Old Surface Pro X: camera stops working if date > May 23, 2023

[sounds]

Summary

The Surface Pro X is long past its warranty expiration, but as one of Microsoft's flagship Arm devices, this is kind of a black eye for them.

 

Quotes

Quote

The Verge has confirmed the camera issue on a Surface Pro X unit, with Windows throwing up a “0xA00F4271<MediaCaptureFailedEvent> (0x80004005)” error when you attempt to use the camera app.

It’s not immediately clear what has caused these camera issues, but there is a workaround that suggests the problem could be related to an expired security certificate in Windows.

 

Surface Pro X owners have spotted that they can roll their date back to May 22nd, and the camera works again. The workaround might be effective, but rolling the system date back can cause issues with authentication to certain websites and services, so this is only a temporary fix until Microsoft addresses the root cause.

 

My thoughts

Whether it's a certificate that expired or something more complicated, I don't think Microsoft is intentionally disabling their devices.

 

But this definitely makes me a lot more wary about using anything from them.

 

Sources

https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/24/23735639/microsoft-surface-pro-x-camera-not-working-error-fix

https://www.reddit.com/r/surfaceprox/comments/13pv18w/camera_stopped_working_today_may_23rd_2023

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/forum/all/cameras-are-not-working-on-my-surface-pro-x-device/42617ab5-55b0-4fc3-a2b8-65e89f40cbb1

[williamcll]

Would this happen if linux is installed instead?

[soldier_ph]

Oh my school is gonna have a lot of fun with that, they recently upgraded all of the Teachers old Surface devices (don't know which model they had) which were running Win 10 with brand new Surface Pro X's which are now running Win 11. Yeah just never buy any Hardware from MS.

[Arika]

Sounds like a plus to me!

[Sauron]

6 hours ago, williamcll said:

Would this happen if linux is installed instead?

linux aside I wonder if this also happens with other apps that use the camera, i.e. the browser

12 hours ago, sounds said:

 

https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/24/23735639/microsoft-surface-pro-x-camera-not-working-error-fix

The post here says that a system reset solves the issue so it's most likely something wrong with the actual app or windows' driver and not the camera firmware