SOLVED Anytime my mic is activated, my camera light turns on...

[Sebastian]

Okay, so I figured hardware would be the best area to put this thread in, but I was sort of stuck choosing between "hardware," and "drivers." I first started noticing this issue about an hour after I finished my upgrade to Windows 10 Pro from Windows 7 Pro (64 bit). I have a Lenovo Thinkpad T530. A few things were buggy after the upgrade, but nothing to such an extreme extent that I could not either fix it, or deal with it, but this issue I cannot seem to find a solution for. I noticed that my camera light would turn on randomly, and would not turn off unless I rebooted the computer (and even then, it would only turn off temporarily). Logically, my first thought went to malware, but due to the fact that I've only just bought this laptop and this issue only started occurring after the Win 10 upgrade, I thought that inclination to be a bit far-fetched. I opened up my task manager and started closing down tasks until I found the one that would turn off the camera light. Upon closing the application titled, "Speech Runtime Executable," the light shut off. I thought, "Voila, I have fixed it!" This way of thinking did not last long, for that was a necessary task, and it came right back on after I closed it, along with that antagonizing camera light. That exe. belongs to my microphone, if it wasn't blatantly obvious, and I can't, for the life of me, figure out why my microphone would be turning on my camera light. Perhaps a bios error? I have no earthly idea. I've tried a few things to fix the issue, like going into my privacy settings and disabling applications from using both my cam and mic, but that was to no avail. I also tried deleting the exe., altogether, but it goes without saying that I'm not actually able to do that. In any case, I'm pretty much all out of ideas on how to rectify this issue. Anyone have any advice? I'd much appreciate any assistance you all can offer.

Thank you,
Sebastian.

 

[Trouble]

This might be a very tough one to figure out.
Speech Runtime Executable is generally associated with the native Speech OneCore platform and may be tied to Speech Recognition software such as Cortana or even Ease of Access features such as "Use the computer without a mouse or Keyboard / Setup Alternative input devices or even some type of third party software you may have installed and may be running at Start Up.

Why it would be firing your WebCam as well, I have no idea.
You might try a Clean Boot
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/929135
Use the Steps for 8 / 8.1 (same for 10)
That might at least tell you if it native or third party.

 

[Sebastian]

This might be a very tough one to figure out.
Speech Runtime Executable is generally associated with the native Speech OneCore platform and may be tied to Speech Recognition software such as Cortana or even Ease of Access features such as "Use the computer without a mouse or Keyboard / Setup Alternative input devices or even some type of third party software you may have installed and may be running at Start Up.

View attachment 2007

Why it would be firing your WebCam as well, I have no idea.
You might try a Clean Boot
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/929135
Use the Steps for 8 / 8.1 (same for 10)
That might at least tell you if it native or third party.

Originally, I was thinking the same thing. I thought perhaps a clean boot would fix it, but when I thought about it, I realized that the computer already had that done on it before it was delivered to me. The entire hard drive was wiped, other than the OS. Nothing on it other than Windows 7 Pro, and then I upgraded to 10. Seems to me like a clean boot would be pretty pointless, because nothing is downloaded up here other than virus cleaners like Avast and Spybot S&D.

 

[Trouble]

The entire hard drive was wiped, other than the OS.

That may be true, OR.....
It may be that the computer was restored using the factory recovery partition which is an entirely different animal and can contain any number of applications and assorted bloatware.
I didn't notice in your OP any mention of the wipe or how it might have been performed.
Did you do it yourself or have it done.

 

[Sebastian]

That may be true, OR.....
It may be that the computer was restored using the factory recovery partition which is an entirely different animal and can contain any number of applications and assorted bloatware.
I didn't notice in your OP any mention of the wipe or how it might have been performed.
Did you do it yourself or have it done.

The wipe was done by the eBay person/company who sold me the computer before I received it. I'm not entirely sure what method they used. Only programs I see are Lenovo programs. Perhaps I've missed something. If you think the clean boot would be a good start, I don't see why not. Only thing I'd lose are my driver and Windows updates.

 

[Trouble]

YOu don't actually lose anything with a clean boot.
You just are basically, disabling all startup items and turning off all non-Microsoft services.
That's all.
Easily done, easily undone.

 

[Sebastian]

YOu don't actually lose anything with a clean boot.
You just are basically, disabling all startup items and turning off all non-Microsoft services.
That's all.
Easily done, easily undone.

Oh, that's right! I forgot about that! Lost some IQ points for a second. I will try that; thanks.

 

[Sebastian]

YOu don't actually lose anything with a clean boot.
You just are basically, disabling all startup items and turning off all non-Microsoft services.
That's all.
Easily done, easily undone.

Okay, so upon setting up a clean boot, I've noticed that my Avast antivirus will not allow me to disable it. Is it safe to assume that Avast isn't the issue, and clean boot with it running?

 

[Trouble]

I wouldn't expect Avast to be the culprit.
Most top tier or even second tier anti-virus, anti-malware, firewall, security suite software will not allow you to turn it all the way off.
I wouldn't worry about it and just move along with the clean boot to the best of your ability, whatever is allowed.
If you have reason to suspect otherwise then.... you'd have to uninstall it to have any effect.

 

[Sebastian]

I wouldn't expect Avast to be the culprit.
Most top tier or even second tier anti-virus, anti-malware, firewall, security suite software will not allow you to turn it all the way off.
I wouldn't worry about it and just move along with the clean boot to the best of your ability, whatever is allowed.
If you have reason to suspect otherwise then.... you'd have to uninstall it to have any effect.

Strangely enough, the clean boot has shown the issue to be third party. The issue does not persist during the clean boot, and the Speech Runtime Executable is running with no camera light to hinder its glory. Now, the only question is which of those 3rd party programs caused this nonsense...

 

[Trouble]

Now you have your work cut out for you.
Starting with the non-Microsoft services, you going to have to gradually turn them on, one at a time or in very small groups of two or three, rebooting after each change to inspect the consequences and then graduating to the Startup items, same deal, one at a time, rebooting after each change.
How fun is that....

 

[Sebastian]

Now you have your work cut out for you.
Starting with the non-Microsoft services, you going to have to gradually turn them on, one at a time or in very small groups of two or three, rebooting after each change to inspect the consequences and then graduating to the Startup items, same deal, one at a time, rebooting after each change.
How fun is that....

I was praying that you weren't going to say that... I had that idea, but I was really hoping you had an easier/faster solution... x'D This is going to suck. You'd think by Windows 10, they'd have other methods of doing such thing. Come on, Bill Gates; it's almost 2016! xD

 

[Sebastian]

Now you have your work cut out for you.
Starting with the non-Microsoft services, you going to have to gradually turn them on, one at a time or in very small groups of two or three, rebooting after each change to inspect the consequences and then graduating to the Startup items, same deal, one at a time, rebooting after each change.
How fun is that....

Well, thanks so much for the help! I'll report back when I figure out what caused the issue.

 

[Trouble]

Thanks.... I'd appreciate that.
It could prove helpful to someone else with a similar issue.

 

[Sebastian]

Thanks.... I'd appreciate that.
It could prove helpful to someone else with a similar issue.

Never doubt a lazy person, haha. I took a shortcut. I enabled all of the previous services I had disabled, and left the startup programs disabled, then I did another reboot. The problem has still not returned. That narrows down my search, significantly. It's definitely one of the startup programs. I'll be back with the specific program name.

 

[Trouble]

Lucky you.....
You may need to apply some logic here, as frequently startup items have associated non-Microsoft services so the two would go hand in hand so to speak.

 

[Sebastian]

Lucky you.....
You may need to apply some logic here, as frequently startup items have associated non-Microsoft services so the two would go hand in hand so to speak.

Voila, I have found it! Eureka! As previously expected, it is a Lenovo program that likely just isn't compatible with Windows 10. The program is, "Communications Utility launcher." I'll disable it, and if necessary, delete the program, altogether. That is sure to resolve the issue. Thanks again for your help.

 

[Trouble]

No problem.
Thanks for hanging in there and sorting it out.
Glad you managed to get it resolved.