Built-in iSight Durability Testing

Back when I had an iBook G4 and had an external (original) iSight attached to the computer, and had a window showing the video open and then put the mac to sleep it would kernel panic on wake up. Just now I did the same test with the built-in iSight in my MacBook. Oddly when I woke my MacBook up after putting it to sleep the window with the video was closed but the application handling that request was still open. That’s quite a different response for the MacBook to have compared to my old iBook G4. At least it didn’t end in a kernel panic, but what it did do seems quite interesting and neat. I knew that the durability of the built-in iSight to the OS is already better than the external iSight support or USB webcam support is, but I somehow thought that when it came to the underlying kext drivers that the result would be the same. The fact that the OS turned off the iSight before going to sleep shows a kind of control over it that I’m sure I’ll never find anywhere else for any other hardware of that sort. It’s quite nice to know that the kind of crash that I got related to the iSight is unlikely to hit me now that the only iSight I’ll ever use with my MacBook is the one that sits right above the display of my MacBook and therefore is built-in. Not that I’d ever purposely leave the iSight on when putting my MacBook to sleep, but that kind of safety loop is good to know about.