External webcam causing system instability and crashes

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As mentioned in this other thread, external webcams also cause system instability on my FW16, whether plugged in directly or through a dock. The posted remedy of disabling the AMD USB Audio Device solved the problem immediately. As the others mentioned, this webcam works fine on other devices. Any chance a Framework rep could weigh in on a potential fix for the drivers? Windows says the current version is 6.0.0.23 (12/07/2023)

  • Which OS (Operating System)? Windows 11 Enterprise
  • Which release of your OS System? 24H2
  • Which Framework product? Laptop 16, Ryzen 7 7840HS, 64GB RAM, 1TB SSD, 2nd gen Webcam module, M.2 adapter board (empty)
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Have you made any progress on this? I have the exact same issue with a obsbot USB webcam on the framework 16 and disabling the AMD USB Audio Device fixes it, but then of course no audio is available.
And of course it’s the device of my company’s CTO…

3

I still have audio on my FW16… Make sure you’re disabling the right device and have the entire driver bundle installed.

In Device Manager, switch to view devices by connection (View > Devices by connection), then disable the device at the end of this path: /ACPI x64-based PC/Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System/PCI Express Root Complex/PCI Express Root Port/AMD Audio CoProcessor/AMD USB Audio Device. Leave the other audio devices alone, and you should be fine.

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Just trying to disable the driver as instructed crashes my Framework. Any other advice for adding an external webcam?

5

Are you doing this while the system is still unstable from the webcam being plugged in?

Once your system is unstable, I recommend the following:

  1. Unplug the webcam
  2. Shut down your computer
  3. Turn on your computer
  4. Disable the device shown
  5. Restart your computer
  6. Plug in the webcam

Everything should be stable now.

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Thanks, Andrew. I went back to the original thread and realized I hadn’t rebooted. So it kind of works now. What is not working though is that although Windows says it is using the webcam for audio, it is not. It seems to be using the laptop microphone but with incredibly bad quality. So not sure what is going on now or how to solve it.

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Scratch that. I was having the microphone issues on Zoom and I now know that I have to tell Zoom separately which microphone to use. Problems solved for me. Thanks.

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I just tested mine in the Sound Recorder app that comes with Windows. I was able to select from the three mics attached to my computer (built-in, webcam, and headset). The webcam and headset are USB microphones, and they all worked with normal audio quality for the device (the built-in actually did a better job than the external webcam mics at filtering out the noise of my desk fan).

I would try the following just to make sure your computer is properly recognizing the external webcam:

  1. Plug in the external webcam.
  2. Go into Device Manager, find the device, right-click and select ‘Uninstall device’.
    1. it could be under Cameras or Imaging Devices
    2. You may need to select the USB Composite Device that contains the camera and microphone.
  3. Restart the computer.

Your computer should re-detect and reinstall the webcam, but now that it doesn’t make your system unstable, it has a chance to properly configure everything.