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dawindmg08

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 25, 2008
183
79
Los Angeles
I've been using an old USB camera (ZOOM Q4) as a webcam with my MacBook Pro 2019 16" (it's positioned above my external monitor since my Mac is low and off-center on my desk). Didn't need drivers (other than for the audio) and the system recognized it when it was plugged in. I've been using it with Zoom, OBS, Quicktime, etc. Worked under Catalina and I feel like it was working fine under Big Sur 11.0.1.

UNTIL:

I moved and remounted it last week onto a swing arm and I guess I had it turned on while I did it, and then I might've unplugged it while it was on too. Now my system totally hates the Q4 camera. I turn it on and try to select it in Zoom but it just beachballs before giving me a blank screen. In Quicktime player if I try to choose it for a Movie Recording it says "This operation could not be completed." Occasionally if I switch out USB cables or ports (I'm running it through a CalDigit TS3+ thunderbolt dock but I've also tried plugging into the USBC ports directly with an adapter) it does work. Last night it worked successfully after a restart but this morning it stopped again when I joined a Zoom meeting.

I'm used to hot-swapping peripherals all the time and I'm not sure what I could have screwed up by unplugging it before. The camera still recognizes that it's plugged in and gets power, so it's not like I burned out the USB port. When I check Console I see this error message pop up when I try to initiate the QT recording:

CMIOHardware.cpp:379:CMIOObjectGetPropertyData Error: 560947818, failed

Not sure what else I can try: I'll be updating to 11.1 later so maybe that will fix it. But if not I'd love any suggestions!

TIA,
D

MBP 2019 16" 64GB 1 TB Radeon 5500M 8 GB, CalDigit TS3+ dock, Zoom Q4 camera
 
UPDATE –- installed 11.1 last night, and right off the bat I was able to use the Q4 Cam. But then I installed google Sync and restarted and now the camera is back to being cranky. It just seems so random; every other restart it seems to work but it's so inconsistent I can't rely on it.
 
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