I own a Nikon D300 and I usually use the provided USB cable to transfer my pictures on my computer (Windows 7).
Sometimes, when I am travelling, I use the cable I have for my Garmin device which have exactly the same connector (USB Mini-B) and this works very well.
Recently I was not with my Garmin cable nor my official Nikon one and I tried another cable with the same connector but this time my camera was not properly recognized by the computer saying there was a USB device connected but cannot determine which driver to use.
I tried to use the Windows 7 built-in help (from the error tooltip) but was not able to find anything.
I am quite sure my D300 is properly working as I was able to transfer pictures few days ago.
After I use another alternative: take the CF card and put it in a separate flash reader (USB) and this way works as well.
My question refers only to the USB cables to use for transferring picture straight from the camera.