I have come across this several times, including the same thing with my Olympus C3020 digital camera.  My older PC, which was upgraded to Windows XP (home) from Windows ME with a Retail Windows XP upgrade CD will detect the camera and launch the Scanner and Camera Wizard and allow transferring pictures via the Wizard. 

My new PC, which has the OEM version of Windows XP will not launch the Camera and Scanner Wizard and I have to use the Windows Explorer to access the camera through the drive letter and copy the picture files.

According to Microsoft if the camera (or whatever device) is not "Windows Image Acquisition" (WIA) compliant, the Camera and Scanner Wizard or autoplay will not work. 

But, it will work on PC's that have been upgraded to Windows XP with a Retail Windows XP upgrade CD - I don't know what is different, but there is.  I upgraded a Compaq Presario for a customer that has an Olympus exactly like mine and the autoplay/Camera and Scanner Wizard comes up.  I have another customer that I upgraded an older PC from Win98SE to Windows XP (home) and my Olympus camera will autoplay on it.  That same customer recently bought a new PC (with an OEM Windows XP operating system) and I tried my Olympus on that one, after I set up the new PC for the customer, and it won't autoplay on it either.

I have done some additional testing with the memory card and found that if the memory card was formatted with the camera it won't autoplay.  But, if the memory card is formatted by Windows XP then it will autoplay however it the card is formatted by Windows the camera will detect it needs formatted.  My conclusion is that the formatting of the memory cards is where the "WIA" comes into play.  That may be a wrong assumption, but the only thing that I have done with the OEM versions of Win XP (both home and Pro) that makes autoplay work.  I have also tried using an external USB card reader instead of connecting the camera to the USB port and it doesn't make a difference which again goes back to the memory card format. 

 

Yeah, my laptop is upgraded from Windows ME, actually a clean install and it works.  I'm thinking a Registry key needs switching, but I'm not sure which one.  What do you think of that?  Would Dell technical support be able to provide an answer? 

 

I also had this autoplay problem and it is a Registry Key Issue.  As always back up the registry so you can restore it if necessary.  It might also be a good idea to create a setpoint just in case.

On the Taskbar, click Start-Run type Regedit and click OK

Locate the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\CDRom

in the right pane, the value for Autorun should be 1.  If it is not, right click Autorun, click Modify.

In the Edit DWORD Value dialog box, type 1 under Value Data.

Now locate this key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

The value for NoDriveTypeAutoRun should be hex 91  If it is not use the above procedure to change it.  On the File menu, click Exit.

Reboot your system and autoplay should work.

Ken G.

 

I've tried the registry thing a long time ago and it didn't help.  I've been on several WinXP tweak sites and never found anything that would allow the OEM version to autoplay my camera. 

Tried that, too.  Everything looks correct in the Registry.  Still doesn't work!  (Actually, is there a Registry Key for a removable drive?  If so, what is it called?  Maybe that's the problem...  My CDROMs autoplay fine.)

Microsoft has released a fix. Fixed my problem with the memory key and card reader anyway. Go to
http://www.windows-help.net/WindowsXP/fix-autoplay.html.

Don't know if this would help, says its an Autoplay fix wizard:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c680a7b6-e8fa-45c4-a171-1b389cfacdad&DisplayLang=en

Worked for me! Thanks to everyone involved!  Happy Holidays to everyone!

amajamar