Why does my camera turn off when I plug it in to the USB?

I have a Kodak EasyShare C340. It has been okay since I use rechargeable batteries. However, lately something different has been happening. With fresh batteries, the camera has enough power to take pictures and do all of the camera functions, but when I plug it in to transfer pictures, it turns off. If I plug it in first, then turn it on, the LCD screen flashes briefly then goes dark, and the green light flashes. If I have the camera on first, the plug it in, the LCD goes dark, the lens retracts, and the light flashes red instead, and turns off. At this point I'm ready to chuck it, but I'd really like to get the Halloween pics of my kids off first! :-) Thanks for any suggestions, because I've troubleshooted and searched about all I can.

No need to chuck a camera just because you can't transfer the pictures onto your PC. Just use a USB Memory card reader. Invest in a $10 USB memory card reader and simply take your card out and plug it in. The PC will read it as a drive and it's a simple drag and drop to get your pictures onto the PC for editing and printing. Much better than trying to trouble shoot driver issues. Which, I suspect, it is. Or a bad USB cable.

You can also try resetting your camera. This is a fairly easy procedure which involves either going into your setup menu and choosing "reset," holding down the menu key for 5 seconds, or, removing the batteries for a few minutes. It may be that the firmware loading got corrupted and the camera just needs to be "rebooted," which is something that turning it on/off won't accomplish. But after which, you should have the camera reset to factory default settings.

Thanks for your ideas. Here are my results: first of all, I don't have a memory card. I never got around to it. So the pictures are on the camera memory and I can't try your first idea.

Resetting the camera: could not find a reset option in the setup area. Tried rebooting as you described with the batteries, but there is no change in what I described.

One additional piece of information, maybe insignificant: the window stating that the camera is connected DOES appear when I turn the camera on, but it disappears when the LCD screen goes blank.

So I am still at square one. Any more thoughts?

Well, then, Emily, I'd contact Kodak. If you go to their website, they have a "chat" feature in the support section where you can chat with a support person. They can give you a few other ideas. I'd also see if you purchased it with a credit card, contact your credit card company and ask if they have an extended warranty benefit as a perk of the credit card you used.

All is not lost yet.

Emily, we would like to know the outcome of your efforts to fix this problem. Anytime a good solution is available we like to put it into our "databanks" and have it available to share with others.
Larry

Hi, I noticed that you haven't marked any replies as the "best answer." Are you still looking for an answer? If so, I recommend you re-submit it on http://www.digitalcamera-hq.com so it will have a better chance of being noticed. These days it looks like most questions are being answered within a few days.