I recently purchased a Kodak Easy Share V1003 digital camera. When installing the camera software on the computer Windows crashed mid-installation, and I was unable to get the computer to boot successfully. To recover from this problem, on boot I pressed the F10 key and completed a system restore. This fixed that problem, and the new camera works correctly, but has resulted in another issue. I also have an older Kodak camera, and whenever I plugged this into the computer the “Scanner and Camera Wizard” appeared allowing me to download photos from the camera. However, this no longer happens. When I go into the Control Panel and attempt to manually open the “Scanner and Camera Wizard” nothing appears, so it seems that the camera is no longer being recognised by Windows. This seems to be confirmed in the Device Manager, as the camera appears as an “Unknown Device” under “Universal Serial Bus controllers”. If I unplug the camera, this entry disappears. When I plug the camera back into the computer and click “Scan for hardware changes” the “Unknown device” reappears with a yellow exclamation point icon. Can I fix this problem so I can use the camera again?

Since your new Kodak digital camera now works correctly we can assume that the drivers for this device are correctly installed. However, it is possible that during the initial failed installation of this new camera the drivers for your old digital camera became corrupted. This is indicated by the fact that Windows cannot determine the device type for your old digital camera (shown by the Device Manager labelling this device an “Unknown Device”) and also the yellow exclamation point, indicating that the drivers cannot be found or installed for this device. As such, we need to determine whether these drivers can be reinstalled to allow the device to be recognised.

Before going any further, since this problem occurred after the failed installation of another device it is possible that the Windows driver cache has become corrupted. The driver cache stores frequently used device driver information files which are used during the installation of hardware. If this file has become corrupted it is possible that Windows cannot correctly install the required drivers. So, we will try to rebuild the driver cache. Before commencing, make sure your digital cameras are disconnected from the computer. Then, logon to the computer using an administrator account, and open Windows Explorer (or My Computer). We first need to enable the display of hidden files and folders, since the driver cache file is a hidden system file. Go to the “Tools” menu > “Folder Options”. In the Folder Options window that appears, click the “View” tab. Enable “Show hidden files and folders”. Click OK to close the window. Navigate to the location “C:\windows\inf” and locate the file named “INFCACHE.1”. Rename the INFCACHE.1 file to something else, such as INFCACHE.1.OLD (in case we need to restore the old file for some reason). Restart the computer and then try reconnecting the digital camera to see whether the device is correctly recognised.

Should clearing the driver cache not resolve the problem, we should next try reinstalling any software which came with your old Kodak digital camera to see whether this forces the reinstallation of the drivers. Make sure your camera is not connected to the computer during the installation process and only connect your camera after the installation has completed and the computer has been restarted (to allow any driver installation and caches within Windows to be updated before connecting the device). Should the camera still not be recognised or installed correctly we may need to complete a manual installation of the drivers. I have had to complete a manual installation on a few instances in the past where Windows is unable (or unwilling) to automatically install the required drivers. Without knowing the model of your old digital camera I can only provide general instructions for undertaking a manual installation, so you will need to fill in the blanks in this procedure. However, it should provide a good general overview of what needs to be done. Go to the “Start” menu > “Control Panel” and open the “System” control panel (you may need to first select the “Performance and Maintenance” category). In the window that appears, click the “Hardware” tab and the “Device Manager” button. Find the “Unknown Device” within the Device Manager window, right-click on the entry and select “Properties”. From the Device Properties window that appears, click the “Driver” tab. Click the “Update Driver” button and the Hardware Update Wizard will appear. The first window will prompt you to connect to Windows Update – select “No, not this time” and click “Next”. On the next page, select “Install from a list or specific location (Advanced)” then click “Next”. Now comes the tricky part where I cannot provide exact guidance – locating the drivers for your digital camera.

First we will try the easiest methods to detect the drivers and then move onto the more advanced methods. Windows may be able to detect and install the drivers for your camera from the software CD which came with the camera. Insert this CD into the drive and then on the Hardware Update Wizard installation options screen select “Search for the best drive in these locations” and only tick “Search removable media (floppy, CD-ROM…)”. Click “Next” and Windows will attempt to locate the correct driver. Should this be found, it should install and the device should now work correctly.

Should the drivers not be detected by Windows, and the device is still listed as “Unknown Device” with the yellow exclamation point, we need to be more specific regarding the location of the drivers. Go back into the Hardware Update Wizard and on the installation options screen select “Don’t search. I will choose the driver to install” and click “Next”. In the following window, you will see that the “Show compatible hardware” box is ticked. This will only display drivers which are known to be compatible with the hardware. If there are any drivers listed, Windows may have been able to detect a compatible driver. In this case, select the driver from the list and click the “Next” button to install the driver.

However, the more likely scenario is the “Show compatible hardware” box is ticked and no drivers are listed, indicating that Windows either cannot find any compatible drivers, or is unable to determine the hardware which is connected to your computer and cannot suggest any compatible drivers. In this case, we will need to point Windows towards the drivers file. For this to work, you will need to locate the relevant .INF file on the camera software CD. The .INF file contains the driver information for a device which is necessary to install the device drivers on the computer. The best method to locate this on your software CD would be to search the CD. Go to the “Start” menu > “Search”. Within the Search window click the “All files and folders” link. In the “All or part of the file name” field type “.INF” (without the quotes, but make sure you include the period before the INF) and change the “Look in” field to your CD/DVD-ROM drive. Click “More advanced options” and tick “Search system folders”, “Search hidden files and folders”, and “Search subfolders”. Click “Search” to commence the search. You may find that multiple .INF files are found in the search. Should this be the case, don’t worry – we can try all the .INF files. Write down the location of any found .INF files and then go back into the driver selection window and click the “Have Disk” button. A window will appear prompting you to select the location of the drivers. Click the “Browse” button and navigate to the driver location then select the .INF file. Click Open and then OK. You should be brought back to the driver selection window. If no drivers are displayed, untick the “Show compatible hardware” box (as this may be preventing any drivers from being displayed, since Windows cannot identify the hardware and thus may not be able to judge whether the drivers are appropriate for the unknown device). Should any of the drivers which are displayed match your model of camera, select the driver and click the “Next” button. Otherwise, click the “Have Disk” button again and select another .INF file (if your search of the CD found multiple .INF files) then repeat this procedure to see whether the correct drivers are displayed and can be installed.

Hopefully you should eventually find the correct drivers. If not, you could try to download the drivers from the Kodak website. Go to www.kodak.com.au and then select “Consumer Products” > “Downloads & Drivers”. Browse for your model of camera and check whether any drivers are available for download. Once the drivers have downloaded follow the instructions to install the drivers. If this does not work, check whether the extracted drivers include any .INF files which you could direct the Hardware Update Wizard toward for the installation of the drivers