Recently, a friend was at my home and took pics with her camera...she was concerned she may lose the pics if the batteries failed so I offered to download them onto my computer. I downloaded them on my computer and then also downloaded them to Snapfish. Later in the evening she took more pics and I also downloaded those pics as well. She contacted me today to tell me her camera is now inoperable. She said that the cable I used was different from hers probably and must've caused her camera to short out and now it is broken. I also had remembered her son dropping the camera at the end of the night and thinking how relieved I was that I hadn't. This could be the reason it is not working...but if it also could be because I downloaded the pics on my computer, I would need to know so I could take care of the repairs.
Thank you.
If you were able to download the pictures to your PC then you used the right USB cable. removing the USB cable while the camera is on will only damage the memory card (not always). I used to just snap out my USB cable from my camera and its still okay. sounds to me that when the camera was damaged when her son dropped it. you dont owe your friend anything. you just help her get the pictures. and besides, pictures will not be erased when the battery gets drained.
Using the wrong cable can certainly damage a camera.
You don't say what "inoperable" means. I have sold and serviced many digital camera over the years. Dropping a camera will often result in damage to the lens assembly causing blurry/distorted pictures or the lens will not extend or close.
If the camera is completely dead or fails to boot then you probably used the wrong cable or connected it incorrectly and fried the internal electronics. This particular Gateway/Samsung camera can be fried if you connect or disconnect the USB cable while the camera is power on.
Sounds like you owe your friend a new camera.
Sorry for the difficulties experiencing with the Camera.
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DW's right about not connecting or removing the USB cable while the camera is on. I zapped mine that way.
I uploaded my pics and pulled the cable out before turning the camera off. When I tried to use it later it would no longer "boot up". My husband tried removing the batteries and memory card but that didn't help.
Gateway wouldn't replace the camera under warranty because I had "abused" the camera. They pointed me to the page in the user guide where it says not to connect or disconnect the USB cable with the camera turned on.
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