Digital Camera problem with USB & Firewire

[rkphoto]

I'm having trouble downloading pictures to my iMac G5. I have a Canon Powershot Pro 1 and I've tried linking it via USB to the back of my iMac using the cord that came with it and I've tried putting the CF card into a Firewire CF card reader that I have. I'm using Canon Imagebrowser and it seems like whenever the computer realizes that there is a camera attached it crashes (Locks up, grey screen scrolls down with that I need to restart my computer).

I've used this camera/ iMac/ software combination many times before and it has worked seamlessly. What could be causing this to happen? As a side note I recently had problems with a Epson scanner that was hooked up via USB (I returned the scanner). Could there be something wrong with my USB ports? Is this an instance where I need to repair permissions or something like that? I have a printer, Umax scanner hooked up via USB and a LaCie 250 GB drive and my iPod hooked up via Firewire. Could there be some sort of conflict between the various devices?

I'm completely baffled. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in Advance for your help.

rk

 

[Westside guy]

Is this an instance where I need to repair permissions or something like that?

Repairing permissions certainly shouldn't hurt anything, and this seems like a likely avenue to explore.

 

[simie]

Does the printer, Umax scanner all work ok? If so then your ports sound like they are working fine.

Does the CF card, read and write OK in the camera?

How is the LaCie 250 GB drive plugged firewire or USB, if its firewire try diconnecting that and then pluging the CF Reader directly.

Next try unplugging all the other USB devices and leave the CF reader pluggeed in.

Then try leaving the card in the camera and plugging the camera in directly to your iMac

Still now luck then try it may also be application fault

Check here for software updates against your current versions

All Powershot drivers are available
here

 

[rkphoto]

Does the printer, Umax scanner all work ok? If so then your ports sound like they are working fine.

Does the CF card, read and write OK in the camera?

How is the LaCie 250 GB drive plugged firewire or USB, if its firewire try diconnecting that and then pluging the CF Reader directly.

Next try unplugging all the other USB devices and leave the CF reader pluggeed in.

Then try leaving the card in the camera and plugging the camera in directly to your iMac

Still now luck then try it may also be application fault

Check here for software updates against your current versions

All Powershot drivers are available
here

Printer works fine as does the scanner except for a lack of driver (Umax doesn't make one for OSX, I'm waiting to get Silverfast).

The CF card reads and writes perfectly, no problem there.

The LaCie drive is Firewire and I've daisy chained the CF reader off of that. I have my iPod plugged into the other Firewire port.

I've already tried unplugging all other USB devices and attaching only the camera via USB, no luck (CRASH).

I haven't had any problems with the software before. It's a clean install off of the disk.

I'm going to try and run repair Permissions. Any other advice?

Thanks a lot. I really appreciate the help.

rk

 

[rkphoto]

OK, ran "repair permissions" out of Disk Utility" and still no luck, big fat crash as soon as I put the CF card in the reader. Here's the real crux of the problem, I have my wife's PC laptop sitting right here on the desk next to my iMac. I'm sure if I plug the camera into the laptop it's going to work and I can burn a disk and get the images into the iMac that way, but I don't want to. That would put a big "L" in the iMac column and a "W" in the piece of garbage Sony PC column and I would have to concede to my wife that maybe Macs aren't that great and PC' s are better.

So basically it's a battle of platforms that I don't want my iMac to lose. Please help.

Thanks again in advance.
rk

 

[djbahdow01]

Have you tried directly connecting the firewire reader to the iMac. As you might have a conflict with the chained hardware.

 

[rkphoto]

Tried that and same as before, as soon as I insert the CF card the computer crashes. I know it's not the card, what could be wrong with my computer?

Thanks,
rk

 

[simie]

Do you have to install any drivers for your CF Reader - try either reinstalling them or searching for an update.

Have you got a spare CF card that you can format using your camera,
Once formatted then insert the CF card into the reader and try.

What happens if the card is in the CF reader and the reader is connected to your iMac before you power up. Does OS X still crash or is it only when you open up the application to retrieve your images.

What happens if you use iPhoto instead, does it still crash.

If your Lacie 250 and your iPod are both working fine and they do not cause the iMac to crash then your ports and their drivers are OK.

 

[rkphoto]

Thanks for the help

After around two or three hours of online chatting with Apple tech support last night, we figured out that it was a user specific problem by setting up a test user account. The Apple tech agent suggested I drag the preferences folder from my user account Library folder to the desktop and restart which I did and there was no problem, the camera connected fine.I've since copied most of my user preferences back into the Library/ Preference folder and my iMac is back to running the way I like it. I think there was some sort of driver conflict with an epson scanner driver I installed (for a scanner I never could get to work, an Epson 2480).

Anyway, I highly recommend Apple online chat support to any iMac users who are having difficulties. They were very nice and helpful. It's only available to iMac users (I think they're testing the effectiveness of this type of support) and it's free. Go to http://www.apple.com/support/imac/ and click on "chat with a support agent".

Thanks to everyone for their help.

Cheers.
rk

 

[simie]

Its interesting how a driver from a scanner that is not being used can cause you so much trouble, I am glad that you managed to get it sorted.

Two to three hours was a long time chatting with Apple Techie's wasn't it. Just goes to show that Apple Techie's are human after all and they to don't all have the answers at least not straight away, anyway.

A lot of software that gets installed onto an OS X systems cannot be removed with the installer that put it there in the first place. You end manually deleting it, then you are not sure if its all gone.