PC No longer rcognises Digital Camera

[Old Sparky]

Why would a computer suddenly not recognise a digital camera when said camera has previously worked OK with the PC?  Could it be due to a windows or browser upgrade?  At the moment i do not know the make & model of either the PC or the Camera-they belong to a non-forum member who lives in Northamptonshire, about 50 miles distant.

[boater sam]

USB lead faulty? Battery flat in camera? PC port faulty?

[Old Sparky]

Could be any of these things, Sam, though unlikely to be the Battery, as pictures can, I'm told, be taken and displayed on the Camera's own screen. They just can't be uploaded to the PC.

[BusyBee]

I have not come across this with a camera but have come across it with a USB stick. On that occasion after extensive investigation I found it was down to some protective software that had been remotely updated by the company IT department. Luckily we (as a group) had slightly higher access than most others so I could stop the software in the task list hence determine what was happening.

If you are in that position then maybe similar is happening, but as a general thing the camera should show in device manager. Try another computer to isolate the issue to computer or camera. Then determine whether a software or hardware issue by substitution. From my experiences sotware issues can easily cause such problems and perhaps, maybe except for an expert which I am not, sorted without the originating cause really being known.

Tracy

[Old Sparky]

The Camera in question is a Canon DU5185, which is 'plug and play'. AS I said i's owner lives 50 miles away, so I can''t go there and check things, but i gather it works with a laptop, though not with the tower PC it always worked with. (Browser is Firefox, b.t.w.)

[Terry]

I'm not sure what Firefox has got to do with it as it is usual to open up the images in other morte suitable software.

Did this problem come about after a Microsoft update, by any chance?

It might be worth suggesting that the driver is reinstalled. In the meantime, as the files can still be downloaded to the laptop, at least they won't be lost and, if all else fails, can be transferred to the PC using a USB stick or SD card.

Interestingly, my wife has just had a similar problem. In her case, she could no longer access the images on the SD card in her Lumix camera but could still take pictures using the (limited) internal memory. I tried her card in my much simpler Lumix camera and could not only see them but download them to the PC via USB. After I'd downloaded them and placed them on a shared drive, she put the card back in her own camera, and everything is now working perfectly again!

[peter scott]

When you connect the camera to your PC take a look in Control Panel, Device Manager and see what is under the heading Universal Serial Bus Controllers. If your camera appears there then delete it. Then unplug the camera reboot the PC then try connecting the camera again.

Peter

[Old Sparky]

Thanks, peter. I've just forwarded the complete thread to the |Camera's owner, so hopefully he'll be able to resolve the problem.