with my bargain basement digitrex dsc 3000, i only used the internal 8 mb memory successfully for months. take the pix, hook up to usb, open 'my machine', and open f drive to remove and edit pix. suddenly, the hookup to usb only produces a camera icon in my machine, and it always shows no pix, even though they can be seen on camera lcd. have reinstalled, rebooted, checked camera menus, visited web sites - ad nauseam. could the internal card be shot and still display pics on the camera display? or is there a magic trick to only allow the usb port to recognize drives? of course winxp device manager shows no cameras.

my thanks . . .

Hello Manster,
When you say "Reinstalled" have you also uninstalled completely first? You might also want to uninstall the USB driver and let Windows find and install it on reboot.

I uninstalled the usb drivers. I allowed the camera setup disk to overwite the software. I realize my error in not uninstalling the software. I still cannot figure why the device manager and the hardware file on the control indicates no cameras intstalled, tho 3 versions appear to show up at different times whent he camera hooked up thru usb.
I greatly appreciate your help. One can always find intelligent, resourceful people here!

--RJ

Did you remember to switch the camera on [after it was connected up correctly]? :)

1. Assuming the correct USB drivers [supplied with the camera on a CD?] were installed that match the OS version.
2. If you have Explorer open and Device Manager on top of it:
In Device Manager, click "View devices by Connection" | click "Computer" | click "Numlock + *" on the keyboard" [this expands the harware tree to show what connects beneath what].
3. Now switch on the camera. [Does it beep when switched on?]
After a short delay, the hardware tree in Device Manager should collapse [a good sign]. When you re-expand the tree you should see the "Camera" at the bottom of the "USB" section [which is beneath the "PCI Bus" section]. If no USB section shows, then you probably need to "Force Update the ESCD". [I'll explain if necessary] Basically, it forces the BIOS to detect the fact that the [PCI to USB] card is connected, and allocate necessary resources so it can work. Does the USB [section show and] work for other devices?
4. You should also see [in Windows Explorer] an extra "drive" appear and given the last letter in the series [after your last CD-drive].

thank you sylander for your explicit reply.
the camera is recognized, but the interior drive is not. thru your recommendation step three, everything is fine. in explorer, and the opened 'my computer,' no extra drive appears, only the camera icon. opening the camera that way always indicates there are no pictures present, although there are lcd-viewable pictures on the camera drive. usb ports all work well, including for other cameras.

"the camera is recognized, but the interior drive is not."
So what actually shows in Device Manager and Windows Explorer?
Everything I said in 3 except "Camera" rather than a drive symbol in Explorer?
If so, I wonder if the camera's memory card is "locked" [my SD (secure Digital) memory card can be locked], or not detected?
I think it's that memory card that's being treated as a drive.

thank you for solving my problem! to get you up to speed, the camera icon showed both in device manager and explorer. however, when you asked about the card being locked, i knew that option did not exist in this $50 camera. checked completely thru the menus and found a 'usb' option which allowed either pc camera or card reader. somehow, this must have changed along the way. the drive now shows in explorer, and we are good to go. for the record, i have never installed cameras in winxp, just opened the drives and manipulated the files that way. must be my dinosaur dos background. thanks again!

Nice to hear your problem's fixed. ;)

And thanks for letting us know. :D