Recently I purchased a Canon A520 digital camera which came with the ZoomBrowser software. When attempting to run this software, the following message appears: ‘Zb Module has encountered a problem and needs to close’. On clicking the button for more information, the explanation given is that the fault occurred in application ‘zoombrowser.exe’ in module ‘zbdmv.dll’. Reinstalling the software does not fix the problem. The computer is running Windows XP Professional.

You should first try completing a full uninstall of ZoomBrowser. When uninstalling programs through the Add/Remove Programs control panel, elements of the program are often left behind. In most cases the program directory is not removed so elements from the old installation persist into the new installation. So, we will need to remove any such elements. If ZoomBrowser is currently installed on the computer, uninstall the program through the usual uninstall method in the ‘Add/Remove Programs’ control panel. Once this process is complete, restart the computer in case any files are in-use and can only be removed following a restart. Once the computer has restarted, use Windows Explorer to browse to the ZoomBrowser directory, which should be in a location such as: C:Program FilesCanonoom Browser EX. If this directory does not exist, it seems the directory has been removed. Now, try reinstalling the program. On the other hand, should the directory exist then check the contents of the directory (in case there is anything you wish to keep, such as downloaded images/photos from your camera). Assuming you do not wish to keep anything within the directory, or have copied the items you wish to keep to another location, delete the ZoomBrowser directory. Once the directory is deleted, try reinstalling the program.

If the problem continues, you should try updating ZoomBrowser to the latest version. You can download the update for ZoomBrowser from the Canon website. Go to www.canon.com.au/support/default.aspx and select your camera. On the product page which subsequently appears, click the ‘Driver Downloads’ link. A new window will appear, listing the downloads for your camera. Select and download the ZoomBrowser EX 5.5 Updater for Windows. Since this is an update, you will probably need to have the original version of ZoomBrowser installed on your computer (even though it does not work) and then run the update to update the existing installation.

Where upgrading ZoomBrowser does not fix the problem, the cause could be related to the connection between the digital camera and computer. The software may be looking for the camera on startup and because the camera is not connected, the error is thrown. Try connecting the digital camera to the computer before starting the ZoomBrowser software. Should this not work, you could also try the opposite: start the software before connecting the camera to the computer.