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Canon S110 Problems...HELP?!

N

NivekC4

Golden Member
My sister bought my parents a Canon Powershot S110 digital camera for X-mas this year. She of course did not set it up for them, so being the most computer literate person in the house...it is now my responsibility. What I thought would be a walk in the park has turned into a nightmare.

I'm having trouble reading the images off the CF card. I can get the ZoomBrowser to open, but the images appear as question marks, and comes with an error message that is bs. I've tried EVERYTHING...

1) They started on Win 98, i reformatted and cleaned installed three times to Win2k SP2, then as a last ditch effort, I upgraded them to Windows XP. This also does not count the counless times I have removed and reinstalled the software too. (I even broke out the instruction manual and followed it step by step).

2) I set up the camera on my computer (Running XP) and it sets up fine on the first try.

3) I called Canon Tech Support, and they can't figure out what is wrong. They are saying it is a computer problem...and since I can install it on my computer, I am beginning to believe them...but do not understand what is wrong.

Here are the quick specs of their computer: HP Pavilion 6535, Celeron 466 Mhz, upgraded 384 mb of ram, 12 gb hd, modem, sound, etc.

I have exhausted all of my creative strategies in getting this to work. As I said earlier, the Support people say it is a computer problem, and they just hang up on me. I believe something on the computer is causing the camera not to work properly, but I don't know what. USB Port? (I have a USB mouse and tried in both ports) Power Supply? (I know it is not greater than 250W, but my sis has a older model HP 4535 and the camera works fine on her computer).

I'm literally tearing my hair out about the problem. I know the camera is good because it works on my computer...

Any suggestions and help would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks

-NivekC4
 
I'd suspect a problem with the USB ports. I've seen a number of systems with flaky USB support - some devices work, some don't. There are known problem with USB on certain models of Dell laptops.

I'd be tempted to spend $20 and plug in a USB card into that computer and see if that clears it up. If you have a powered USB hub, you may want to try that between the PC and the camera - that fixes the problems on the Dells.

 
that definately sucks. that camera is a fancy piece of metal. i would think usb is the problem too. if it works on yours, and it doesnt work on theirs, thats definately something to troubleshoot. hope you get it to work. that camera is a beauty.
 
so if it is a USB problem, buying a new USB card would work? Would the USB card just plug into a PCI slot? Also...would I be able to pick one up at BestBuy?
 
Yep, just plug it into a PCI slot and load the drivers that come with it. Should be able to pick one up at BestBuy, CompUSA, CC, etc.
 

Try getting a USB CF reader and completely forget about connecting the actual camera.
 
Yea, I was thinking about getting a CF reader to bypass the process of connecting the camera.

Which way is best to go? CF reader or USB card?
 

USB CF reader doesn't require you to pop open the case, quick and easy. If you have an electronics retail store around you, pick one up, they should be under 30, check their return policy and try that first. If it doesn't work, take it back. Go the less hassle route first.
 
Based on my experiences, it's probably not related to USB. It's probably Zoombrowser itself. I like Zoombrowser - when it works. But I have installed it on several computers and ZB seems to be very picky about some of the system settings. The program can be decidedly finicky about stuff. For some reason after installing Quicktime on my system it stopped showing movies and shows question marks. Uninstalling Quicktime didn't fix it. I couldn't get it to work at all on my mother's HP Pavillion with Win98. Having a USB reader will enable you to move the pictures from the camera to the computer - which will let you avoid ZB altogether.

 
I've owned several digital cameras, currently a Nikon 990 and the s110. We recently gave my daughter her first digicam .... the major lesson I have learned is: bypass both direct camera hookups and install the included software with caution. You will save yourself a ton of tsoris and hopefully your hairline 😉.

This thread is a great demonstration of AT in action .... I would be amazed if the CF reader doesn't help. The only potential "rub" is if the USB implementation is truly problematic on the MB itself (you might get stuck adding both). I must admit that I usually add a Belkin 2 or 4 port card to most of the machines I build to circumvent possible USB issues. I would also find a copy of irfanview so that they can view and manage their pics without resorting to Canon's software (which is actually better than most).

Don't worry 😉 , you'll sort this out and your folks will love the camera (I know I do).

Good luck,

fraz
 
I'd have to say it's the hardware.
Some older systems seem to have flakey USB ports. Canon Digital cameras are sensitive to the quality of the port and will often not connect through a hub connected to a port that works with the camera. Not sure if an add in USB card would help as the problem could be chipset related. You might experiment with BIOS settings relating to the PCI bus like toggling 2.1 compliance etc. since USB runs through PCI bus.
You can also rule out a problem with the Zoom Browser program by trying the Cannon's Remote Capture program. If it doesn?t work then the USB port is the problem.
I'm not really familiar with the S110 but the A10/A20's CF card is not the most easy to remove so using a card reader is not a good option just to download a few pictures. The Zoom Browser software is excellent for average computer users to manage and download pictures from the camera and avoids the confusion of the CF reader "removable disk" and cryptic folder/file numbers and manually moving .jpeg?s - easy for experienced computer people but a nightmare for the inexperienced.

Hey PM
Don't you know Apple's Quick Time is a movie player masquerading as a virus whose main purpose is to completely wreck most Windows installations it touches. It's Steve Jobs way of getting even will Bill. Uninstalling it completely is next to impossible and I've had to dump a few Windows installs and start over to make things completely right after clients unwittingly installed it to watch a few crappy movies.
On the other hand, I know of 6 widely differing systems with Zoom Browser installed, the program works fine on all but none of them run QT - M.
 
Just to update you guys...I went out and bought the CF reader first and it DID NOT work. It suprised me, and I thought all was lost.

I returned it and picked up a USB card, and bingo. Everything worked smoothly.

Thanks for all your help and suggestions.

-NivekC4
 
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