Now this spare PC, it doesnt beep... does it pop-up a window asking you what to do with the "new hardware" installed? By chance are the speakers turned off or missing (since its a spare PC) Does the sound work for other applications would answer this question fairly quickly...

Lets look in another direction here too, you say when you plug the camera in you can see it in device manager, if you open windows explorer (right click START button and select Explore, can you see the camera there in the left hand column along with your Hard drive (C:, d: etc...)??

If so, it might be and should be possible to transfer these picture files manually from the camera to a folder of your choice..

Also just doing some research on InCD, and from what i have found out, it appears that this programs affiliated with Nero (which i believe you say you use). It looks as though it gets installed as part of an update (which is optional) but might come as part of the Newer versions of Nero.

Let me find my disk of Nero and install it on my New PC to check it out, i'll let you know if InCD gets installed.

Ok, I installed Nero Express V.6.3.1.10 and it gave me the option of installing InCD seperately, which I chose not to.

Thanks
sorry for delay, didn't realise we had gone on to page 2!
The spare pc does have sound but it didn't ask about new hardware.
I don't think Incd is an issue here as i dont think it was installed with Nero on my pc and its certainly not on the spare pc.
The "explore" idea comes up with ----no camera is shown but if I expand "control panel/scanners and cameras " only my web cam appears.
Does this help?
Thanks again for your help.

Ok, so it seems that the spare Pc doesnt detect the camera at all, if you plug in a usb flash drive does it detect it with a beep and pop-up window?
Can you see it in windows explorer?

Sorry ,I havn't got a flash drive to test this.

To clarify the position-my pc and the spare pc both show the camera in device manager but neither show it as a camera in "scanners and cameras" although my web cam appears here on my pc.

The spare pc doesn't beep ( sound is ok otherwise) but I get a beep with my pc when camera is connected.

I thought you were getting somewhere when I used explore. Neither of the pc's seem to show a camera under explore. Does this prove anything?
Thanks again

Well, usually when you plug something into your computer via USB, it should pop-up a window that say windows found their new hardware yada yada, and then you can either use a progam EX:Easyshare software, or you can manually do it from explorer by dragging and dropping files. Now I have run into this problem once before on my Fiance's computer and somehow she had autorun/auto detect disabled, but that still doesnt explain why your camera doesnt show up as a device in Windows explorer. What kind of memory does it use? a memory card or just the memory that came built into the camera?

Thanks
I plugged my old webcam into the usb on my PC and the pop up new hardware window opened.
The camera has its own built in memory plus 64 mb compact flash. I assume the camera is ok as it worked on my sons PC.
It seems to be a software problem but I suppose I'm just guessing, if I knew what was going on I wouldn't be troubling you!
Do you think its something to do with it not showing up when I "explore"
Thanks again

The good news is that the camera has now been recognised.!!!
Why? Well I used Fr5ee internet Eraser to clear out the junk and for the first time had it clean and reboot.When it rebooted there was a message about selective startup, apparently this had changed from normal startup.I don't know why, I havn't done it!
Anyway I went back to normal startup,tried the camera and up popped the transfer software.
Whether this is a permanent cure who knows but at least it's working at the moment.
Thought I'd let you know and thank you again for your help.

Well, its very possible that some sorts of spyware could change certain characteristics of how the machine boots and operates, why it doesnt work on the "spare" PC, good question still. I myself only use AVG Free and Microsoft Defender as spyware and virus protection and never have any problems, mind you, I dont do a lot of web surfer, only online gaming on 2 servers. Maybe running a thorough virus scan and a full antispyware scan can help fix this problem for good.

If you want a moderator here to check some scan files, check in with the hijackthis section here and download the newest version of hijackthis and post your log and a mod will go over it and help you out further.

Thanks
I'll do a virus and spyware scan.
Thanks again for your help