My MacBook Pro doesn't recognize my Nikon D300?

I own a 2008 model of the Macbook Pro and it does not recognize my Nikon D300 camera when I plug it in, and I do not know why.

I had this laptop while in my 2 years of college and never had this problem, i never used actual card readers I was always able to plug the USB cable into my laptop and it would open it up just like any USB you plug in. Recently I tried to plug it in, after not doing so for a while and it won't open or recognize that anything is even plugged in. No lights fash, it doesn't attempt to open my camera file. If anybody has this issue and solved it please let me know, card readers for Compact Flash are not cheap so I'd like to fix this issue as soon as possible.

Buy a cheap (stress on cheap, yes there are less than $10) USB card reader and use that to connect your camera's memory card directly to the USB slot of your computer. This method solves all camera to computer connection problems.

http://www.amazon.com/...0030UL7IG/
http://www.amazon.com/...000FDVK2E/
http://www.amazon.com/...00A9Q2GG6/

When connected, use Finder to see the contents of the memory card and to copy to the hard disk for absolute total control over what goes where exactly.

If you were able to connect via USB before and now it is no longer working then it sounds like the USB cable has malfunctioned and is no longer working. Here is a url of a site that sells the replacement USB cable for your Nikon D300 camera as you will see your model camera in the compatibility listing.

http://www.mpfproducts.com/uc-e4-uc-e5-usb-data-cable-for-nikon-coolpix-digital-cameras/

I think that this is the most inexpensive trouble shooting option. If it is not the cable then it is possible that it is the camera port which would be bad…