Need A40 and USB detection help!

I have fixed my problem doing what Canon has suggested to me (it's not documented anywhere).

For Windows 98/Windows Me only. These procedures will not work with
Windows 2000 or Windows XP)

If your camera was recognized by Windows as a USB device, but was
incompletely installed or registered, there may be a "ghost" device in
the Device Manager. To see and remove this device, you must reboot
your
computer into the Safe Mode. Unplug the USB cable connecting your
camera
to the computer before proceeding.

1. Reboot your computer. As soon as it starts booting, begin to press
the F5 key on your keyboard every 1-2 seconds until you see the message
"Windows is bypassing your startup files" at the top of the screen.
Let
Windows continue to boot, and you should see the words "Safe Mode" in
the corners of the screen. The colors will look somewhat strange, and,
usually, everything will appear to be larger on the screen.

2. Click on the Windows Start menu, then on Settings and Control Panel.
In the Control Panel, double-click on the System icon, then on the
Device Manager tab.

3. In the Device Manager, look in the Imaging Device and Other
Devices sections (if applicable) to see if your model camera is
identified there. If so, highlight the camera model name and click on
the Remove button. Also remove any Unknown Device that may be shown in
either of these sections, or in the 'Universal Serial Bus controllers'
section.

4. Reboot your computer. The computer should boot back up in its
Normal
mode. Before you reconnect the USB cable to the computer, install the
USB TWAIN Driver (Windows 98) or USB WIA Driver (Windows Me) software.
Use the Canon Digital Camera Solutions CD-ROM that came with your
camera, or you may download the latest driver from our PowerShot web
site at http://www.powershot.c​om …/customer/drive​rdown.html.

5. Once the Driver software is installed, connect the USB cable between
the camera and the computer. Windows should automatically complete the
installation and registration of your camera as soon as it detects the
camera.

Hi horacioduhalde;

You definitely solved the problem that I had and that I posted on this board 10/10!

Following your instructions of your message 11/18, I booted WIN98 in Safe Mode; and deleted the A40 camera (under Device Manager, Imaging Device).
While in Safe Mode; I also checked other devices and detected that my Canon Scanner was two times installed. I deleted one set.

I exited Safe Mode and rebooted in Normal Mode.
Once in Normal Mode, under Control Panel, Add/Remove programs; I removed the Canon Twain Driver and reinstalled it and … Bingo.

A zillion thanks. You made my day!

Rgds. Hans

Thank you very much for this complete guide.
I've tried many installations on my computer (PIII, 600).
Now it is working!
Merry christmas
Peter

In addition to the excellent information give on potential conflicts of software, one thing that I've found that baffled me for a while (read non-computer whiz) was that:
You have to click on the "English" portion of the driver download, once it's resident in your computer to actually get it to load the camera's info.)

Pat

I had the same problem with Canon PowerShot S30 and Windows 98. It seems only Windows 98 has some problems with the Canon twain usb driver. I followed the advices of rick000: "first of all, turn the camera off, plug it into the computer, then turn it on in the preview mode (or what ever you call the little arrow)" and now works fine, the camera was recognized by Windows 98.

Thanks a lot rick000