unable to start camera

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Nov 11, 2008
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so prior to being on venom 4.2, i was on venom 3.xx. i had no problems prior.

i flash 4.2, and had no problems related to the camera not working. i had other problems though, after reflashing 4.2 those problems went away, but now a new problem came up.

after a restart, i can use the camera maybe once, or take one photo. after that, the screen through the camera will be frozen on screen. i can still take pictures, but it will only be off what is on the screen. after closing the camera, or force closing it,upon trying to open the camera app again, it barely loads, then force closes automatically and i get an "unable to start camera" bubble on screen. i can see only the grid outline of the camera, off center and such very briefly ontop of my wallpaper.

i can do a reset on my phone, and resume taking pictures, sometimes i am fine to continue, other times its the same problem. this is a very common recurring problem for me.

looking at my apps, i see 2 cameras installed, one is the new 5.0, and the other is the old 4.xx camera. i have frozen the 4.xx camera before through titanium, and it doesnt fix it. should i uninstall the 4.xx camera altogether?

subsequent reflashing of this rom doesnt fix this issue. and i dont know what else to do rather than reflashing the rom from a blank slate. previous reflashings have been on top of the current rom.
i would rather not have to start new as this phone has crappy amoint of space, and i cannot back up all my apps and settings.

i dont know if it is kernel related. prior to 4.2 i was using elemental x, after 4.2 i switched to beastmode since i wasnt soff.
is there perhaps a way i can manually start the camera through root browser?
 

Heisenberg

Retired Forum Moderator
Jun 29, 2011
27,180
18,633
Knocking on your door
OnePlus 9 Pro
If you've got both versions of camera in your app drawer I'm guessing you dirty flashed the ROM, which has most likely caused your problems. Clean flash the ROM and see if it fixes your issue. This is why I'm totally against dirty flashing anything.

I don't understand how you don't have space to back up your apps, I have a backup of every app I've ever used and still have tons of space left over. The fact that you mention backing up settings troubles me, restoring system settings after flashing a new ROM will more than likely cause problems for you.

When you're flashing a ROM don't do it the lazy way, do it the right way, perform a full wipe (cache/dalvik cache/factory reset/system) and start clean. It only takes a few minutes to setup your ROM from scratch. Restore your apps but don't restore any system data.

Sent from my Evita
 
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Nov 11, 2008
37
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thanks for the reply.
as suggested, I did a complete reset. wiped the caches, factory reset, and system reset.
installed from scratch. But i am still having the camera issue?
now its just not loading at all. black screen, then close. no error message. and no unable to start message.

could it perhaps be a hardware issue at this point?
without restoring anything, under apps, I still see two instances of the camera app. one at 5.1, and one at 4.2.2. can anyone confirm this is normal?


the only thing out of the ordinary, within the past few months, my phone has been getting crazy hot at times. specifically right below the lens of the rear camera. I was getting this heat from charging, or even certain apps. Definitely attribute that to the age of the phone. as apps that ran smooth when the phone was new, no longer are so.
I dont know if the heat can cause hardware damage?

also, not sure how relevant this is in the context of my situation. but apps that use the camera do not work either when the camera is needed, such as snapchat and instagram.
 
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Heisenberg

Retired Forum Moderator
Jun 29, 2011
27,180
18,633
Knocking on your door
OnePlus 9 Pro
Since the clean flash did you at least end up with only the more recent version of the camera in your app drawer? You could be looking at some kind of hardware malfunction, or even a problem with the ImageSense proprietary chip that is utilised to operate the camera. The fact that the camera works sometimes would suggest that all is not lost. Have you tried flashing an aosp ROM to see if anything changes? I'd suggest trying that, and if that doesn't work you should try running an RUU to see if a completely stock setup will help.

The phone heating up near the camera lens isn't abnormal for this device. The amount that it heats up can change significantly depending on the ROM/kernel that you're running. You should definitely try not to use CPU intensive apps while the device is charging.

Sent from my Evita
 
Nov 11, 2008
37
0
Since the clean flash did you at least end up with only the more recent version of the camera in your app drawer? You could be looking at some kind of hardware malfunction, or even a problem with the ImageSense proprietary chip that is utilised to operate the camera. The fact that the camera works sometimes would suggest that all is not lost. Have you tried flashing an aosp ROM to see if anything changes? I'd suggest trying that, and if that doesn't work you should try running an RUU to see if a completely stock setup will help.

The phone heating up near the camera lens isn't abnormal for this device. The amount that it heats up can change significantly depending on the ROM/kernel that you're running. You should definitely try not to use CPU intensive apps while the device is charging.

Sent from my Evita

no, the clean flash still left both cameras in my "manage apps", i have never seen two camera icons in my app drawer.


as of right now, i cannot get the camera to run in any way. even with a reboot. The only reason I really did the clean reflash, was because the camera wasnt working at all today. I did a bit more digging around, and it seems like this is a fairly common problem for the one x. there seems to be quite a few people, even on stock roms, that cannot seem to remedy this. and a few have chalked it up to a hardware problem, some have been confirmed, and others not so much.


I really dislike flashing this phone. ive encountered so many hiccups and scares(mainly a few soft bricks here and there). I really prefer the "if its not broken, it doesnt need fixing approach" here, granted my camera is shot.
one of the reflashes today was giving me wifi errors with wifi not even turning on. I really want to avoid potentially more problems, unless a fix is deemed more definite. Thank you for all your help timmaaa!

im just in need of a new phone now. so many problems, and so many things the phone can no longer do effectively. random reboots, overheating, battery life, even the charging rate. this phone has become crap. Ive always hated the lack of expandable memory. I really dont know why I didnt choose a different phone over this at the time.

i really like the htc one, but i feel like many of the nuisances in the one X will follow over.
 

Heisenberg

Retired Forum Moderator
Jun 29, 2011
27,180
18,633
Knocking on your door
OnePlus 9 Pro
no, the clean flash still left both cameras in my "manage apps", i have never seen two camera icons in my app drawer.


as of right now, i cannot get the camera to run in any way. even with a reboot. The only reason I really did the clean reflash, was because the camera wasnt working at all today. I did a bit more digging around, and it seems like this is a fairly common problem for the one x. there seems to be quite a few people, even on stock roms, that cannot seem to remedy this. and a few have chalked it up to a hardware problem, some have been confirmed, and others not so much.


I really dislike flashing this phone. ive encountered so many hiccups and scares(mainly a few soft bricks here and there). I really prefer the "if its not broken, it doesnt need fixing approach" here, granted my camera is shot.
one of the reflashes today was giving me wifi errors with wifi not even turning on. I really want to avoid potentially more problems, unless a fix is deemed more definite. Thank you for all your help timmaaa!

im just in need of a new phone now. so many problems, and so many things the phone can no longer do effectively. random reboots, overheating, battery life, even the charging rate. this phone has become crap. Ive always hated the lack of expandable memory. I really dont know why I didnt choose a different phone over this at the time.

i really like the htc one, but i feel like many of the nuisances in the one X will follow over.

There's nothing wrong with this phone. Given the right amount of knowledge and care the thing doesn't skip a beat. Even though there is no such thing as a soft brick (a phone is either bricked or it isn't), whatever it is that people experience in those so called "soft brick" instances is caused by user error 99% of the time. I've seen it time and time again.

Any phone available on the market can experience any amount of issues if it isn't handled correctly. You got unlucky and your camera is most likely shot, but any other problem you've encountered comes with the territory of flashing unofficial firmware and software, it isn't anything wrong with the device itself. These are possibilities you need to be comfortable with if you're going to modify your device.
 
Nov 11, 2008
37
0
Yea, I assumed there were gonna be risks when I rooted my phone. Dont know if any of the issues I had were related to rooting or not.
The soft brick scare I had was due to a flash that went wrong for no apparent reason.

another update on my phone. I noticed my front facing camera has no issues whatsoever. unluckily for me, I cannot even access my camera, to toggle to the front facing camera to even attempt to check it out. Instagram also does not allow me to switch either, it just gives me an error saying it cannot connect to a camera, then closes. snapchat's rear facing camera is just a black screen for me, but it doesnt force close, so I am able to toggle to the front camera, and it works just fine.

is there a setting or something I can modify, for now, so the front facing camera is the default?

my brother's one x recently went out this year too. I am gonna try to salvage his camera, and see if it will fix my problem.

I have not taken apart this phone yet, is the camera soldered or held in with connectors?
 

redpoint73

Inactive Recognized Contributor
Oct 24, 2007
15,254
6,968
I really dislike flashing this phone. ive encountered so many hiccups and scares(mainly a few soft bricks here and there). I really prefer the "if its not broken, it doesnt need fixing approach" here, granted my camera is shot.
one of the reflashes today was giving me wifi errors with wifi not even turning on. I really want to avoid potentially more problems, unless a fix is deemed more definite.

If a couple hiccups and scares are too much for your, then it might be that modding phones is not for you. These types of things happen time to time to even those experienced with flashing ROMs. Occasional setbacks and troubleshooting is just part of the game. If that is too much for you, than don't play.

As timmaaa already mentioned, failure to boot is not the phone's fault; and its almost always a matter of user error and not following the procedures properly.


im just in need of a new phone now. so many problems, and so many things the phone can no longer do effectively. random reboots, overheating, battery life, even the charging rate. this phone has become crap. Ive always hated the lack of expandable memory. I really dont know why I didnt choose a different phone over this at the time.

i really like the htc one, but i feel like many of the nuisances in the one X will follow over.

Random software errors like random rebooting, overheating, etc. are often easily remedied with the proper steps. They are likely not issue with the phone itself, but rather a result of improper steps while flashing the ROMs. I've flashed many ROMs on this device, and have never suffered any such issues that I couldn't solve easily.

As for your other complaints about the phone (lack of expandable memory, why you didn't choose another phone), I don't know why you even posted them, as they are not constructive. Those still on this forum are mostly here because we love the phone and remain loyal to it. Your comments aren't going to help your issue, and will only annoy fans of the device. Better to keep such comments to yourself.

If you hate the phone so much, go buy another one and be done with it. But crying about it isn't going to solve anything.

I would suggest you follow timmaaa's advice, and flash the appropriate RUU to "start over". S-off is highly recommended before RUU, as running certain RUUs with S-on and SuperCID will brick the phone.
 
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vimev

Member
Oct 7, 2010
11
0
Lutsk
I have the same device and the same problem.
It doesn't depends of firmware or kernel or camera app..
I thought it's hardware problem but it is not. Because i was changing the camera module and it doesn't helps((
Don't know what to do with this issue(
 

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    If you've got both versions of camera in your app drawer I'm guessing you dirty flashed the ROM, which has most likely caused your problems. Clean flash the ROM and see if it fixes your issue. This is why I'm totally against dirty flashing anything.

    I don't understand how you don't have space to back up your apps, I have a backup of every app I've ever used and still have tons of space left over. The fact that you mention backing up settings troubles me, restoring system settings after flashing a new ROM will more than likely cause problems for you.

    When you're flashing a ROM don't do it the lazy way, do it the right way, perform a full wipe (cache/dalvik cache/factory reset/system) and start clean. It only takes a few minutes to setup your ROM from scratch. Restore your apps but don't restore any system data.

    Sent from my Evita
    1
    Have you tried an RUU yet like I previously suggested?

    Sent from my Evita
    1
    I really dislike flashing this phone. ive encountered so many hiccups and scares(mainly a few soft bricks here and there). I really prefer the "if its not broken, it doesnt need fixing approach" here, granted my camera is shot.
    one of the reflashes today was giving me wifi errors with wifi not even turning on. I really want to avoid potentially more problems, unless a fix is deemed more definite.

    If a couple hiccups and scares are too much for your, then it might be that modding phones is not for you. These types of things happen time to time to even those experienced with flashing ROMs. Occasional setbacks and troubleshooting is just part of the game. If that is too much for you, than don't play.

    As timmaaa already mentioned, failure to boot is not the phone's fault; and its almost always a matter of user error and not following the procedures properly.


    im just in need of a new phone now. so many problems, and so many things the phone can no longer do effectively. random reboots, overheating, battery life, even the charging rate. this phone has become crap. Ive always hated the lack of expandable memory. I really dont know why I didnt choose a different phone over this at the time.

    i really like the htc one, but i feel like many of the nuisances in the one X will follow over.

    Random software errors like random rebooting, overheating, etc. are often easily remedied with the proper steps. They are likely not issue with the phone itself, but rather a result of improper steps while flashing the ROMs. I've flashed many ROMs on this device, and have never suffered any such issues that I couldn't solve easily.

    As for your other complaints about the phone (lack of expandable memory, why you didn't choose another phone), I don't know why you even posted them, as they are not constructive. Those still on this forum are mostly here because we love the phone and remain loyal to it. Your comments aren't going to help your issue, and will only annoy fans of the device. Better to keep such comments to yourself.

    If you hate the phone so much, go buy another one and be done with it. But crying about it isn't going to solve anything.

    I would suggest you follow timmaaa's advice, and flash the appropriate RUU to "start over". S-off is highly recommended before RUU, as running certain RUUs with S-on and SuperCID will brick the phone.