A USB video camera that is connected to a Windows Vista-based computer may not display an image after you resume the computer from sleep

Consider the following scenario:

• You have a video camera that is connected to a Windows Vista-based computer through a USB connection.
  
  Note This kind of camera may also be known as a "webcam."
• You use the video camera together with a video-capture program to capture input from the camera.
• The computer is configured to use a power plan that puts the computer to sleep after a specified period of inactivity.
• You use the camera-preview feature to view input from the camera, and then Windows Vista enters a sleep state.

In this scenario, you may experience one of the following symptoms when you resume the computer from sleep:

• The camera-preview feature displays a blue screen that contains no video from the camera.
• The camera-preview feature displays a black screen.

A hotfix is available that may resolve this problem or that may reduce the frequency of this problem. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: Note Sometimes, this hotfix does not resolve this problem.

Although this hotfix was created for Sony computers, we have found that this hotfix may also resolve this problem on other computers.

To work around this problem, exit the video-capture program. Then, restart the video-capture program.

Note You can also restart the computer to work around this problem.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.

For help with power consumption and battery life problems in Windows Vista, visit the following Microsoft Web page: The third-party products that this article discusses are manufactured by companies that are independent of Microsoft. Microsoft makes no warranty, implied or otherwise, about the performance or reliability of these products.