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There should be no need to manually install the camera, since Windows should always automatically detect the camera when it is connected via USB. From the description of the problem, Windows is not detecting the camera when it has been plugged into the computer. It is strange this problem coincided with the installation of the new scanner, since the FB630P is a parallel-port scanner which should (theoretically) not cause conflicts with the USB interface for your camera. There are a few procedures we can try in order to get the camera working.

Our first procedure involves reinstalling the digital camera software and drivers (if any), and should solve the problem in most cases. Disconnect the camera from your computer (if the device is connected) and then go into the ‘Add/Remove Programs’ control panel and uninstall all the software for your digital camera. Once this has completed, read the documentation that came with your camera and install all the digital camera software again as per the documentation. This should give you a clean installation of the software. Once the installation is complete, try connecting the camera and downloading the photos.

Should you encounter the same problem and you cannot download photos, we need to check whether the camera is being detected by Windows at all. We can use the Device Manager to check whether the camera is recognised, and if there have been any problems installing the device. Plug the camera into your computer (as normal) then go to the ‘Start’ menu > ‘Control Panel’. Open the ‘System’ control panel (you may need to first click ‘Performance and Maintenance’ if the control panel is displayed in Category view). In the System control panel window, click the ‘Hardware’ tab and the ‘Device Manager’ button. Look through the device tree for any devices which have not been installed correctly. These should be marked with a yellow exclamation point icon, or a red cross icon.

Should the digital camera device be present in the device list with a red cross icon, this means the device is displayed. To enable the device, right-click on the device entry and select ‘Enable’ from the context menu. The device should now work.

Alternatively, where the digital camera is present in the device list but it has a yellow exclamation point icon, this means there was a problem when installing the device. For more information, right-click on the device entry and select ‘Properties’ from the context menu. On the ‘General’ tab of the device properties, the device status will be displayed. Without particular information on the device status it is difficult for me to provide exact advice for this scenario. However, a general solution is to try to uninstall the device only (not the software) and then allow Windows to redetect the device. Close the device Properties window, right-click on the device and select ‘Uninstall’. Confirm you would like to uninstall the device and click OK. The device should disappear from the device list. With the camera still plugged into the computer, right-click on the top entry (root node) of the entire device tree, which should have an icon of a computer with your computer’s name and click ‘Scan for hardware changes’ from the context menu. This will force Windows to scan for new devices. Hopefully, the camera should be detected and correctly installed. If the camera is not detected, unplug the camera from your computer, restart the computer and once the computer has restarted, plug the camera back into the computer to allow Windows to detect the device. In the event that the camera is detected, but still with yellow exclamation mark and an error device status, please contact me again with the specific status of the device for further advice.

However, if the camera is not detected at all, and is not present in the Device Manager list, make sure all the devices under ‘Universal Serial Bus controllers’ are enabled and working correctly. Should one of these devices not be working, the problem may be due to a problem with the Universal Serial Bus (USB) on the computer, rather than a problem with the camera. This could be a quite complicated process, so if you are in this situation and are unable to resolve the problem yourself, please contact me again.