Suninfrance Posted July 31, 2008 Share Posted July 31, 2008 Friend has just phoned as he has a problem with his camera.The camera is a Pentax IST DS and he has just gone to download some pics and a messages comes up "power surge on usb" and it won't work. He has plugged in his external hard drive and a flash drive into the same usb port and they both work. Could it be that his usb lead from camera to computer in defunct or is there a solution to this problem.Jan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clair Posted July 31, 2008 Share Posted July 31, 2008 [quote]The power surge warning means that a device that uses the USB port isrequiring more than 500 milliamps of current and the USB port cannotsupport that.[/quote]In the first instance, I would suggest unplugging all unnecessary peripherals connected to the computer by USB (printer, scanner...) , then trying again.Google Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cat Posted July 31, 2008 Share Posted July 31, 2008 There is some advice here http://www.dcresource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32473 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cassis Posted July 31, 2008 Share Posted July 31, 2008 Most obvious answer is a short in the cable. Jiggle it and it might work, or try another cable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sid Posted August 1, 2008 Share Posted August 1, 2008 I had this problem with a Sony camera and it was caused by a power surge while the camera was plugged into the USB. The card (Compact Flash in this case) was fried. I had to buy a new one.The best way to check it is to take the card out of the camera and connect it to a separate card reader, maybe on a friend's computer. I tried reformatting but it just wouldn't recognise in any more.There were only a couple of photos on mine and I was able to re-shoot them. I hope you have better luck.Sid Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnOther Posted August 1, 2008 Share Posted August 1, 2008 A USB port cannot itself 'surge' so if they are working properly othewise then it must be the camera causing the problem. You can forget the cable, even if it were dead short the PC wouldn't complain because the power output, or more correctly current output, of the ports is internally limited.You might try connecting it via a USB hub, that would isolate it from the PC itself. I would tend to go for a powered one.I have to say though that if the camera has been working OK up to now and this is a new problem which has just occurred then it does rather sound as if it's goosed [:(] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suninfrance Posted August 1, 2008 Author Share Posted August 1, 2008 Thanks for your replies - they are very helpful.I'm taking my laptop over today to see if the lead works on that, then we can at least eliminate that issue and can then look at the others.As far as I am aware, the camera usb wasn't plugged into the computer at the time. Just didn't work the next time friend went to use it.Jan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sid Posted August 2, 2008 Share Posted August 2, 2008 [quote user="ErnieY"]A USB port cannot itself 'surge' ...[/quote]Ernie, I bow to your better knowledge, but I think this is what happened to mine. I was on holiday in Spain in February. I got a 'blue screen' and a message along the lines of "Power surge on USB port". It required a reboot. At the time I had only a card-reader (unpowered) plugged in, no external hub, so I assumed it was a surge coming out, not something going in. I had been examining the photos on my CF card but after the reload the card was unusable. I use a Dell laptop. There are discussions about it on several tech forums, but I replaced the card and I use a 4-port powered hub at home, no problems since.Sid Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cat Posted August 2, 2008 Share Posted August 2, 2008 I read on another forum that there was a Windows problem (that has since been patched) that meant that after this error had been encountered once, it would reappear randomly for no reason.The workaround was to right-click on the Windows Start button, then choose Properties, then click on the taskbar tab, the choose Customise, and then scroll down the list of current and past items to the "surge on USB" entry, and then select Always hide. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnOther Posted August 2, 2008 Share Posted August 2, 2008 I can't dispute the facts of what happened to you but experience has taught me to not always take error messages at face value [blink]The all time classic example of this is when starting up a PC without a keyboard attached which will generate this stunningly useful message:Error: Keyboard not attached. Press F1 to continue............Doh !The message 'Power surge on USB port' is more likely generic to cover a raft of abnormalities and I repeat that a USB port cannot 'Power Surge' in the sense of providing an excessive voltage so your not unreasonable assumption that it was coming out would be wrong in this instance.There is a clue to what may have happened to you though in the BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death). As often as not these are caused by memory errors. Your card is just memory in this context and what I suspect may have happened is that yours developed a fault whilst in use which presented a very low resistance, or even a short circuit, to the USB port and this is what generated the error message. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sid Posted August 2, 2008 Share Posted August 2, 2008 ErnieThat sounds plausible, thanks.Sid Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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