Loose camera connector in Dell Latitude E5540

A colleague came into my office claiming the camera in his Dell Latitude E5540 didn’t work. Here’s a link to the Dell Latitude E5540 Owner’s Manual.

After a bit of troubleshooting, I removed the display bezel. Lo and behold, the camera connector was halfway out of its socket. Once I pressed the connector into place, the camera immediately started working. But only after a few seconds the connector dislodged again, and Skype/Windows didn’t detect any camera.

I removed the display, rearranged the camera’s flat cable to lessen the stress, and reconnected the connector. As I began to fasten the display, the camera lost its connection again. Apparently, the socket is slightly too wide or the connector is slightly too narrow, or maybe both, and they slip easily apart.

I removed the display again. I reconnected the camera connector one final time and applied a drop of super glue of the kind I use for security markings. While the glue dried, the camera kept working. After 10 minutes or so, I reattached the display and the display bezel, and the camera was still working. Successful surgery!