iSight camera no longer working in late 2008 aluminum Mackbook, Mavericks 19.9.2

[brasskey]

I have a late 2008 aluminum Macbook running OSX 19.9.2. I just tried to make a FaceTime call, but the Facetime screen says, "No Camera Available. To use FaceTime, connect a camera". It worked as recently as last week and I haven't updated the software since it last worked.

I googled the issue a bit and came across a potential solution by typing in 'sudo killall VDCAssistant' into Terminal. But, when I do that, Terminal returns, 'No matching processes were found'.

Does that mean that I'm probably stuck with a hardware issue (bad camera) or are there some other things I can try? I have restarted and that didn't help.

 

[BrettApple]

If you haven't already, give it a SMC and PRAM reset. I've had my camera not work and reset the SMC and it came back just fine. Same thing with WiFi.

If that doesn't work, it is possible, though not super likely, that the cable may have come loose over the years. The easy side is the connection to the logic board:

The other end though, much more difficult to get to and it involves heat guns, adhesive, and suction cups

It can be replaced using this guide on iFixit. But it may be trivial to do so unless you really need it. Otherwise, a simple USB webcam would suffice for much less. Like $20 and you're good

 

[Altemose]

I have a late 2008 aluminum Macbook running OSX 19.9.2. I just tried to make a FaceTime call, but the Facetime screen says, "No Camera Available. To use FaceTime, connect a camera". It worked as recently as last week and I haven't updated the software since it last worked.

I googled the issue a bit and came across a potential solution by typing in 'sudo killall VDCAssistant' into Terminal. But, when I do that, Terminal returns, 'No matching processes were found'.

Does that mean that I'm probably stuck with a hardware issue (bad camera) or are there some other things I can try? I have restarted and that didn't help.

I think Apple Hardware Test would test connection to the camera. Run a quick test.