EOS 300D USB Problem

[CM]

I'm a new EOS 300D owner who cannot get the camera to communicate with my PC. I've tried everything I can think of so have turned to all the experts who frequent this excellent forum for help (grovel :wink: ).

When I originally installed Canon EOS Digital Solutions, I installed everything except RemoteCapture. I decided to install it last week. Once the RemoteCapture installation completed, I connected my camera and the Windows event window popped up as before but it was completely empty - there were no programs listed. Easy, I thought, uninstall the WIA drivers and reinstall. Wrong! After doing this nothing happens - I switch on the camera and absolutely nothing. Device Manager doesn't list the camera and there isn't an extra hard drive listed in "My Computer" as before. So, I uninstalled all Canon Utilities s/w and started from the beginning. Still no camera/computer communication.

As I'm using Win XP Pro(SP1) I then tried changing the camera's communication setting to "PTP" and reconnected. This produces the message "busy" on the camera LED display. This message doesn't go away and the Scanner/Image wizard doesn't start - again nothing happens.

I rate myself as an advanced computer user. I backup my entire C partition once a month (which is useful for situation like these) so in desperation, I installed my backup. This effectively took my PC back to 9 July, before I owned my EOS 300D. I started afresh and installed the WIA driver, PhotoStitch, ZoomBrowser EX and File Viewer Utility. I rebooted (with CD-ROM still in drive), connected my camera and switched on and... still nothing. No hour glass activity, no "Found new hardware wizard", nothing listed in Device Manager, or in My Computer.

I am now really worried that I have either a camera i/f problem or a faulty digital i/f cable.

Anyone have any thoughts.

[cmM]

well it's deffinitely not your computer, if you say you have gone back to the state where the camera was "new".
Therefore, unless you have a hardware error in your USB port or interface, it's either your USB cable, or, as you said, your camera. Try connecting your camera to some other device, like a printer, and see if it communicates. If not, try a different cable. If that doesn't work, it's your camera.

OR, you could buy a card reader :wink:

[Jesper]

When you set the camera on "PTP", the Canon software will not see the camera. Instead, it will be accessible from Windows Explorer as if it was another external drive. Connect your camera, switch it on, and you should see it in Windows Exporer. You should also get a balloon in the lower left corner that says a Canon Digital Still Camera is detected. If you want it to work with the Canon software, you must set the camera to "Normal" communication mode.

If the computer doesn't react at all when you have the camera connected and switched on, first try a different cable - the cable is a standard USB cable with an USB Type A connector on the computer side and an USB Mini connector on the camera side. If that doesn't work, try connecting it to a different USB port on the computer. If that still doesn't work, ....maybe is wrong with your camera...

[CM]

Thanks for your replies.

I've tried changing the communication setting on the camera to PTP and accessing via Windows Explorer but see nothing. There is nothing listed in Device Manager either. The camera LCD displays a "busy" message as soon as I switch on when connected in PTP mode. This doesn't go away.

Canon's own USB lead is priced at >£13 in the UK, which is a bit expensive for a trial, given that I don't know for sure if it is the lead that's at fault.

Have now bought a CF card reader to continue using the camera.

[CM]

Tracked down a G5 user this morning who gave me his USB cable to try. Works like a dream, so it was the cable after all. (Great sigh of relief!)