Mere months later, I saw that the problem had returned on my own laptop you can imagine my amusement at seeing my own prescription go bad on me.Īfter trying the same 'System Management Controller' reset procedure and seeing the remedy stop working a few more times, I started looking for something else to blame and found evidence that an invisible Apple program was at fault.Īs this post from OSXDaily explains, a background component called VDCAssistant can crash, then fail to restart, resulting in a Mac presenting the kind of nonsensical hardware-vs.-software error I was more used to seeing in the bad old days of Windows 95. The advice I offered here in January about fixing this Mac glitch by resetting a special system chip through a Vulcan nerve-pinch rebooting routine had an unusually short shelf life. I used your advice about getting a MacBook to see its own webcam, but the laptop once again reports that there's no camera installed.
