Messed up 350D

[Strud]

Hi,

Few days ago I have downloaded a trial version of DSRL Remote Pro, but since it did't worked with my 350D I upgraded it with v1.1 beta 6.
Today I have tried a timelapse feature (120 shots with 60s intervals). After about hal an hour the program lost the connection with the camera, and the camra froze. After rebooting windows (xp sp2) and reconnecting the camera its become unrecognized by system! (windows says its an unrecognized device). Its the same in "pc connection" mode as well as in "PTP" mode.
In system devices manager, under proprietes of usb devices I have found this information "USB\VID_0000&PID_0000\5&29CF821B&0&6".
I belive this means that the beta somehow messed up with firmware of 350D :(
The camera works (takes photos), but I'm unable anymore to download them to my PC (I don't have CF reader).
Is there any way to repair the camera by myself, or do I have to send it to Canon?
I already have tried removing both batteries, reseting camera to factory defaults, all without any effect.

Regards,
Strud

[Chris Breeze]

I don't think it is possible for DSLR Remote Pro to affect the firmware of the 350D in any way. It uses the Canon libraries which then communicate with the camera using the Canon USB drivers. The camera probably wouldn't function at all if the firmware was corrupted.

It's far more likely that the problem is with USB drivers on the PC and the first thing I would try is to uninstall the Canon USB drivers, reboot your PC and reinstall the drivers.

Another possibility is there is a fault in the USB interface on your camera.

I don't understand what you mean here:

In system devices manager, under proprietes of usb devices I have found this information "USB\VID_0000&PID_0000\5&29CF821B&0&6".
I belive this means that the beta somehow messed up with firmware of 350D

I've just run a time lapse sequence of 300 shots using my 350D and it worked without any problems. I'll recharge the batteries and repeat the test a few times.

[Strud]

I already tried uninstalling canon WIA drivers, rebooting and installing newest version from canon web site.


I don't understand what you mean here:
Quote:
In system devices manager, under proprietes of usb devices I have found this information "USB\VID_0000&PID_0000\5&29CF821B&0&6".
I belive this means that the beta somehow messed up with firmware of 350D

I'm not a specialist, but I thing this is an hardware identification string of connected device by which the connected device is recognized by the system. I suppose VID stands for Vendor ID and PID for Product ID, that somehow got changed to all 0.
In the CAP_3KRN.INF file (from the latest Canon WIA drivers for 350D) the correct strings seems to be:
"[Models]
%DSLRCam.DeviceDesc% = DSLR.Camera,USB\VID_04A9&PID_30EE"

I think this is why the system sees the connection, but lists it as an unrecognized device.

Now, it could be done by the Remote Pro beta by sending by error some strange command to the camera, or it's a camera failure, that just occured during the timelapse shooting.

[Chris Breeze]

On my Windows XP Pro system the camera is listed in the Device Manager under "Imaging devices" and the driver instance id is: USB\VID_04A9&PID_30EE\6&2593E15D&0&1

There is no section for "USB devices" on my system. You could try looking under "Imaging devices" and this might tell you whether the camera is recognised.

It's worth trying to connect your camera to another PC to see whether it is a camera problem or a PC problem.

I've left my 350D running a time lapse sequence of one shot every 10 secs and it managed 1200+ shots before the battery died.

[Strud]

Here is the final of the story.
Yesterday I went to Canon service. I said it stopped working with my PC when I was downloading photos (just "in case") ;)
They just reinstalled the original firmware and everything is back to normal.

[Chris Breeze]

It's good news that your camera's working properly now, but a bit worrying as to what caused the problem.
Canon finally released a new version of the EOS SDK on Friday and I've started testing it with the 20D, 350D and 1D Mark II.