Kinect camera - compatibility and troubleshooting guide

Comprehensive guide for checking Kinect for Xbox One camera compatibility and resolving common connection and performance issues.

Kinect camera - compatibility and troubleshooting guide

Velogic Studio Essentials and Velogic Studio Pro can utilize the Microsoft Kinect for Xbox One camera, which looks like this:

Microsoft Kinect for Xbox One camera showing the horizontal black device with multiple sensors and cameras

Kinect for XBox One camera

Although it wasn't a commercial success as a gaming peripheral, it remains an amazingly capable camera. It is no longer manufactured but it's still easy to find secondhand (there were millions of them sold) and we carry stock of the camera ourselves.

The Kinect for XBox One camera connects to your computer via a USB3 adaptor. But all USB3 ports were not created equal, and the Kinect is picky about the USB chipsets it can work with.

Info: If you don't yet have a Kinect camera, see our Hardware Compatibility Guide to check whether your system is likely to be compatible.

Info: If you're having problems with Velogic Studio that aren't specific to the Kinect camera, see also Troubleshooting Velogic Studio

How to check that your computer is compatible with the Kinect camera

Microsoft make available a tool called the Kinect Configuration Verifier which, you can run on your PC even without a Kinect camera connected. It will test the OS, processor, RAM and graphics and suggest whether the PC is likely to be compatible.

Download and run the Kinect Configuration Verifier tool from Microsoft. You will see a window like this:

Kinect Configuration Verifier window showing system compatibility checklist with green checkmarks and status indicators

Here's how to interpret the results:

1. You should have green ticks for the first 5 items. If any of those are red, then your computer is definitely not compatible.

2. For the "USB controller" item:

   1. If you have a green tick then you are definitely compatible.

   2. If you have an orange exclamation mark, then the tool can't tell either way. This is quite common and not necessarily a cause for concern - many systems with this icon run Velogic Studio perfectly. Note that if your CPU is at least 9th generation Intel Core, it's very likely to be supported (since it will have USB support integrated with the CPU)

   3. If you have a red cross, then your USB controller is definitely not compatible.

3. "Kinect Connected" will only be a green tick if you have a physical Kinect device connected.

4. "Verify Kinect Software Installed" isn't important, because if you don't already have drivers, Windows should download them for you when you plug the Kinect in.

5. "Verify Kinect Depth and Color Streams" can only be tested with a physical Kinect device connected.

The most important checks are the first 5 (basic system checks) and the "USB Controller" check.

Other checks:

1. If you have an orange exclamation mark for "USB Controller", there is one other check you can do yourself. Open Device Manager, and look in "Universal Serial Bus controllers". If you see a "Host controller" entry from either Intel or Renesas you're likely to be compatible.

How to be sure:

1. If you want to be 100% sure of compatibility before purchasing, you can obtain a Kinect for XBox One (and USB adaptor) on the secondhand market and use the "Kinect Configuration Verifier" to confirm that the final check ("Verify Kinect depth and color streams") gives a 30FPS frame rate.

Even if your current Windows computer proves to be incompatible with the Kinect - there are many inexpensive Windows laptops that are known to work with the Kinect. For example, we have customers successfully using Dell Inspiron laptops (less than $500)

Troubleshooting with the Kinect Configuration Verifier

If you already have a Kinect camera, and you're having trouble with the it - e.g. disconnecting or freezing - the first step is to determine whether the problem lies in Velogic software (Velogic Studio), or with the camera or your computer.

The best way to do that is to is test the camera without any Velogic software. You can use the Kinect Configuration Verifier (described above) for this purpose too.

Kinect Configuration Verifier displaying test results for depth and color streams with 30 FPS performance

Kinect configuration verifier

If you see a green tick next to the bottom entry, "Verify Kinect Depth and Color Streams" and you're getting 29 or 30FPS consistently, then you're very likely to be compatible with our Velogic Studio or 3D Aero software. You might still like to leave the app running for a few hours to make sure that the system is stable.

The remainder of the article is dedicated to helping you troubleshoot various problems that might be preventing you from working with the camera.

If you don't see a green tick next to "Kinect connected"

This means that your computer can't see the kinect. Troubleshooting steps:

1. Check all cabling

2. Verify that there is power to the USB adaptor (there should be a white light on the adaptor box)

3. Check that you have connected to a USB3 port (they usually have a blue colored tab inside the port)

4. If you have another computer handy, move the Kinect and adaptor to that computer & try there

5. If you have an Xbox One console, try the Kinect camera with that console

6. Open Device Manager, and look in "Universal Serial Bus controllers". If you see a "Host controller" entry from either Intel or Renesas you're likely to be compatible.

7. Download and install USB Device Tree Viewer, and verify that your root USB hub is at least USB3.0

8. If you've done all of the above and the Kinect still won't connect, then either you have faulty Kinect hardware (camera or USB adaptor), or your USB controller in your system is simply not compatible.

9. If you're sure the Kinect hardware is fine, then your options are either to try a USB3 PCI card (if you have a desktop computer) or try a different computer (if you have a laptop).

If the Kinect connects & disconnects repeatedly (less than 15 seconds)

Check microphone access

Windows occasionally decides that you no longer should have permission to access the microphone on the Kinect.

Luckily, this has a simple fix:

1. Press Windows key and type "Microphone Privacy Settings" and open the application

2. Make sure that "Microphone access for this device is on"

3. Scroll further down the page and make sure that desktop apps have access to the microphone

4. If you scroll down the page a little further, you should see "KinectService.exe" as one of the apps which is allowed to access the microphone

Check for old Kinect SDK's or runtimes installed on your PC

Old Kinect SDK's or runtimes can prevent the Kinect camera from working correctly.

To check for and remove old Kinect SDK's or runtimes:

1. Press Windows key and type "Add remove programs" and open that application

2. Type "Kinect" into the "Apps & features" search box. You may see no entries at all, or you may see one or both of these apps

If you see any other Kinect apps (e.g. older SDKs or runtimes), you should uninstall them

Manually install Kinect runtime

When you plugin a Kinect camera for the first time, Windows should install all of the necessary software to work with the Kinect automatically.

If something has gone wrong with that process, you can manually install the latest Kinect Runtime.

1. First, check for and remove old Kinect SDK's or runtimes (see the previous section)

2. Download the latest Kinect runtime (v2.2.1905)

3. Follow the install instructions from that page, by clicking to expand the "Install instructions" section

Warning: Note - you actually need to follow the install instructions above - resist the temptation to just run the installer from the downloaded zip file!

1. If the Kinect still isn't connecting, reboot your computer at this stage and try again

2. If you still see "Kinect connected" with a green tick in Kinect Configuration Verifier after a reboot, but "Verify Kinect Software Installed" is a red cross: the next step is to install the remainder of the KinectRuntime manually

   1. Open the folder where you extracted the KinectRuntime-v2.2_1905.zip in the previous step

   2. Run each of the "vcredist" executables in turn: (if you get the option to "Repair Uninstall Close", choose "Repair)

   3. Lastly, run the Kinect runtime installer:

   4. After running that, you should see:

      1. Green tick for "Verify Kinect Software Installed" in the Kinect Configuration Verifier

      2. If you run "Services" app, you should see Kinect Monitor service running:

      3. If you search "Kinect" in the "Apps & Features" search box, you should see the proper Kinect runtime listed:

Verify that you have the correct driver version installed

Run Device Manager and click on Windows Sensor Devices. You should have one device listed, right-click on it and choose "Properties":

Windows Device Manager showing Kinect sensor under Windows Sensor Devices with right-click properties menu

Then click on the Driver tab:

Kinect device properties dialog showing Driver tab with version 2.2.1905.16000 and driver details

Kinect driver details

You should see that the Driver Version is 2.2.1905.16000. If not - click on Update Driver and try to update to this version.

If the Kinect disconnects after more than 15 seconds

Run Control Panel and search for "Power Options" then click "Change power saving settings". Click "Change plan settings" then "Change advanced power settings", you should see this window:

Windows advanced power options dialog with High performance plan selected and USB/PCI settings expanded

Advanced power options

Change the plan to "High performance". If that doesn't help, you can also experiment with changing the USB settings and PCI express settings.