Canon S3 Powershot connect to PC

[Spiritos]

Hi,

Last week I bought the Canon S3 Powershot. I seem to have trouble connecting it to my PC in order to download the pictures.

I use XP SP2/USB 2.0. I have installed the software that came with the camera (Canon Zoombrowser etc.) I updated the software to the most recent version <5.8> but nothing.

When I connect the camera nothing happens (first time you're supposed to see a Camera Window). Then when I try to manually access this through the Start-menu I click 'Camera Window' again nothing happens.
Also when I try to access the camera via Zoombrowser literally nothing happens. I click on 'connect' and then the tab just disappears.
When I open EOS utillity I can only click the tab 'monitor folder'. The other 3 tabs are non-clickable.

I tried switching USB-ports without succes and also the Canon supportdesk cannot seem to help me.

Strange thing is, when I go to 'device manager' it shows my camera when connected. Also the diagnostics test is positive. So I reckon the PC detects the camera but is unable to communicate.

Also I know in general XP doesn't need drivers but when connecting the camera for the first time it asked for the CD and the drivers automatically were installed.

Furthermore I have and have had several external devices connected to my PC so I know there is nothing wrong with that.

This is all the information I could give you. I am hoping someone will have a clue since I am clueless and desperate.:cry:

Thanks in advance!
Spiritos

[SloNeZ600]

possible bad cable or worst case camera?

[Roddie]

Sorry to hear about your problem. You seem to be doing everything right, XP should automatically detect your camera, with or without the ZoomBrowser software. I agree with SloNe that it may be a faulty cable. Do you have a card reader? If you do see if the card is recognised by the computer. Also, do you have another camera that you previously had been connecting? I had a problem connecting my SD700 after I had been using my S2 for the last couple of years. I never did get it sorted out, and now I have a new computer I just use the built in card reader, and have had no problems. Perhaps you have a camera conflict? good luck......:)
PS I don't know, but I have been told (and I'll throw this out there for comment) that it is better to directly download from a card reader than use the camera itself. Supposedly there is a loss of quality when you download through the camera?? :confused:

[gregrocco]

I had a similar problem when I first got my S3. The only way I was able to download pics was to open the camera as an external drive and take the pics off one by one. Just call the Canon service line (I don't remember the number, offhand, but it was toll free). I'm fairly knowledgable about computers, but the guy from Canon walked me through some steps I never would have thought of and was able to straighten out the problem I had and now everything works fine.

[Spiritos]

Thanks for the quick replies.

I don't think it's the cable cause when I connect it the orange light turns on and the PC reacts and besides in Device Manager the camera IS recognized.

Indeed preferrably I had someone from the Canon helpdesk talk me through but the support I got was pretty much limited to the camera itself and they were unable to help me.

[fe79]

I had the exact same problem, but was able to solve it on my own. The cause may or may not be the same in your case, but in case it is, this is what you should do:
- Choose Start->Run... and run "services.msc".
- Find the service called "Canon Camera Access Library" and check that it is running. In my case it was not, which is why there were problems.
- If you try to manually start the service, it will probably complain about a dependency. Bring up the service's properties (by double-clicking it's name, or right-clicking and selecting "Properties"), and select the "Dependencies" tab. Take note of what services are listed there. Most likely they are "SSDP Discovery Service" and "Windows Image Acquisition". Close the properties window, find those services, and make sure they are running. If they are set to "Disabled", set them to "Automatic" and then start them manually.
- Finally, start the Canon service manually.

I hope this helps.

[tedr]

I've had exactly the same trouble right now with a new A700 and windows XP/SP2. I had a lot of help from Canon via emails and phone but it got me nowhere. We went thru the routines outlined above in the services.msc program but even with everyuthing up and started the camera is not recognized.

I can download OK using a card reader and I have been told the card reader method is quicker. I can't think of a reason why the quality would be inferior both methods are just handling the image as data just like any other data. The image data format is the JPG type which does degrade a little every time you save it, but copying and moving are not save operations and are error free.

If someone can come up with a way to make the Canon's and Windows XP compatible they will make me and a lot of others very happy I think.

Ted

[jnthns]

I am running windows 2000 and the first time I used canon's software to download my images it worked fine. The second time it didn't. After reading the posts above I looked at the services and didn't find "Canon Camera Access Library" but I did find "Still Image Service." It was NOT running and set to "manual" start. I set it to "automatic" start and started the service. That allowed me to connect to the camera. Thanks for the suggestion above and I hope what I found helps others too.

[KPC]

I had the exact same problem, but was able to solve it on my own. The cause may or may not be the same in your case, but in case it is, this is what you should do:
- Choose Start->Run... and run "services.msc".
- Find the service called "Canon Camera Access Library" and check that it is running. In my case it was not, which is why there were problems.
- If you try to manually start the service, it will probably complain about a dependency. Bring up the service's properties (by double-clicking it's name, or right-clicking and selecting "Properties"), and select the "Dependencies" tab. Take note of what services are listed there. Most likely they are "SSDP Discovery Service" and "Windows Image Acquisition". Close the properties window, find those services, and make sure they are running. If they are set to "Disabled", set them to "Automatic" and then start them manually.
- Finally, start the Canon service manually.

I hope this helps.

Thanks fe79 !! - I was also not able to connect my S3 IS from ZoomBrowserX from my laptop, now I can connect and use it to download images and do remote shooting.

This forum is one of best places for S3 IS

Cheer's !!