Digital camera - USB problem

[Hodsocks]

I have a friend who has a Sony digital camera and she is having problems when she connects it to her USB port.
If she connects it and turns it on when the pc is switched on it freezes and then all she can do is reboot her machine.
If she connects the camera, switches it on and then powers up her pc it works OK and we can look at and transfer pics from camera to pc. If we disconnect it the pc carries on working.
She is running Windows XP Pro.
She has an Intel motherboard, I have re-installed the drivers for the USB ports.
Anyone have any other suggestions that I can try?

 

[Nic]

Try disabling any anti-virus software before switching the camera on. I had a similar problem once due to norton real-time virus scanner freezing when a new usb drive appeared.

 

[Hodsocks]

Hmmm....worth a try.....not sure if she has any anti-virus software.....must check. If she has it may be worth re-installing the camera software incase the AV was running in the background when it was loaded first time.

 

[Godataloss]

I had a similiar problem with my sony camera. Make absolutely sure you use the device manager in the sys tray to disconnect the camera.

As for drivers, you shouldnt really need any- it should be recognized as a mass storage device by xp and the sony image software suks anyway so leave it in the box- its probably what's glitching xp in the first place.

 

[lyapunovia]

Digital cameras use a heck of a lot of power and can drain the batteries quickly when attached to a PC. Unless you have a power supply unit to the camera I would advise buying a card reader. These plug into a USB socket and windows treats them as a drive. No software needed and no problems depleting the batteries. When you want to view your pictures put the memory card into the card reader and no worries.

 

[Beverly]

I have a creative pc-cam 350 digital camera, but my installation cd is messed up, is there anyone that knows where i an get another?

 

[RealBlackStuff]

Hello Beverly, and Welcome to TechSpot.

For your own good, it would have been better to start a new thread, rather than mix in with another unrelated thread.

Apart from that, Creative should be able to supply you with a replacement CD. They have offices all over the world.

Alternatively, you could try to repair your CD. Get hold of some scratch-removing car-polish and with a soft cloth, gently rub the shiny side of that CD, making circular movements. Then rinse the CD off under the tap (lukewarm water) and dry with a lint-free cloth.
Make sure it is dry all over before you reinsert the CD in your PC.
This quite often does the trick.