Thargoids are watching you. They are just waiting for the right moment.

In all seriousness though, that sounds more like a bug of some kind. Hardware that isn't actually used to run the computer or game shouldn't be randomly turning itself on like a webcam.
 

5AnaHalfHatsize

5AnaHalfHatsize
Phazon Xenomorph said:
Clearly the Thargoids are watching you. They are just waiting for the right moment.

In all seriousness though, that sounds more like a bug of some kind. Hardware that isn't actually used to run the computer or game shouldn't be randomly turning itself on like a webcam.
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I thought maybe it's trying to activate the mic for the comms, but even that's a bit creepy if I'm not actually using it.

If no-one else is seeing it then I'll raise a ticket.
 

Watcher

W
I've noticed this too.
I assume that it is turning on to pick up sound for potential voice chat since my web cam is also my mic.
If not then I'm not sure why and it probably shouldn't.. Quite possibly it shouldn't anyway until you tell it to.
 

tomeagles

tomeagles
5AnaHalfHatsize said:
And is there any way to stop it doing it?

It makes me a little paranoid.

<straps on tin-foil hat>
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In all probability if you have an NVidea card installed then you have shadow play running in the background and it auto activates when in a 3d game, that or possibly you have voice coms on and its selectting the mic on the webcam if yours has one.
 

Jack Schitt

Jack Schitt
Camera-based head tracker? Steam overlay? GeForce Experience? Does the webcam have a microphone built it? Every time I update GeForce Experience it insists on reenabling my microphone for streaming services that I never use. I'd check any third party software that's looking for games launching. It's very unlikely to be ED itself doing this, unless it's turning on the webcam microphone for in-game comms.
 
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5AnaHalfHatsize

5AnaHalfHatsize
Thanks for the replies!

No Headtracking, no voicecomms installed and I'm using an AMD card.

It's 100% Elite that's doing it, switches on when I start the game, turns off when I close it - every time.

I'm reasonably sure it's something to do with voice comms, but I wish I could turn it off in the options as I rarely use that feature - and if I do I use a headset, not the webcam mic.
 

timbero

timbero
Probably turning on the microphone in the webcam for use.

Unplug the webcam when not using, you shouldn't have it plugged in anways.

Haven't you seen Snowden? :S
 

Voz

Voz
5AnaHalfHatsize said:
It's 100% Elite that's doing it, switches on when I start the game, turns off when I close it - every time.
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That's still an assumption. I would still think it's more likely to be tomeagles/Jack Schitt that are right in that GeForce Experience detects the game has started and then switches on the microphone/camera to use with ShadowPlay.
 

Thetele

T
5AnaHalfHatsize said:
Thanks for the replies!

No Headtracking, no voicecomms installed and I'm using an AMD card.

It's 100% Elite that's doing it, switches on when I start the game, turns off when I close it - every time.

I'm reasonably sure it's something to do with voice comms, but I wish I could turn it off in the options as I rarely use that feature - and if I do I use a headset, not the webcam mic.
Click to expand...

Go to windows options, security, then camera and turn of the option to allow apps to use camera then do same for the mic. That stopped some other stuff turning mic/web cam on on my laptop. Tho i have never installed/played elite on that laptop (no gpu just intel hd graphics) so no idea if it works for elite.
 

dayrth

Volunteer Moderator
dayrth
Pretty sure it shouldn't. Mine certainly doesn't. I would get in touch with support, but in the meantime a postit over the lense might make you feel more comfortable. (I would also run a virus scan just to be sure).
 

MTBFritz

MTBFritz
either a bug or malware while malware being my first thought. If it keeps activating after you disable it manually I d definatly invest in some good virus scanner and think of people having access to my computer. Sorry for the worries.
 

DocPossible

DocPossible
Voz said:
That's still an assumption. I would still think it's more likely to be tomeagles/Jack Schitt that are right in that GeForce Experience detects the game has started and then switches on the microphone/camera to use with ShadowPlay.
Click to expand...

And yet he stated, literally in the line above the one you quoted, that he was using an AMD card...
 

5AnaHalfHatsize

5AnaHalfHatsize
Thetele said:
Go to windows options, security, then camera and turn of the option to allow apps to use camera then do same for the mic. That stopped some other stuff turning mic/web cam on on my laptop. Tho i have never installed/played elite on that laptop (no gpu just intel hd graphics) so no idea if it works for elite.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I thought you were on to something there! But didn't work :( . Looks like it's only windows "store" apps that setting works for. Which seems a bit pointless really...
 

kmwmtd

K
5AnaHalfHatsize said:
Thanks, I thought you were on to something there! But didn't work :( . Looks like it's only windows "store" apps that setting works for. Which seems a bit pointless really...
Click to expand...

Try disabling the webcam with device manager. Of course, this is overkill, and will be annoying if you actually use the webcam for other things.
 
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