Face recognition on X1 Carbon 7th gen suddenly stopped working

[Allounder]

The Windows Hello Face Recognition on my X1 Carbon 7th gen suddenly stopped working (Type 20QD).

A few weeks ago I noticed it didn't want to log in via Face Recognition, and when 'looking for' me, the red LED at the camera didn't flash anymore, so I had to log in with Fingerprint.

It had worked before, (almost) never had problems. So I started to investigate, tried to google the problem as well as asking Perplexity (AI like ChatGPT, but with source indication), followed the tips, but didn't help.

There were no errors shown, neither in Sign in Options, nor in Device Manager, both integrated camera and IR camera worked without error messages, tried to update drivers, nothing found, reinstalled camera driver from Lenovo, still no difference.

Tried to 'enhance' face recognition, kept asking me to get closer to the camera (got shocked how big my nose looks, so close to the camera), keep your face in the frame, hold still, look into the camera, etc., timed out several times.

Then I removed the face recognition option completely. After that I wanted to reinstall the option, got it downloaded via Settings - Accounts - Log-in Options - Face Recognition, and installed. It states: "The option is currently unavailable . We Couldn't find a camera compatible with windows Hello Face."

Tried - again - to update drivers, but both drivers for Integrated Camera and IR camera are working fine and have the latest drivers, according to Device Manager. And camera is working fine otherwise.

Ran the Lenovo Diagnostics tool, and it didn't come up with faults for the camera (although it didn't come up with a dedicated test for the IR).

What to do???

[mikemex]

I had one of my webcams fail on an X1C4. So yeah, it can be a hardware issue.