Sony Camera not being detected

[FlamingInfinity]

I've been having problems with my Sony digital camera (DSC W370). I've attached it to my tower, and am ready to download the images I've shot and... nothing. I've been trying to work through it with Sony online chat, and there has been no solution yet.

It worked about a month ago, but I don't know what happened between then and now. Don't feel like going back and losing a bunch of programs that I installed over the past month. From what I am understanding, I'm missing a driver or two, that detects the camera. I have the camera drivers for my $hitty Kodak camera installed, but there doesn't appear to be one for Sony.

Is there any way to get Microsoft to scan my system and see if I'm missing any basic drivers from the base install? Seems like there should be a utility for that...

Thanks in advance.

[Roast Beef]

When you connect the camera it does nothing at all? Usually when you connect a USB device Windows will automatically attempt to install the drivers. Have you tried using a different USB port or USB cable?

[FlamingInfinity]

Originally Posted by Roast Beef

When you connect the camera it does nothing at all? Usually when you connect a USB device Windows will automatically attempt to install the drivers. Have you tried using a different USB port or USB cable?

Thats what usually happens, but nothing happens, no alert, no sound. I've tried different ports, front, back, and all of my other machines work (iPod, Blackberry) with the USB. Like I said, I think it's a driver problem, whether it's my camera, or an external Hard Drive (which I'm also having troubles with, but that's a whole other topic...).

[Roast Beef]

I've never seen a driver problem that would cause only 1 device to not be at least acknowledged in some fashion by the computer. The only times I have ever encountered the type of issue you are having is when I forgot to put a device into it's required USB mode. And when the actual USB cable itself was the culprit. If possible I would try plugging the camera into a different computer to check if it can at least see that a device is present. It might be as simple as replacing the USB cable.

[SebC]

Sounds to me like your camera is broken. Have you tried it with any other computer? One of my Canons had the USB fail, everything else still works fine. If your camera is in "Mass Storage" USB mode it shouldn't need any special drivers, it should work just like a thumb drive or external hard drive. You can still access photos on the memory card with a card reader. Just a workaround though, not a fix, and doesn't help if you've got photos on internal memory.

[Rathji]

Does it work on any other computer?

I would try that before I spent a lot more time trying to get it to work with this computer. Like SebC said, my first guess is that the camera, or the cable you are attaching the camera with is bad.

Very unlikely that Windows doesn't already have the drivers needed for your camera to act as removable storage. You could try running a custom (ie not express) Windows update with the camera attached and see if anything comes up under optional updates, but there is no way I can think of that it would work given the scenario you have described.

[FlameOn]

I have a DSC-T7 at home and one of the first things it asks for is for you to set up the device in mass storage mode or some other mode. If you don't set it to mass storage it doesn't show up on your computer as a known device?? IIRC, will check when I get home

Mind you if your computer doesn't do anything at all when you plug in the camera, there may be something wrong with it... Will get back to you later.

[mykalberta]

Maybe the USB port is busted, have you tried it in different ports.

Alot of times the camera needs to be powered on for the computer to detect it.

Also alot of cameras (as above poster indicates) need to be put in a certain mode, normally its view picture mode and not a camera shooting mode.

[FlameOn]

Originally Posted by mykalberta

Maybe the USB port is busted, have you tried it in different ports.

Alot of times the camera needs to be powered on for the computer to detect it.

Also alot of cameras (as above poster indicates) need to be put in a certain mode, normally its view picture mode and not a camera shooting mode.

That's a huge thing too, from what I know some USB devices need to be powered in order to be properly detect it is connected, also sometimes the device just needs the power (though for a camera this shouldn't be the case). PC motherboard manufacturer's, especially for laptops, don't power their USB ports enough. This could lead to some sporadic behavior.

Did your camera come with a powered cradle?

[Akai-Sesui]

Try a different USB cable

[FlameOn]

FlamingInfinity. Goto the menu -> main settings -> USB connect and make sure it isn't in pictbridge or PTP/MTP but set to mass storage or auto... wouldn't work for me when it was on pictbridge.

Other than that, try another cable as Akai-sesui said or another USB port/computer. Hope that helps

[FlamingInfinity]

Originally Posted by FlameOn

FlamingInfinity. Goto the menu -> main settings -> USB connect and make sure it isn't in pictbridge or PTP/MTP but set to mass storage or auto... wouldn't work for me when it was on pictbridge.

Other than that, try another cable as Akai-sesui said or another USB port/computer. Hope that helps

FML. I have about 3 USB cords with the smaller 'camera' end. It worked tonight. Now I feel bad about raging on the Sony guy, yesterday. Haha.

Thanks for all your help guys!

[SebC]

Wait, so was it the cable or the setting? (The suspense is killing me!)

[cKy]

Sometimes I find it is trying to pick a drive letter that is already in use, so it doesn't get properly detected aswell.