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iDriveX · Jul 13, 2004, 12:15 AM

So after hooking up my iSight to my new PowerMac, when I open iChat, the iSight is just a black picture, it gets audio but no picture. I'd say the iSight is broken but it works phenomenally in ToySight, works great in iMovie, and also any other camera imaging game. If I unplug the iSight and plug it into my PowerBook it works fine in iChat over there. I even went as far as doing a search for iChat in the Finder, trashing everything I saw and copying over iChat from my PowerBook but to no avail. I've done the restart thing, nothing seems to work! Any help?

Zoom · Jul 13, 2004, 08:04 AM

I think there's a preference setting in iChat for video stuff. Go to it and make sure all the obvious settings are correct. If it works on other machines and other applications on the machine in question, it almost has to be a config issue with iChat.

bobablob · Jul 13, 2004, 02:25 PM

Originally posted by Zoom:
I think there's a preference setting in iChat for video stuff. Go to it and make sure all the obvious settings are correct. If it works on other machines and other applications on the machine in question, it almost has to be a config issue with iChat.

I just purchased a new 12" Powerbook last week. Brought it home plugged in the iSight and had no trouble with iChatAV. Next day, I had the same problem as you. 2 hours with Apple tech support did nothing to fix the problem. I finally had to restore all applications from the CDs packaged with the laptop. Sorry, best of luck and please post if you have a solution. My iSight also worked great in iMovie, and picked up audio in iChatAV, but only gave me a black picture.

iDriveX · Jul 13, 2004, 03:58 PM

Sounds like the exact same situation I am having, when you restored the programs with your CD did you have to erase your hard drive or erase the applications folder? Cause I have too much stuff to do an erase and restore!

bobablob · Jul 13, 2004, 10:15 PM

Originally posted by iDriveX:
Sounds like the exact same situation I am having, when you restored the programs with your CD did you have to erase your hard drive or erase the applications folder? Cause I have too much stuff to do an erase and restore!

No, sir. I did an archive and install and although it took a little bit of time, an hour or so, if I recall correctly, it backs up and replaces your system folder, doesn't delete anything. Of course, there are folks in these forums who know far more than I do about Macs (thank you for your continued help!!!) but as far as I know archive and install is a perfectly safe, perfectly reliable way to restore your programs.

madmacgames · Jul 14, 2004, 12:07 AM

wow that certainly sucks. I have an iSight, but haven't seen this.

Just off the top of my head, before doing a re-install, be sure your iSight has the latest firmware.

iDriveX · Jul 14, 2004, 01:37 AM

iSight definitely as the latest firmware (1.02) and it is still exhibiting this. Not that I suspected this at all, but something we can rule out is a PRAM Flash and a RAM Change. I completely changed the RAM in my system today (not because of the iSight thing) and on a whim I checked to see if it had made a difference and of course it did not, also I flashed the PRAM a dozen times to no avail. I've trashed iChat preferences and even reinstalled iChat (just drag and dropped it from a remote computer, over the network into my Apps folder) and that hasn't worked either.

bobablob · Jul 14, 2004, 10:23 AM

Originally posted by iDriveX:
iSight definitely as the latest firmware (1.02) and it is still exhibiting this. Not that I suspected this at all, but something we can rule out is a PRAM Flash and a RAM Change. I completely changed the RAM in my system today (not because of the iSight thing) and on a whim I checked to see if it had made a difference and of course it did not, also I flashed the PRAM a dozen times to no avail. I've trashed iChat preferences and even reinstalled iChat (just drag and dropped it from a remote computer, over the network into my Apps folder) and that hasn't worked either.

It absolutely sucks, and unfortunately tech support had me do everything you have suggested. He finally went and put a specialist on the line, but they claimed never to have heard of this issue before. Anyway, the restore did the trick and it has worked ever since. Must be something in software...I too had the latest firmware.