My wife has just purchased a Maginon dual lcd digital camera 8.0 MP but to connect the camera to the pc I have to open the battery compartment so the camera is without power. The lap top does not recognise it as being connected via the USB port.
What a strange concept. You have to open and remove the battery to connect the camera via usb and your usb does not power up the camera, is this the case? If yes, it seems like a product design flaw to me. Does the product have a memory card? If so you could buy a cheap memory card reader and get the data from the camera to your laptop that way. If not, I would go back to the dealer you bought the camera from and ask them to show you exactly how you are supposed to get the pictures/videos out of the camera. Maybe the USB interface on the camera has failed. I am assuming that you know that the USB port on your laptop works with other USB devices.
Strange indeed!
George
ps. Did you install the drivers that should have come with the camera on your laptop?
I have seen an earlier model of the Magninon cameras and IIRC the USB port is only for charging the battery of the camera, check with the supplier.
If it is this model, or any other model which takes a memory card, then you can take out the SD card and use a USB card reader as George has suggested.