iSight Confusion

[mplock]

I am rather new to Macs and am a bit confused. As far as i can tell I have no open programs that should be using my built in isight, but the green light is on. Why is it on when it should be off?

Whats running now,
Safari
Finder
Dashboard

I dont know if mac runs hidden processes that might be keeping this on, and if so I have no idea how to terminate such a process.

If you could help soon, I would appreciate it.

And this has never happened before and it is strange. The light came on right when the computer finished booting.

Thanks for the help.

Matt

 

[dtravis7]

Which Mac do you have? Does it have PhotoBooth? Make sure that is not active. Otherwise not sure. I have an iMac G5 isight and the light has never came on except in PhotoBooth, iChat when I told it to and Yahoo Messenger.

Are you sure those 3 apps are the only ones running?

Look on the Dock and see if there are any other Applications with a Black Up-Arrow under them.

 

[mplock]

Solution

Which Mac do you have? Does it have PhotoBooth? Make sure that is not active. Otherwise not sure. I have an iMac G5 isight and the light has never came on except in PhotoBooth, iChat when I told it to and Yahoo Messenger.

Are you sure those 3 apps are the only ones running?

Look on the Dock and see if there are any other Applications with a Black Up-Arrow under them.

I have a Macbook 1.83 core duo.
And yes that is all the programs on the doc. I tried opening photobooth and took a picture then closed it, thinking that might shut it off, but no luck.
Also i just took a bathroom break and put it to sleep to see if that would make it function correctly but no go.

I am going to reboot in just a second and I will let you know how that works.

thanks for your help though

matt

**Edit**

I shut down and then booted, and it did not come back on. So for some reason the OS must have thought something was running that needed the isight. But there is no clear reason for this issue.

Thanks for your help

 

[dtravis7]

Can you do me a favor? I know you are new, but try this. Open Applications and then the folder Utilities. Open Activity Monitor. Do a ScreenShot of the window on the CPU tab. Post it here. If you need help let me know. To do a ScreenShot just hold down APPLE-SHIFT-3 all at once and release them. There will be a file on your desktop called Picture 1. Post that here as an attachment. I might be able to see what is making the isight light up.

 

[Aptmunich]

Also check your dashboard widgets... there are several that can access the camera.

Even certain websites can use the iSight.