MS generic webcam driver from 2006 > awful quality

Hi forum,

After many more attempts since my last post here trying to install W11, I finally succeeded. Hurrah!!! Hurrah??? Well, maybe...

For the friendly people here who spent time trying to help me, I do owe the solution to my problem. I had been trying with 5-10GB more than the announced free disk space mentioned by Microsoft to enable an install of W11, but it always broke off (sometimes at 95% install). What worked was freeing up my disk space to more than double what MS mentioned. Call it the luck of a layman, who doesn't accept failure... (I am no IT-geek!).

My current problem (Acer A517-51G):
I only sporadically used my (integrated) webcam before, but I will need it regularly now. And the quality is just AWFUL! Nothing is sharp, at no matter what distance (I won't even mention what it does with artificial light, even with 2 lamps behind the screen...). It quite resembles what this user is saying: Web cam driver on Acer Aspire 7 A715-71G missing - Acer Community

I found out that W11 (installed in July 2025) seems to make my webcam work on a generic driver dating back to 21 June 2006!
Device mgr, informs me: Manufacturer: Microsoft. Device installed 12-Jul-2025. Information: "Device USB\VID_0408&PID_A060&MI_00\6&391c16c1&0&0000 requires further installation."
I found out that my webcam must be from Quanta Computer Inc. But I could find no driver anywhere.
I did find this (don't know if it's helpful): Quanta Computer, Inc. HD Webcam - h-node.org
I did install OBS (in an attempt to get rid of the flickering/lag when using blurring or a virtual camera). But since the camera itself isn't working to its optimum, OBS gives the same non-focused image.

Is there any way I can make this webcam work the way it was intended? A driver update from Quanta/MS, a substitute driver, some app?

Thank you in advance for your suggestions!

Judiver

@Judiver

The first thing I would do is "disable" drivers included in Windows Updates...

This will prevent a Microsoft driver from overwriting and corrupting your installed drivers.
Those MS drivers will still be available under Drivers or Optional Updates, if you ever need them.




Then go to the ACER website and find your camera driver and install it.
If it's not available at the Acer website, you can try using the Hardware ID(s) for your webcam...

They can be found in Device Manager, like so...





This may help...



And this...




I'm not sure, but I believe @Try3 (if available), can help with finding a driver using the Hardware ID.




Then, once all your drivers are happy, "backup" your device drivers...

Go to Acer support site and download camera driver. If there is not one ask for it or where to get it.

Run "dxdiag" and output to a text file, scroll down to find Video Capture Devices, that should give the Manufacture, Hardware ID (you already have that), Driver provider, Driver version.

Appears to Microsoft with a Microsoft driver.

Quanta maybe the manufacturer, but badged apparently to various manufacturers.

The driver date will indeed be 21/06/2006 which is a generic one, there are reasons for that which I have forgotten.

You could try looking in the Microsoft Update Catalog, I cannot find that specific hardware ID.

720p 0.9 Mp camera is not going to give a good image by todays standards. Cheap as chips simple camera.

Doing a so-called clean install loses some system information that was there in the original install, this is particularly relevant to Laptops.

Judiver said:

Device mgr, informs me: Manufacturer: Microsoft. Device installed 12-Jul-2025. Information: "Device USB\VID_0408&PID_A060&MI_00\6&391c16c1&0&0000 requires further installation."

Click to expand...

That is the first line you see in the Events Tab in the Device Manager, just a request. It's the later ones down the list that matter.

Helmut said:

The driver date will indeed be 21/06/2006 which is a generic one, there are reasons for that which I have forgotten.

Click to expand...

I do not see a dedicated Cam driver on the Acer site.

Hi Ghot, Helmut and OAT,

Thank you for your reactions.

The Acer site was my first place to try to find a driver. But there is no separate driver for a webcam there, as OAT found out too. I rang Acer today. The lady informed me that there are no ACER drivers. It is Intel, plug&play. She told me to install the Intel Driver & Support Assistant and look for I/O and chipset. The Intel assistant didn't find any updates for my system. But it could be in the exclusions? I am sure sure where to look/what to look for.

@Ghot
I made the reg change. I keep a list of those, and it is not the first registry change that I have on my machine that comes from this forum!
I also found Hunt's site yesterday. Find unknown device information and drivers | Device Hunt.
Do I need to send a direct message to Try3 for his/her help?

@Helmut
I run the dxdiag, but I am not sure if I should include an image of that here (for security reasons, it states "fingerprint"...).
I've learnt in the meantime that 720p is not top quality. My laptop isn't, and it is from 2019. Things must have evolved rapidly in this area during Covid19... But 720p is not that bad if just for videoconferencing. The image of my webcam is just not focussed and there is flickering. That could never have been what it was when this product came out of the factory. Especially the mention that my webcam "requires further installation" already points to the fact that the device might be working, but not like it should be.

I include some print screens. I deleted the webcam on 22 Nov to try a new reinstall.


I looked at the Microsoft Update Catalog. It found these: Microsoft Update Catalog
A further searching brought me to this page: October 28, 2025—KB5067036 (OS Builds 26200.7019 and 26100.7019) Preview - Microsoft Support
I don't see anything about webcams here.
It is strange it is listed as a USB device, whereas it is an integrated webcam. And yeah, "clean" was a bit too clean... W11 rubbed the vernish off.

@ OAT
This info about the date is interesting. So it is a deliberately "prehistoric" phony date. Well, in my humble vision "it does not all work out", because if there is no specific driver, MS apparently picks it one its thinks is best, overriding the original which was more specific designed to pilote my hardware.

I don't know where to go from here. I am not sure in what kind of software the original drivers were included and if it would be wise/without risk to go back to an older set (including drivers for other -not specifically mentioned- hardware). That being said, ACER never updated any of the drivers. The newest driver there is from 2019, the year I bought my laptop... Like for instance downloading one of these (from Acer, for my SNID):


Thanks again,
Judiver

Judiver said:

Do I need to send a direct message to Try3 for his/her help?

Click to expand...

No, he'll see that I mentioned him.
He may have holiday things going on?

Judiver said:

Hi Ghot, Helmut and OAT,

Thank you for your reactions.

Click to expand...

Hi,
Your Aspire laptop was made available for sale in 2017, meaning it was built before that.
I understand it might still feel newish to you but cameras have improved substantially in what seems to be a short time.
Have you considered a USB add-on?

Judiver said:

I found out that W11 (installed in July 2025) seems to make my webcam work on a generic driver dating back to 21 June 2006!

Click to expand...

All Microsoft drivers are dated 21 June 2006, for a very good reason.....

The dates on all Windows drivers are set to June 21, 2006. The version number increases over time, but the timestamp stays put....

....Suppose that the timestamp on the driver matched the build release date. And suppose you had a custom driver provided by the manufacturer. When you installed a new build, the driver provided by Windows will have a newer timestamp than the one provided by the manufacturer. Result: When you install a new build, all your manufacturer-provided drivers get replaced by the Windows drivers. Oops.

Intentionally backdating the drivers avoids this problem....

Click to expand...

And why that particular date? Zac Bowden explained on Reddit.

Zac said:

(MS Dev here) There's a very good reason for that, and it has nothing to do with the age of the driver or anything.

Every driver we ship has the Vista RTM date, regardless of when it was last updated (we update the version number, which is the next tiebreaker if the date is the same). Since only drivers as far back as Vista are compatible with new versions of Windows, every driver should have a date newer than Vista RTM, preserving the driver you installed as the best ranked driver.

Click to expand...

Though usually the camera driver is separate, it's also possible that Acer included the camera driver in their chipset driver package and Microsoft saw the old camera driver as incompatible so the generic driver was installed.

Hi Ghot, Bree and Glasskuter,

@Ghot
Yes, I do understand that (built 2017 and webcam development).
But it is a pity now that I prolonged the life of my laptop a bit by installing W11, the webcam doesn't work as it should.
I may have a look at a USB add-on. It always is a trade off: invest in something or buy new pc that avoids separate investments for old equipment.

In any case I don't like the fact that you never have eye contact with a webcam. As I understand it there are now ways to improve that (a bit): webcam with an arm (and tiny camera) in front of your screen, or nearing/faking it by means of AI. But both methods, no doubt, will be a substantial investment. But a new laptop wouldn't have either, so it wouldn't be an investment that gets superfluous that quickly.

@glasskuter
I've been thinking about that possibility (why does MS install a driver?). My laptop has had 0 problems with W11, at least not that I noticed, except for this webcam. I've come across people, however, whose webcam wasn't working after upgrading (black screen), so maybe MS put a remedy in one of their updates by means of a generic driver? I didn't experience any malfunctioning, but there can be a reason for that. When I finally succeeded in installing W11 (I've been trying at several occasion in a period of over a year...) the generic driver might in the meantime have been added to a MS update. So, I may jumped "over" any malfunctioning because of my late W11 install. Just a theory...

Judiver said:

I don't like the fact that you never have eye contact with a webcam. As I understand it there are now ways to improve that (a bit): webcam with an arm (and tiny camera) in front of your screen, or nearing/faking it by means of AI. But both methods, no doubt, will be a substantial investment. But a new laptop wouldn't have either....

Click to expand...

Any laptop with an NPU and 24H2/25H2 can do that, it's called Windows Studio Effects. I have it on one of my machines, a Dell Latitude 5550 from June 2024.




---edit---

Oh, and the camera's driver is dated 21 June 2006

You have lost the OEM*.INF file which contains the OEM information and installs drivers required for your camera. You have the generic USBVIDEO.INF

The only way I know of getting back that OEM*.INF file plus driver files is to extract from a Backup image you have made, or from the Manufacturers Recovery Media, the latter very old by now if still available.

Judiver said:

The image of my webcam is just not focussed

Click to expand...

These Laptop webcams as I say are simple fixed focus, more recent ones may have facial recognition and such things.

Judiver said:

maybe MS put a remedy in one of their updates by means of a generic driver?

Click to expand...

The generic USBVIDEO driver has been there for decades.

Judiver said:

It is strange it is listed as a USB device, whereas it is an integrated webcam.

Click to expand...

Not at all, virtually all Laptop webcams are USB.

Bree, I don't have Windows Studio Effects.

Judiver said:

Bree, I don't have Windows Studio Effects.

Click to expand...

No, you won't. Your Acer Aspire has an 8th gen Intel Core i7. The first Intel processors with an NPU (required for AI processes like Studio Effects) was the Intel Core Ultra 100 series, launched in late 2023. I was merely illustrating that by now there are quite a few affordable AI-capable laptops, both new and on the second hand market.

Judiver said:

Bree, I don't have Windows Studio Effects.

Click to expand...

@Bree stated : Any laptop with an NPU and 24H2/25H2, I don't think your system meets that criteria.

@Bree
Most likely not. Acer didn't check the requirements for W11 for this laptop. But MS offered the upgrade because it fitted the requirements for W11. But it is very likely that newer features won't work on the old hardware. That is a real pity.

Now that you learnt me that newer pc's have eye contact possibility, virtual background (etc.), that makes buying an external device a bit of an avoidable expense if in a year or so I will replace this laptop.

@Helmut,
I still do have a backup image dated 6 July 2025 (so 6 days before W11 install).
I also have a back-up of my drivers (probably done via dism, export?) of the same date.
I have no idea which of these files would have the webcam info though... and if I do know the file, it would not be for the webcam only.

Judiver said:

Now that you learnt me that newer pc's have eye contact possibility, virtual background (etc.), that makes buying an external device a bit of an avoidable expense if in a year or so I will replace this laptop.

Click to expand...

There are now three classes of Windows 11 compatible laptops, a standard PC, an AI PC, and a Copilot+ PC. The functions Windows makes available depend on which class of PC it's installed on.

Bree said:

To be an 'AI PC' it must have an NPU. If that is capable of 40+MIPS then it is a 'Copilot+ AI PC', less than that it is 'just' an AI PC. No NPU, it's just a PC. Certain features depend on it being an AI PC, while features like Recall require it to be Copilot+.

Windows 24H2/25H2 can install and run on any of them. What you get depends on the class of PC......

An AI PC (even if below Copilot+ specs) has some extra functions if an NPU is present, Windows Studio Effects for example....

....They're just missing on a PC without an NPU, that's all. Everything else in 24H2/25H2 works on any PC.

Click to expand...

Bree said:

...Core Ultra 9 185H has an NPU, making it an AI PC, one step below being a Copilot+ PC. It can do some AI functions, but not the full set. For Copilot+ you need an NPU with 40+ MIPS. The Core Ultra 2**V series has that, the Core Ultra 1** series NPU is 11 MIPS.

Click to expand...

Bree said:

To be a Copilot+PC it requires an NPU capable of more than 40 TOPS.

The only processors that meet those specs are the Arm-based Snapdragon Elite X+, AMD Ryzen AI 300 series, and Intel Core Ultra 200V series.

Click to expand...

Recap:
As said, in the past I've been very rarely using my webcam. So maybe the quality always has been awful? And maybe this 21-Jun-2006 driver always has been there? But if that were the case, the "Device USB\VID_0408&PID_A060&MI_00\6&391c16c1&0&0000 requires further installation" is strange.

I have a back-up of my drivers from just before upgrading to W11, but I don't know what of that to (re)install (the chipset?). There apparently never has been an original separate driver and I thus will be forced to reinstall other old drivers with it also. I could risk that other things won't work properly. Also, it is not said that the webcam then would be better, of even working... This 21-Jun-2006 driver could 1) simply always have been there 2) have been put there with the upgrade to W11 because the old one wouldn't work with W11, or 3) there because there was no driver listed...

So, options:
1. Accept the bad quality of my webcam and look for eye contact software that will work on my machine, possibly/hopefully also improving some quality although limited by the current image that my webcam produces.
2. Look for a separate webcam to put on my old laptop. And if I want eye contact, then it will not be the cheapest webcam that is out there.
3. Buy new pc, which will be a considerable expense especially if I want the same optional stuff (mini 17" screen, extra 1TB space etc.) plus good webcam.

Nah, none of these options please me. I am not happy!

Everyone who reacted: thanks for trying to help.
I always learn stuff here, so even without a solution that pleases me, your help never is in vain!

The lesson to be learned is do not do a so-called clean install on your Laptop particularly with limited experience.

Helmut,

I have a better lesson: If you don't try, you don't learn.
You, or anybody here, wouldn't have gained any experience if you hadn't tried anything.

W11 was proposed, my system met all the requirements, but it didn't work. Acer was no help: they told me it wasn't tested for W11.
It leaves a simple user with a machine that stays on W10, with soon no more security updates.
I've been very careful with this upgrade, learning a lot along the way.
I have a back-up of the drivers and an image backup, both from just before the upgrade. But I don't see how they are useful. No separate driver.

I don't even think it was a clean install, now that I think of it (I tried so many things, for over more than a year). But I did have a windows.old file which I deleted a month ago or so, because all seemed to be working fine since July. It just took up space and I wouldn't go back to W10 anyway. So it most likely was not a clean install after all.

I, therefore, don't see what I could have done differently, and why my actions should be the lesson you speak of. You are being quite harsh. In fact you are saying: you have limited experience, do not touch anything, don't try, don't learn.