dimage xt

[llmask]

help!

i just got my xt today and i am having problems connecting it to my xp computer.

i know xp is suppose to just recognize the camera but it doesnt! the camera lcd displays " initializing usb connection "

and it doesnt go anywhere from there - and i left it like that for awhile.

everything in the camera is fine. the only thing i haven;t checked is connecting it to a tv.

i am also trying to figure out if the camera is second hand by asking this question.. does the lcd have a protective covering when bought? there is a minor scratch on the battery / memory door - one line.. but everything else seem right.

pls. someone help me connecting it!!!

[Wildman]

A card reader will solve almost any connection/download problems. They don't cost a lot and I've never heard of anybody who can't get their picture files onto the hard drive.

[llmask]

but that defeats the purpose of having the camera just connects to the computer.

im sure there is a way to just connect it to the computer.

is there anyone else out there who are experiencing the same problem as i am?

[Mike_PEAT]

First check to see if there's any updated drivers on the Minolta CD, or even better the website...as the camera came out after XP was released, XP doesn't have the driver it may need for that camera.

As for the reader issue for many cameras the reader is faster, it doesn't use up the camera's batteries (if the camera battery dies while accessing the card the card can be corrupted and your pictures lost), and in some cases cameras have developed a glitch while connected to usb and have gotten locked up; the camera than required a trip back to the manufacturer to be fixed.

I was like you, until I heard about the corrupted camera (right after my warranty was finished) and have since switched to a reader.

[BigMac]

Originally Posted by Mike_PEAT

(if the camera battery dies while accessing the card the card can be corrupted and your pictures lost)

I have not heard of that before and I consider it a serious design flaw of the camera if that is actually possible. The camera should shut down before power would get as low as to be able to drop out while accessing the card. My Canon S400 does that.

I used to connect my previous 1M Olympus 830CL (can't even find reviews of it on the net anymore it still operates though and my daughter of 4 years old is having a ball with it ) directly to my PC (it used a serial link) and it never had that problem, and it occasionally died while transferring images (that was Smart Media, the Canon is CF).

Can you tell us which camera this observation applies to? Or is it more of a generic statement?

Regardless of the above, I use a reader myself for the other reasons you listed and can strongly recommend it. To llmask, there may (and probably will) come a time that you will use more than only 1 memory card for your camera, and then a reader becomes (pretty much) essential.