From me to me: I called the Sony help number and we tried
swapping the usb cables at the back of my pc, and found
one that the camera and the pc both liked. The original
usb connection works with another device. (Don't ask me
why the first connection didn't work with the camera.) XP
now recognizes the camera and downloads the picture files
almost instantly. I uninstalled the Sony Picture Package
software. All's well that ends well--but it took about
2.5 hours to figure it out.
In spite of the fact that the DSC-P41 (the 4.1 Meg)
camera is not listed in the "Digital Cameras That Are
Supported by WIA in Windows XP" Microsoft Knowledge Base
Article, it is supported, and even though Sony usb
drivers are not listed on the XP driver setup pulldown
menu, they are apparently in there.
Moral of the story: if plug-and-play doesn't work, try
replugging somewhere else before embarking on a software
troubleshooting misadventure.
