Scenario: This issue (or at least this version of the issue) is specific to the Surface Pro 2 (all versions). Trying to start my video I would end up with this error: “We couldn’t start your video.”
| This would happen regardless of the camera I would use, including either the built-in front or rear facing camera. To make matters even more strange, when I would go into the Lync | Options, it would display the video preview once. If I open up Lync | Options again, I would get an error stating the camera could not be found and restart Lync. If I closed Lync and opened it back up, I could again show the preview once but I would never be able to start my video. |
At first, I thought maybe the issue was related to my setup. Here is a quick picture:
I use a Surface Pro 2 with Surface Dock to power my main screen. I than have an USB Pluggable UD-3900 to power the second two monitors. So I started by removing all of that software but nothing changed. Removed and reinstalled Lync, back to RTM and still had the problem.
Solution:
A quick trip into device manager and I found that the “Surface Pro System Aggregator Firmware” had a yellow “bang” next to it.
Opening the item from here did not do anything to fix the issue. Instead, you need to follow these steps:
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Open up Devices and Printers. There you will see your surface and it will have a Yellow Bang there as well. Right-click and choose troubleshoot.
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It will ask you to Automatically Search for a solution. Allow the computer to grind away for a few minutes attempting to find the fix. It won’t and it will fail miserably.
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After a few minutes, you will get an option that tells you that you need to reboot your computer and you will have a view details options. You need to click it! From there, you will get a new screen like this:
Click Restart Computer and than Lync will be fixed and your USB devices and camera will work 100%. As I mentioned at the start, most likely an unique issue which required an unique fix but worth checking on.