Macbook Retina 15" camera - hardware, firmware or software issue?

Question

When I try to use camera on my macbook in photo booth / skype there's no image coming from it. Camera's LED blinks (with approx 1 second interval).

How do I fix that or confirm that's a hardware related problem?

Anything else I should try aside PMU and SMC reset?

Answer 1

The simplest way to confirm a hardware problem is to boot your machine using a different startup disk and testing the issue in question.

To do so you would require an external HD or USB drive, with an OS installed on it, preferably Mac OS. Simply connect such external media to your machine via USB or Firewire and boot up the computer while holding down the 'Option' key.

Creating bootable USB: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372

Changing your Startup Disk: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204417

Answer 2

The green LED is hardwired to the camera. If the green light is on, the camera is on. If the green light is off, the camera is off. So, I believe your camera is turning on and off, on and off, on and off…

There are a couple other things you can try:

1. Try a different user account: if you have another user account on your MacBook, log in to it and try to use the camera. If not, first create a new user account via the System Preferences. If the camera works in the alternate user account, then you can safely say that something with your account's settings aren't quite right.
2. Determine whether your MacBook properly recognizes the camera: Check System Profiler (in the Utilities folder, inside the Applications folder). Under the USB header, check to see if the iSight camera is detected.

(I found these troubleshooting steps on Apple's Support Website: How to Troubleshoot iSight.)

If these don't help, then it's probably a hardware issue: you'll need to take your MacBook to a local Apple Store Genius Bar (or other authorized Apple Service Provider) for further help.