Help! Optio430RS not recognised as removeable drive

I use to be able to plug my 430RS into my USB port and it'll come up as a removeable drive. Now this doesn't work! Nothing happens when I plug the camera into my or any other PC (Win2K and XP).

I tried reinstalling the driver and a different USB cable/port to no avail. The camera itself works fine. Just can't download the photos!

Maybe the firmware is corrupted on the camera?? Anyone come across this problem before. ANY advice appreciated.

Many thanks.

No suggestions, I'm afraid, for a cure, but, if you can't get it to work, there are various card-readers that will plug into a pc or a laptop. Many people find these easier to use anyway than plugging the camera into the computer, which ties up the camera and uses battery power.
My card reader, for a laptop, cost less than £10.00.

Thanks George. What kind of card reader do you have? I've seen lots on the market depending on what facilities you want.

Anyway it turns out I need to really push the USB cable into the port on the camera and I have a 50% chance that it'll download the photos provided I keep pushing in the connector! Looks like I may have a loose connection on the USB port.

Has anyone come across this before?

My device is a Jessops PCMCIA Compact Flash reader.

FYI, if you are in the UK you can get a USB2 card reader from here:

www.7dayshop.com
http://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/default.php?cPath=777_4_402

I have the £8.95 one. Works a dream and is fantastic for downloading 1Gb cards (it's faster than PCMCIA too )

Matt