[gwar11d2]

Hi All-
I've searched a bit, but have not found a solution to my Wife's BB camera function. We are getting:
"camera failed to open, please close any running applications and try again".

I've tried both hard/soft resets. Left the battery out overnight...nothing is running except for the basic functions on reboot.

I'm about to exchange it under warrenty, but I'm wondering if it would be better to just try a few more things/ask on here if you guys have any suggestions.

We are a Blackberry family (8700,8300 and 8100) and are on vacation in Orlando and are missing our camera function. Luckily my Curve is doing OK, but when the wife is at the mall and I'm at gatorland....ok sorry off topic.

Any suggestions?

-Brian

[juwaack68]

How much free space does she have on the device? Does she have the camera set to save pictures on a microSD card?

[gwar11d2]

Yep cleared out everything on the internal, and everything is set to the external card...

[TylerBoneZJoneZ]

Hmmm might have to try a re-install of operating system on the phone

Originally Posted by gwar11d2

Yep cleared out everything on the internal, and everything is set to the external card...

[gwar11d2]

Just wanted to update everyone in case someone else has this problem.

Reloaded the OS after clearing everything...no luck.

Called warranty support....they sent a replacement. New phone works great

[txtoast]

8310 Curve User here.
I found out by accident that by reloading my Desktop Software to the original version (in my case 4.2.2) AND reloading the original OS (again in my case 4.2.2) seemed to solve my problem with the camera not loading.

Error message -> !Could not start the camera. Close other applications and try opening the camera again. [OK]

Maybe there was a bug corrupting the Handheld software when I tried using the updated Desktop software for some reason.

You could try that, but remember to backup your data to PC first.

[MrSauga]

I have the same problem with the 8320. I have'nt been able to use the camera at all. It tells me to shut off other applications even when nothing of signifigance is running. I have tried restarts. I have tried reboots and re-install of the updated operating system 4.2.2.180. It might be a hardware problem, but if it is how did the others resolve their problem without replacing the phone? I'm at witt's end, but I am trying to solve it without replacement. Any suggestions?

[MrSauga]

I took my 8320 back to the dealer. They replaced the camera, problem solved.

[Thatzmister2u]

Originally Posted by MrSauga

I took my 8320 back to the dealer. They replaced the camera, problem solved.

They replaced the camera or the phone?

[MrSauga]

they replaced the camera

[VirexInc]

Originally Posted by MrSauga

they replaced the camera

thats weird, it would just seem a lot easier to replace the device.

[John Clark]

The camera just unscrews from the device. I didn't know they had parts available at the dealers, though.

[VirexInc]

Originally Posted by John Clark

The camera just unscrews from the device. I didn't know they had parts available at the dealers, though.

yea but opening the device like that is odd if its still under warranty. at verizon i would ask for a new device then have them open my old and mess around with the camera bc how do you know the tech doing the work will make perfect like a brand new one?

[plasticities]

Originally Posted by VirexInc

yea but opening the device like that is odd if its still under warranty. at verizon i would ask for a new device then have them open my old and mess around with the camera bc how do you know the tech doing the work will make perfect like a brand new one?

maybe things work differently in canada

[Sith_Apprentice]

in the US the carriers replace the devices for you in store *normally* and all work is done by RIM to repair it. From what i recall, anyone else opening the device will void the warranty.

[MrSauga]

Just to clarify the posts

I didnt buy it from the Network supplier. I bought it from Promobility, a BB dealer. They have technicians and parts. The techie said the camera was loose and he asked me if I tampered with it. Promobility is on the net at www. promobility.com I guess they are authorized to service them. The BB was made for T-Mobile, but sold here in the Rogers area and I am on the Rogers network.

I was getting the message to close other applications etc so it seemed like a software issue but it wasn't. I did re-install 4.2.2.180 before taking it in. works OK now.

But I have a problem with the device being recognised on my laptop through Device Manager, but thats another thread.

[pkordon]

I am currently having this same problem. I think I might call warrenty support, then again I might just try re-loading the OS.

[rdeleon99]

A few days ago my camera totally stopped working. When I would try to activate it, I would just get a blank screen and the whole phone would freeze. Sometimes, an error message would eventually appear that said "camera failed to open, please close any running applications and try again". But sometimes nothing would happen, and the only thing I could do was remove the battery and restart it.

The only way I got it to work again was by going to "switch application" and attempting to close any unneeded apps I had running. A bunch of icons appeared such as "call log", "internet browser", "Yahoo Chat", "ICQ", "BlackBerry Messenger, etc. and I tried to close all the chat apps but they would reappear anyway (and I also tried to close the internet browser). The only other thing I could try was to close each BlackBerry message thread that I had open and that seemed to fix the problem and the camera started working again.

Which leads me to believe that there is a memory limit to the BlackBerry 8320 and that there is no automated way to clear or allocate memory for the camera if it is already being used by other applications.

I'm sure it's different with every user, but trying to close/clear the chat app definitely worked for me. I also cleared my internet browser's cache, which might have helped also.

So the error message that I occasionally received was semi-accurate. It would have been nice if it provided more detail about why the error was happening, such as "camera failed to open due to inadequate memory. please close any running applications to free up more memory." ...or something like that.