Acer Aspire 4530 Crystal Eye Webcam Fix

Finally! After almost 2 years of looking for a fix for my Acer Crystal Eye Webcam - from searching and downloading  drivers, changing OS, re-installing, reformatting, etc., etc., etc. All it needed was a simple check of the wire that goes through the hinge to and from the main board of the laptop! 

Acer Aspire 4530

Acer has never disclosed this information on their website and had always maintained a position that we had to download the correct driver (Suyin/Bison) for whatever operating system we were using. I have gone through changing from Vista to XP and vice-versa so many times I've lost count. I've tried Home, Premium, Professional, Ultimate, 32-bit, 64-bit, blah blah blah and would have the webcam work for awhile then it reverts back to the same problem - A grey or black screen!

Here is a very simple fix that you can do yourself. Don't worry, I've provided some screenshots/pics with this walk-through. Again, just make sure you have the correct webcam driver for your laptop.

Let's start with the tools you'll be needing and they're only two of them... a small Philips screwdriver and a flathead screwdriver. That's all!

Now, what you will need to do is remove the front panel that's located just above your keyboard.

To do this, you will need to take out six screws at the back of your laptop (three of which are inside the battery enclosure).

                             

Now go back to the front the front of your laptop and slowly unhinge the front panel. You can use a small flathead screwdriver to pop it out/up. 










You will see to two wires leading/going through the hinges. The one on the left side is for your Wi-Lan and on the right is the wire for your webcam. All you need to do is make sure that they are not taut or constricted. Just push the wires in so that they have enough slack every time you open or adjust your screen/lcd. 

Before putting back the front panel, try moving your screen forward and backwards to see if the wires are not taut or have enough slack. Once you're satisfied with it, put the front panel back in, put all the six screws back in (no more, no less) and lastly, your battery. That's it, you're done!

Turn your laptop back on and make sure that you engage your wi-fi button as well by depressing it so that it lights up. ENJOY!