MacBook Pro webcam (iSight) not working ~ any ideas?

[frankenhut]

I have already performed reboot, a SMC reset and the iSight icon is not in my applications folder. Is my only option going to a Mac dealer and having them work on it?

[Turboladdade]

iSight is just Apple's name for the camera itself. At the time it was introduced it was (and still is) considerably higher quality than the majority of so-called "webcams" out there.

You have to use another application like iChat, Skype, Photo Booth, Face Time for Mac, or even ChatRoulette (if you're brave) to use iSight camera. There is no "iSight" application.

[frankenhut]

My isight camera is not recognized in any program/application~ I was following a troubleshoot guide that told me to look for an isight icon in the applications folder. I don't know how to convince the computer to see the hardware that I am looking at it right now. It did work at one time, I have used skype video and photo booth in the past (more than a year ago). Any ideas on how to access settings or preferences to see if I can troubleshoot it myself?

[Turboladdade]

Okay, I don't know what troubleshooting guide told you to look for an iSight icon in your application folder. Can you retrieve that again? And what do you see when you launch Skype? Does it say anything like an error or "camera not found" or something?

Have you gone through this list? http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2090

[frankenhut]

I have gone through that list~ it is exactly where I was told to go to find the icon (in Aplications under utilities and USB header), and the iSight icon was not found; I did the SMC reset and STILL the video icon is grayed out when I attempt to make a video call on SKYPE and when I open Photobooth a video source indicator is Xed out.. Oh, hey THANKS for attempting to help me. Do you know if there is anything else I can do?

[Turboladdade]

I have gone through that list~ it is exactly where I was told to go to find the icon (in Aplications under utilities and USB header), and the iSight icon was not found

Okay well you described it completely inaccurately:

I was following a troubleshoot guide that told me to look for an isight icon in the applications folder

What you should have said is your iSight isn't showing up in System Profiler. You're not "looking for an icon in the Applications folder" - in fact there won't even be an icon at all. That description doesn't make any sense.

What you're looking for is this:

I did the SMC reset and STILL the video icon is grayed out when I attempt to make a video call on SKYPE and when I open Photobooth a video source indicator is Xed out...

Yeah it wouldn't if System Profiler doesn't see it.

Oh, hey THANKS for attempting to help me. Do you know if there is anything else I can do?

If System Profiler doesn't see your iSight then you probably have some sort of hardware problem going on, which probably won't be fixable by yourself. You can try unplugging ALL external devices from your computer and see if that helps. You can also install a fresh copy of Mac OS X on an external hard drive or something and see if it still doesn't show up in System Profiler (in which case it's definitely a hardware problem - if it does show up we can still try other things) or you can just take it to an Apple Store Genius Bar and see what they say.