I got a new (cheap and crummy but new, nonetheless) Vivitar digital camera yesterday, and it was working fine until a little while ago, when I tried to download the latest pictures I'd taken, and I got the message "A USB device has malfunctioned and exceeded the power limits of its hub port."

Say what? This camera is brand new, and so is its USB cord! Is there something else I could be doing wrong?

bionic - what kind of computer do you have? what operating system do you have?

Here's what I'm thinking:

You may have a PC that only supports USB version 1.1

Your digital camera may be looking for USB 2.0

The ability to charge USB devices over the USB cable was a functionality introduced with USB 2.0.

So if your computer only supports USB 1.1 and your camera is trying to draw a charging current from the USB cord, that could be why you are having this problem.

Please let me know the answers to the first 2 questions and we can proceed from there to get this fixed.

-Dan

The computer is an HP v72, using Windows XP. The camera worked fine on Friday night and Saturday morning - didn't get the Power Surge message until Saturday night.

Hmmm okay, chances are it's just an annoyance. After thinking more on your problem, I seem to remember a bug with Windows XP where the applet that monitors device power consumption can get corrupted easily. A reinstall of Windows XP would fix the problem for sure, but it's not catastrophic so I wouldn't worry about it.

You can disable it the error message in Device Manager.

You may already know how to get there, but just in case:

1) Go into Control Panel and select SYSTEM.

2) Go to the HARDWARE tab and click on DEVICE MANAGER.

3) Expand your USB controllers Tree so that you have a list of your USB controllers.

4) Double Click your USB Controller (you may have more than one so you can do this step for EACH ONE).

5) Go to the advanced tab and check the box at the bottom that to not show USB errors.

From that point on, you won't receive those messages anymore.

A few questions and suggestions :

How many USB devices do you have plugged in?
Are you plugging any of them into a USB hub and is that hub a powered one (uses a power adapter that plugs into the electricity mains)?
Have you tried plugging the camera into another USB port?
Have you tried another lead?

Perhaps try unplugging another USB device, plug the camera in and see if you still get the message. It could just be that the camera is actually faulty and the message is telling the truth. It's not unknown for new devices to go faulty. If nothing else works, take the camera back to where you bought it from and have them check it out.

The only other USB devices I have are my speakers, and all of the USB hubs are in the back of my hard drive. I have tried the camera in all four ports. (The message shows six ports, but I only see 4.)

I think I'd want to try the camera on another computer before thinking further. However, if there is something wrong with the camera or lead, it might be best to let the shop where you bought it put them to the test for you.

Well, it's a cheap camera bought at a gas station for 19.99, but I will try it on my daughter's computer. Thanks for the suggestion.

Well, it didn't work on my daughter's computer, either, so I went back and exchanged it and am happily taking pictures once again. If the new one does the same thing, I will be demanding a refund, but so far, so good.

Thank you again for your help and advice!

A bit of trouble but a good outcome at least. I wonder if it was the camera or the lead. A relative of mine had a faulty new USB lead a while ago, so not beyond possibility.

I tried a different, identical cord from a similar camera, and that didn't work either, so I think it was the camera itself.