Hi Gene,
USB extension cables are not very well made on the whole.
Their quality of manufacture varies greatly. I have has so many 'duff' ones
I have given up on them. This could be the cause that the cable is, in
effect, creating a 'short circuit' and that is why your system thinks there
is a device attached. Change the extension lead. Or, to test the theory,
try it without the exertion lead. That is to say: is this effect still seen
if you have the camera lead plugged in without the extension lead between?

--

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London.


wrote in message
...
Rather than having to crawl under my desk each time, I've kept a USB
camera transfer cable plugged into a port on the back of my computer.
When XP starts, it's as if nothing is there. But when I plug in
a USB extension cable, whether in an adjacent port or in the same port
as the camera cord, on startup XP always thinks there is new hardware
present. Since there's nothing attached to the other end in either
case, why the hardware message? I'd like to get it to stop. Thanks.

Gene