On Tuesday, reports of camera failures began to emerge on online forums like the Microsoft Community and Reddit. The information indicated failures of both the front and back cameras on the tablet-laptop hybrids, which hindered the functionality of apps like Zoom and Windows Hello face recognition.
The error code reported; “0xA00F4271<MediaCaptureFailedEvent> (0x80004005)”. Microsoft is already aware of the issues and is working on it.
The @MicrosoftHelps account on Twitter responded to resolution requests with “…Thank you for informing us of your concern. We understand that your device’s Windows Hello and camera have stopped working. We know how important it is to settle this. We are here to help you. We sent you a DM to maximize the characters’ usage.”
Confused?
The last sentence from that tweet is confusing, but they know about the camera failures. If it is a security certificate issue, an update will fix it eventually. In this case, you can’t do the standard troubleshooting while you wait, so where does that leave you?
Go to your device’s Date and Time Settings and turn off the automatic time setting. That will allow you to adjust the time to sometime before May 23, 2023. Beware the risks, though, since tampering with time may break other apps and cause them to malfunction.
Managed environment users might not be able to ‘time travel’
Chrome, for instance, might send you error messages like “NET::ERR_CERT_DATE_INVALID,” “Your clock is behind,” or “Your clock is ahead.” Other Chromium-based browsers may have the same problem.
It is also worth noting that Windows users in managed environments may be unable to change the time, given that there are specific policy settings for controlling time changes.
According to Strategy Analytics, Microsoft sold 1.9 million tablets in 2021. Many of those users are out there now, waiting for a fix.
Also read: Microsoft PowerToys now runs natively on Surface Pro X and Arm PCs
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