Canon A85 uploading problems

Okay-- I made a boo-boo. Before reading the manual, I tried uploading pix from a new PowerShot A85 to my laptop PC (Win ME). Big mistake! It did nothing (obvious)... and the book hints it can cause problems. Right!
Then I loaded the software from the CD and it seemed to go OK. But, when I connected the camera again to transfer photos, again it did nothing... except give me a message that the device could not be found.
When I tried to use the s/w 'help' to log on to the Canon website, it wouldn't connect!
So-- what the heck can I do now?? HELP!