My computer won't recognize either my SD card reader or my camera?

My computer recently died, so I bought another one. I took some photos today and tried to download them using my Dynex card reader. Nothing… No "found new hardware" message popped up, not even the little box that asks you to select what action you'd like to do. I then attached my camera to the computer and, again, nothing, although "PC" appeared on the camera's display, so it knew it was attached, at least. Under "cameras and scanners" no devices show up. What can I do? I'm using XP - old computer was XP also - and the camera is a Nikon D50.

I believe the autoplay is disabled on the new xp machine you are using. Try to see if the device is listed under my computer. If nothiung shows up there then you may have a usb problem.

Couple things should fix this pretty easily for You.

First, make sure the drivers that came with the camera are installed, and updated on the new system… If possible dload a new set of the drivers disc from the website - they'll be more current then the disc that came with the camera and include any patches.

Second, with the camera plugged in, run the automatic updates for Windows itself… Sometimes XP only dloaded updates for relevant hardware/services until something new was recognized and REQUIRED updates.

Third, make sure the format of the SD card is recognizable by XP, and that the camera doesn't leave the card "open session" when You pop out the card from the camera (If You don't properly shut the camera off before removing the card it's still waiting to store a pic to the card).It's the same as corrupting data by removing a USB flashdrive without using the "Safely remove media" button first.

Last, On the new system the USB ports may be set shut down the power to the ports when they're not in use, or if it's a laptop - when running on battery power. Check the Power saver settings to verify.

Ok - genuine Last - You may also need to re-install a set of "motherboard chipset drivers" if the last owner didn't do it for that system and wiped the hrddrv before You bought it… Also a likely problem if it's a major brand like HP/Dell/IBM? Etc. They tell each sub-component like the Hrddrv controller, audio chips, video chips, and USB controllers how to pass information to the RAM/CPU properly.