S70 cannot download in WinXP

[MilesCh]

On my home computer with WinXP Home SP2 cannot download pics or update the firmware.

Tried on another computer with dual boot to XP Pro & Win Vista
Ultimate. In XP exactly the same regarding viewing/downloading pics as occurred in my computer. Also tried in safe mode which I
forgot to do on my machine, and it didn't recognize the camera (as anticipated). This computer is in a computer club's classroom and has SP3 and is kept clean as a whistle, with biweekly restoration using Acronis True Image.

However, in Vista Ultimate it went fine -- could view all pics and
download them as well.

So why does it operate in Vista and not XP? Does that mean that there is a fault in the XP driver for Canon? And does anyone know where this driver can be found in order to replace it? FYI, neither computer has the Canon CD's software installed; however, my home computer has Zoom Browser.

[MilesCh]

Believe more detail is needed:
1) When S70 is attached to the computer Intel mother board's USB2 the camera is turned on, the light is blinking, & a pic is seen in the screen. And it is listed in Windows Explorer.
2) Right click on WinExpl S70 and click on Explore or Open or Get Pics and only see window that it's in use, or depending on which was chosen, "select program to launch this action" but the field is blank. Found 2 processes for HP all-in-one printer and disabled them, still no change.
3) Also tried to download pics from Irfanview, no result.
4) Universal Plug & Play is on automatic.

[MilesCh]

Called Canon and a tech told me that's the way it is in that another scanner, zip drive, or all-in-one is pinging which would necessitate removing it from Windows Registry. Since I'm not about to do that, a card reader is the only solution and hope that a firmware update doesn't become imperative. He also said not to worry about bending/breaking the pins when re-installing the CF as it's a tight fit and that rarely goes wrong. I asked him why it works in Vista, but not HP on 2 different computers and he enlightened me with the fact that all software is different.

So guess there's no reason to continue searching for a fix and hope it will work year end when I change computers to a laptop with Win7.

[mecdave]

My guess is that Vista has a generic driver that recognizes the newer cameras. My experience with each new Canon camera I buy over time is that I need to install the latest Canon capture utilities before XP will recognize the camera.

I would install the latest Canon utilities, at least on your home computer, to see if it works then. You may be SOL on a locked down classroom XP PC unless you can get tech support to install the utilities.

[MilesCh]

THE SOLUTION IS TO REFORMAT THE CF CARD USING THE CAMERA'S FORMAT SETTING.

FYI, discovered this by inserting the factory very small sized CF
which contained a couple of pics taken in the store when the camera was purchased. WinXP could read and download those pics fine. So downloaded the pics from a 1GB Lexar currently in use using a card reader (for safety in the event not all were previously removed), then reformatted it using the camera's Setting/format command and took a couple of pics. And all is great! The window opens with several programs to view the pics and they can be downloaded directly without a program or via one of several programs.

This entire episode was very frustrating and I wasted countless hours including talking to 3 Canon techs on 3 different days, all of whom had the same story of some other program is polling from the reg which won't allow the function. Either an all-in-one printer (which I have), a zip drive, or a scanner (which I had years ago and still could be in the reg).

In other words, the 3 techs were blowing wind passing the buck when they didn't have a clue as to the cause. Not one of them inquired as to the CF. Needless to say I'll write the VP customer svc and perhaps the CEO advising that I'll tell everyone I know never to buy another Canon product due to extremely poor technical service.

And I've learned that whenever a new memory card is purchased for any camera to immediately format it in the camera!

Miles

[dundeebirder]

There is an sp3 available for windows xp so you might try downloading and installing this to see if it helps.