I asked this in the chat yesterday, and got responses like "hardware's dying," but not everyone here goes on the chat, so I thought I'd ask anyways.

SO, here's the interesting issue. A friend of mine has an HP HDX 16 laptop (I don't know any other data about make/model), and their integrated webcam has kinda malfunctioned. Before a week ago, the webcam worked fine. Now, when they reboot their computer, the webcam works for 5 minutes, then stops working. My friend goes to the same University as I do, so she uses it to communicate with her family through MSN. She'd really like to get her webcam working again.

Other relevant data:
-OS: Windows Vista Home Basic (I think), 64bit version.
-The computer reads the device as "HP Webcam" in the device manager, but under the advanced details, it says "Device Description: USB Webcam Device".
-When specifying "USB Webcam Device" in Windows Live Messenger, it returns black.

So, any ideas on how to repair/fix it?