[SOLVED] Several problems with my laptop: cameras not attached, internet only working through VPN, and internet only working in browsers

[ashlynthecat]

My Samsung Series 5 notebook has run into several problems. I have my firewall and anti-virus off. First, I got the 0xA00F4244 "no cameras are attached" error when trying to use my webcam. My webcam has worked in the past, but I don't know when exactly it stopped working because I haven't tried using it in awhile. My webcam was hidden in the device manager if that means anything. I looked up the error and saw that the best way to fix my webcam was to update my version of windows 10 and to update my camera drivers. I updated windows, but when I tried to install new drivers through Samsung update, the internet wasn't working in the program. I was confused because Chrome was loading sites and YouTube videos just fine. I checked and all of my other programs that needed internet wouldn't work either. I saw that doing a "Network reset" could solve this issue, but when I did it, no networks popped up at all. So I changed some other network settings and fixed that problem, but then I saw that I could only use the internet when connected to my VPN, Windscribe. I uninstalled the desktop version of it and removed it from my browser extensions, but I still can't use the internet on my laptop. The internet works fine on my other devices, I'm just so confused about how me trying to fix my webcam turned into more problems. I tried using my mobile Hotspot and that didn't work either. If anyone thinks they can help me I would appreciate it immensely, I really need my webcam to work for online classes.

 

[Ralston18]

On the laptop run "ipconfig /all" via the Command Prompt and post the results.

Double check that only one network adapter is enabled on the laptop: either wired or wireless. Not both enabled at the same time.

 

[ashlynthecat]

So I fixed my internet by turning off "use a proxy setting for my LAN" which I'm guessing was turned on by the network reset or something. But I still have the "no cameras are attached error" when trying to use my webcam. When I tried to run Samsung Update, it didn't open, though it's running as a background process in the task manager which confuses me.

 

[Ralston18]

Look in Task Manager and the Startup tab in particular. Determine if the Samsung Update is being launched at startup. It may not be clearly apparent so research any unrecognizable entries before disabling.

Another place to look is Task Scheduler. Much more cumbersome to work through and understand but I am getting the sense that Task Scheduler is being used more and more to slip in apps/"happenings" that are triggered to run when specific conditions occur.