Windows USB mass-storage oddity

[Yousuf Khan]

Okay, I got a digital camera which attaches to my pc via USB. Until
recently, whenever I connected it to the PC, it would autoplay a
selection of utilities to transfer my images from the camera to my
computer. As of a couple of weeks back, it stopped doing any autoplays.
I looked into it a bit and it sees the drive as just another drive, but
it does not show up under the Cameras and Scanners category. What
could've changed?

Yousuf Khan

 

[Rod Speed]

Okay, I got a digital camera which attaches to my pc via USB. Until
recently, whenever I connected it to the PC, it would autoplay a
selection of utilities to transfer my images from the camera to my
computer. As of a couple of weeks back, it stopped doing any
autoplays. I looked into it a bit and it sees the drive as just
another drive, but it does not show up under the Cameras and Scanners
category. What could've changed?

Most cameras have the pics in a folder tree under the main root folder.

Is that still visible when you browse the camera as a drive ?

 

[Yousuf Khan]

Most cameras have the pics in a folder tree under the main root folder.

Is that still visible when you browse the camera as a drive ?

Yes. Most of the same utilities that used to work before continue to
work now, but I just have to start them up manually. The only utility
that doesn't work anymore is the Microsoft Scanner and Camera Wizard,
which is because it no longer recognizes it as a camera.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Rod Speed]

Yes. Most of the same utilities that used to work before continue to
work now, but I just have to start them up manually. The only utility
that doesn't work anymore is the Microsoft Scanner and Camera Wizard, which is because it no longer recognizes it as a
camera.

Sounds like the USB stack has got screwed up.

Try manually deleting that in the device manager and letting it install it again.

Delete the USB roots.

 

[Ofnuts]

Okay, I got a digital camera which attaches to my pc via USB. Until
recently, whenever I connected it to the PC, it would autoplay a
selection of utilities to transfer my images from the camera to my
computer. As of a couple of weeks back, it stopped doing any autoplays.
I looked into it a bit and it sees the drive as just another drive, but
it does not show up under the Cameras and Scanners category. What
could've changed?

Yousuf Khan

Connect camera, and when drive appears in th eexplorer, right click,
"Properties" and "Autoplay" tab, and see which option is chosen (form
image files): "Select an action to perfrom", (and what action is
defined) or "Prompt me each time to choose an action".

 

[Yousuf Khan]

Connect camera, and when drive appears in th eexplorer, right click,
"Properties" and "Autoplay" tab, and see which option is chosen (form
image files): "Select an action to perfrom", (and what action is
defined) or "Prompt me each time to choose an action".

Everything in there is as it used to be, it simply doesn't start up an
autoplay activity of any kind. The option is not there to even manually
activate autoplay on this drive.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Rod Speed]

Ofnuts wrote

Everything in there is as it used to be, it simply doesn't start up an
autoplay activity of any kind. The option is not there to even
manually activate autoplay on this drive.

Thats clearly the problem. Try a repair install if its XP or Vista.

 

[Franc Zabkar]

Okay, I got a digital camera which attaches to my pc via USB. Until
recently, whenever I connected it to the PC, it would autoplay a
selection of utilities to transfer my images from the camera to my
computer. As of a couple of weeks back, it stopped doing any autoplays.
I looked into it a bit and it sees the drive as just another drive, but
it does not show up under the Cameras and Scanners category. What
could've changed?

Yousuf Khan

Have a look inside your registry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autorun#Windows_XP
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autorun#AutoPlay

Microsoft's TweakUI can be used to enable/disable autoplay:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tweak_UI

It may help others to help you if you were to export the relevant
registry keys and paste the relevant parts into your next post.

I don't use XP, but try poking around here:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum\SCSI
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum\USB
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class
HCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

- Franc Zabkar