trouble detecting S30 on my laptop

[fukur]

Hello,

I'm new here and I'm having trouble having my S30 detected on my laptop running winXP.

It used to work for a while but at some point stopped working. All I remember doing in between is connecting the S30 to the TV. TV connection still works.

What happens is when I connect the camera to the laptop's USB port, the camera's lamp turns orange and a window pops up asking me which program to run. I select ZoomBrowser, but when it tries to view images on the camera, the lamp light turns off and ZoomBrowser says it can't find the camera. In fact, I was once able to go as far as viewing the images in ZoomBrowser, but the camera went down again soon.

The problem is I can't simply resort to buying a CF reader because I need to connect it to my computer and captur a long time series. And I have the same problem with RemoteCapture. When I try to connect to the camera, it says it's unable to find the camera. The camera doesn't show up in the list of devices when I go to Control Panel either.

The camera works fine on my desktop which runs win2k. I tried connecting another Canon camera (D60) to my laptop but it wouldn't detect it either.

Any help would be much appreciated. I need to get it working soon so I'm really in need of help. Thanks!

[sanket]

try reinstalling the WIA driver i.e the camera's driver for the USB port.

Also make sure the Battery is fully charged...

[fukur]

Thanks for your response.

However, I've already tried what you have suggested without success. I have uninstalled & reinstalled the driver/software multiple times, and I made sure the battery is fully charged (I even tried it with the AC adapter).

Now I'm thinking that something isn't quite right with my laptop's USB port.

It had the same problem when I tried another Canon camera (D60) with the appropriate driver and software. The Scanner & camera wizard also fails to detect it.

Next I tried Nikon Coolpix 990. The camera shows up in the list of hardware, but for some reason I wasn't able to download the images using Nikon View, the software that came with the camera.

To see if it's really a USB problem, I tried a USB mouse on my laptop and it didn't work either.

It seems that the USB port is somewhat unstable but not completely defective. I guess I'll have to send my laptop for a repair.

[JohnnyE]

Is your laptop in a docking station? If so, remove it, and try connecting your cam again. Docking stations often have the effects you mentioned.

[fukur]

Sorry, I saw your message only just now. Thanks for your response. However, unfortunately no, my laptop is not on a docking station. For my time-lapse sequence, I finally ended up borrowing another laptop.

I exchanged several emails with the Compaq support (my laptop is Compaq Presario), tried everything they suggested (including upgrading the BIOS, uninstalling/reinstalling the USB device, etc.), but to no avail. I think I'll send it to the Compaq maintenance. Just need to figure out when I can really afford to do that (i.e. live without my laptop for 2 weeks or so).