Surface Pro X owners report cameras suddenly stopped working

Owners of Microsoft’s Surface Pro X 2-in-1 are having issues with the camera suddenly not working.

Per reports circling on Reddit and Microsoft’s support forums, Surface Pro X cameras stopped working on May 23rd, and so far, common fixes like reinstalling drivers haven’t fixed anything. The Verge was able to recreate the issue on a Surface Pro X and received a “0xA00F4271<MediaCaptureFailedEvent> (0x80004005)” error code when trying to use the camera app.

Some Surface Pro X owners discovered that rolling back the device’s date to May 22nd brings the camera back to life. Of course, rolling back the date on a PC can cause other issues and authentication problems with some sites and services, so it’s best to view this as a temporary fix.

The workaround indicates the problem could be related to an expired security certificate in Windows. Ultimately, however, it’s not clear what’s causing the problem and Microsoft hasn’t said anything yet.

If the problem is a security certificate, it should hopefully be a quick fix. Of course, Microsoft is also in the middle of its Build 2023 developer conference, which could disrupt work on a patch.

The Surface Pro X is Microsoft’s ARM-powered flagship, meant to show what Windows on ARM can do. However, even though the Pro X offers excellent hardware and Windows on ARM has improved significantly, the experience remains lacklustre.

Source: Microsoft support forums, Reddit Via: The Verge