Scanner and Camera Wizard
You, like me, may have had (or be having) problems with your wizard. These notes are the output of my research into this issue. Various portions have solved the problem on different PCs at different times. I still have an outstanding issue with an Olympus C-50 Zoom on a PC where the wizard works perfectly with a Canon 20D. The difference appears to be that the Olympus appears in the Device Manager as a Disk Drive but not as an Imaging Device. The Canon appears as an Imaging Device but not as a Disk Drive! Both behave correctly as far as the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon in the taskbar is concerned.
Too many USB devices?
The issue can occur when too many USB devices are connected to the computer at the same time.
First unplug all other external device to check the issue. Then try the digital
camera. If the Autoplay Wizard does not appear, open My Computer and check if
the device has been recognized as Removable Disk.
What is the result?
If the device
cannot be recognized, continue to check the issue in Safe Mode:
1. Restart your
computer and start pressing the F8 key on your keyboard. On a computer that is
configured for booting to multiple operating systems, you can press the F8 key
when you see the boot menu.
2. When the
Windows Advanced Options menu appears, select Safe Mode, and then press Enter.
3. Log onto
Windows by using the Administrator account or any user account with the
Administrator privileges.
NOTE: In Safe
Mode, your system display and desktop will look and perform differently than in
normal mode. This is only temporary.
Check if the issue persists now.If the issue
still persists, Show hidden first and then uninstall and reinstall the USB
Controllers (don't worry XP will do this for you on reboot!):
1. Click Start,
click Run, type "cmd" (without the quotation marks) and press Enter.
2. Enter the following commands one by one:
set
devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
cd %systemroot%\System32
start
devmgmt.msc
3. In the open
window, click "Show hidden devices" on the View menu in Device Managers.
4. Uninstall
all devices in the "Other devices" category.
5. Uninstall
all devices in the "Universal Serial Bus controllers" category.
6. Uninstall
all devices in the "Image devices" category.
7. Restart the
computer.
8. Please only
connect the DC to check the issue.
Real Player 10?
If you recently installed Real Player 10, this is the likely culprit preventing
XP to automatically recognize the camera or card reader and open the Autoplay
window. You will have to uninstall Real Player and maybe do something else as
described below. After you uninstall Real Player 10, reboot your computer and
then try with your camera or card reader again.
If you do not want to uninstall RealPlayer, you can get around it and still get
Autoplay, as given below:
Open Real Player. Go to Tools then Preferences. Click on Automated Services and
then Disable Message Center and Auto updates. Reboot your computer and then try
with your camera or card reader again.
If you do not have Real Player 10, read below for different ways to download
your pictures and repair the Autoplay.
Several ways to download your pictures, from your camera or card reader.
Before you connect your camera to your computer, make sure you have enough
battery power or better yet use your AC connector if your camera came with one.
Then, check your camera manual. With most cameras you simply power them on and
set them to take pictures, with some you need to set them to something like
connect to PC or set PTP. After connecting your camera to your computer via a
USB cable, power the camera on and wait about 15-20 seconds for XP to recognize
the camera, you will hear some sound "ding-dong" and the LCD screen on your
camera will change (the change is dependent on the type of camera you have) and
you are now ready to transfer, even if the Autoplay window does not open
automatically. If you do not hear a sound or the LCD screen of your camera does
not change, the connection with the USB port is not correct. Go to the bottom of
these directions to repair the USB connection. I’ve had success with this fix
even when XP does recognise the camera!
After you hear the sound:
1. Open My Computer, look under Devices with removable storage. Your camera (or
card reader) will be listed there as an external drive with a drive letter E, F,
G or H (probably listed below your CD drive). Right click on your camera listed
as an external drive. A menu will open, click on Autoplay listed on the opening
menu. This should open the Autoplay window to download your photos the same way
as when the Autoplay window opens automatically when you connect your camera.
If you want to keep Real Player 10, this would be another way to do it. The
Autoplay will not open when you connect your camera but you can still get the
Autoplay from your camera listed as an external drive.
Or
2. Open My Computer, look under Devices with removable storage. Your camera will
be listed there as an external drive (probably listed below your CD drive).
Double click on it to open it. You will see a folder, double click to open it,
then another folder, double click on it to open it and you will see the list of
photo files. Select all files and copy to a folder on your hard drive. To select
all the files, hold the Ctrl key down and press the letter A. Or, click on Edit
on your top bar and then click on Select all on the opening menu. When files are
selected, their names are highlighted in blue. You can then look at the menu on
the left of the file names and click on Copy and then select the folder you want
or make a new folder to save the files into it.
Repair AutoPlay
If you want to repair the automatic Autoplay window (and you do not have Real
Player 10) you can try the following.
Different ways to try to repair the Autoplay window for downloading from either
a camera or card reader.
Go from steps 1 to 5, although step 5 may not be needed.
1. Connect your camera (or card reader) to your computer, and make sure you have
pictures on your memory card. Make sure your batteries are good or better yet,
use your AC adapter if your camera came with one. If you are trying with a card
reader, just connect it with a memory card inserted and with pictures on the
memory card. Power the camera on, wait 10-15 seconds for XP to recognize it, you
should hear a sound and the LCD screen of your camera will change, the change is
dependent on the type of camera you have. With a card reader, just wait for the
sound after you connect it.
Click on My Computer and look under Device with Removable storage. Your camera
(or card reader) will be listed there, probably below your CD drive, and a drive
letter will be assigned to it (something like G, H, etc.) You will use this
drive letter in a step below, so just note down what the drive letter is. With a
card reader you may see multiple drives, depending upon the card reader you have
(you may have a card reader capable of reading a CF card, SD card, Memory stick,
etc. each one will have a drive letter so select the drive letter corresponding
to the memory card you have, or select any of the drive letters for it and it
should still work regardless of the type of card you have).
If you do not see your camera or card reader listed there you will need to
repair your USB connection (see below for repair) or you are on a network and
the network drive is Z and XP cannot assign a drive letter to your camera. You
will need to take care of this first. The steps below will NOT work if XP cannot
assign a drive letter for your camera or card reader. In some cases, your camera
may be listed but with no drive letter. Try the drive letter after the CD or DVD
drive under which your camera is listed.
2. Download the
autofix.exe file
Click on Start / Run and type the following in the textbox:
REGSVR32 SHIMGVW.DLL
and press Enter/OK.
Note that there is a space between ...32 and SHI...
This will take a few seconds to run and you will get a "success" message.
4. Open the folder and double click on the file and then follow directions on
the screen. Or, let Microsoft scan your computer to make the repair. You will
need your camera drive letter during this step. After this, reboot your
computer.
You can leave your camera on and attached or your card reader attached while you
reboot. However, better to disconnect the camera or card reader after you turn
your computer of and then reboot.
5. After rebooting, connect the camera and power it on (or connect the card
reader) wait 10-15 seconds for XP to recognize it, you should hear some beeping
sound and the Autoplay window should now open giving you the option of
downloading photos from the camera or card reader.
6. You may have to set the options for this window. Click on My Computer, your
camera (or card reader) should be listed there under Devices with Removable
Storage. Right click on it and click on Properties. In the opening window, click
on the Autoplay tab and under Select, scroll to Pictures to select it. Select
the button Prompt me...
Check
Windows Imaging Services and conflicting hardware devices
Click on Start / Run and type the following in the textbox:
cmd
and press Enter.
A window will open (black and white) and will display the following:
c:\Documents and Settings\your_name>
Type the following at the end of the above line after the >
net start stisvc
and press Enter.
This starts Windows Imaging Acquisition service. You will get a message that
service is already started (if so this does not solve the problem) or that it is
starting (if so this may solve the problem). Then try connecting your camera
after you close this window. To close this window, type EXIT at the end of the
displayed line and press Enter.
You can check if WIA
service is running by right clicking My Computer / click Manage / expand (+)
Services and Applications / highlight Services / drill down to WIA / Check
Status is Started.
It is possible, that
similar to the RP10 issue, some software may be causing the problem. To identify
this culprit: let’s disable
all startup items and third party services when booting. This method will help
determine if this issue is caused by a loading program or service. Perform the
following steps:Click
Start / Run, and
type the following in the textbox:
msconfig
and
press Enter/OK.
This starts the System Configuration Utility.
Click the Services tab, check the "Hide All Microsoft Services" box and click Disable All
(if it is not gray). Click the Startup tab, click Disable All and click OK.
Then,
restart your computer. When the "System Configuration Utility" window appears,
please check the "Don't show this message or launch the System Configuration
Utility when Windows starts" box and click OK.
Note: Temporarily disabling the Startup Group only prevents the startup programs
from loading at startup. This shouldn't affect the system or other programs. We
may still manually run these programs later.
Does the problem still occur after you unload the Startup Group? If not, let's go
through the Startup Group to narrow down the root cause of the issue:
1. Click
Start / Run / msconfig / Enter/OK
2. Click Startup and click to check the first unselected item.
3. Click Apply, click OK and click Yes to restart the computer.
4. Does the problem occur? If the problem occurs again, the cause is this
selected item. If not, check the remaining sections of the startup group tab,
one at a time, and start the computer after each checkmark is added. When the
problem returns, the last check box you selected is loading a program that is
causing the problem.
Corrupt User Profile Group
It is possible that a User Profile has become corrupted. In this case, create yourself a new User Profile and transfer all your old data, KB 811151
NoDriveTypeAutoRun
Here is another solution that was originally posted at MS
NewsGroup FAQ.
It has since been removed and a less technical version offered. The article tells you to look for
a Registry setting in:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
1. Delete that binary
value by highlighting the "NoDriveTypeAutoRun" value and pressing the DEL key.
2. Right-click on that right-pane, select New - DWORD value.
3. Name the New Value as "NoDriveTypeAutoRun"
4. Double-click or press Enter to modify the newly created value.
5. Select the "Decimal" radio button, and then type "145" without the
quotations.
6. Click OK and then close the Registry Editor.
7. Save your work and restart your computer. (Logging off is not enough.)
I have heard reports
that a similar DWORD can exist at:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Oddly I have found that this DWORD value can be 144 and the wizard still work!
My thanks to the many people who have helped in this research, particularly Yves Alarie, Emma Zhang @ Microsoft and Google!