Windows Camera Frame Server service buggy on Surface Pro

Copper Contributor

Hi there,


I use videoconferencing on Skype every day for work, in multiple meetings of 1.5h each. I had set up my 2013 Vaio laptop on Windows 10 FCU with a Logitech Brio working very nicely.

 

I then upgraded to a 2017 Surface Pro. I noticed instantly that my camera image was freezing every 5 or 10 minutes during a video call on Skype. It hardly ever went through the 1.5-hour meeting without freezing at least once. I don't get any errors, it simply gets stuck as an image of the last frame before freezing. I have to click the camera button within the call controls to turn the camera off and back on, until it freezes again, and so on.


So I started investigating the issue. I tried many steps related to reinstalling and updating firmware, apps, drivers and Windows itself, as well as disabling many devices and drivers that could be interfering with Logitech Brio. Nothing worked.

 

Then, I tried to apply this fix, which worked, therefore isolating the issue: 
https://www.howtogeek.com/267946/how-to-stop-your-webcam-from-freezing-and-crashing-on-windows-10/

 

The Windows Camera Frame Server bug should not be happening anymore, since it was fixed by an update shortly after it was introduced on the Anniversary Update. So I began to look into it.

 

Since my camera image permanently stopped freezing after the registry editing, it was clear that this service was the problem. I deleted the registry edits to purposefully cause the freezing problems again.

 

I noticed, on Task Manager, that the service started at 10mb of RAM and went up to 500mb after some minutes, and wouldn't go down anymore. On another old Dell laptop on Windows 10 FCU here, this service, when active, is always at ~5mb RAM, going up to no more than 10mb of RAM during video usage.

 

Please, could anyone shed some light on this? I can't find anything about it online, and I don't know what to do anymore. No one else appears to have the same problem. Installing a fresh copy of Windows doesn't work. I have been to chat support and the Community, and no solution was offered.

 

Thanks in advance.

1 Reply
Almost six years later, still buggy, the same exact way. I think the new Teams app made this happen even more frequently.