July 05, 2003
Any Windows XP experts?
Any Windows XP aficionados out there? (My Mac friends continue to send notes of sympathy for all the PC travails I encounter.) I've owned a Windows XP machine for 18 months now, and a few things still baffle me.
I'll throw two particularly vexing issues out for anyone who might know of a possible solution.
(1) Whenever I insert a compact flash card into a card reader, normally a dialogue box pops up asking What would you like to do? View a Folder, launch Media Player, View the contents using the Microsoft Scanner and Camera Wizard, etc.
About a month ago, the dialogue box went away. When I insert a compact flash card, it merely opens the drive and shows me the folder. What I really want is the Scanner and Camera Wizard so I can view the contents of the folder and decide which photos to transfer to my hard drive. When I try to manually launch the Wizard, it refuses, saying I don't have a peripheral attached. (I'm using a Dazzle reader.) Any idea how I can get the Scanner and Camera Wizard back when I pop a compact flash card into a reader?
(2) When I open Windows Explorer in XP (not IE) and navigate through the arcane tree structure to a particular folder -- say, C:\Documents and Settings\JD\My Documents\My Pictures -- sometimes the folders will appear as a regular set of folders and subfolders, and sometimes the directory folder tree structure will be gone and in its place are little submenus that say:
Picture Tasks
View as a slide show
Order prints online
Print pictures
Copy all items to CD
etc.
Well, that's baffling enough. When I click through to a folder that actually contains some jpegs, the Picture Tasks submenu disappears and I'm left with only:
File and Folder Tasks
Make a new folder
Publish this folder to the Web
Share this folder
So: How in heck can I see a slide show if the option for a slide show disappears when I drill down to a folder containing actual photos?
JD said:
Thanks, Ryan. Here's what happened. I went into G: Properties, chose AutoPlay, and saw that for Pictures, the Microsoft Scanner and Camera Wizard was indeed one of the choices. So first I tried to make that the default. When I reinserted a compact flash card in the card reader ... no luck, still got just an open window with a folder containing the two folders. So I went back into AutoPlay and checked the button for Prompt me each time to choose an action. But when I reinserted a cf card into the reader, I didn't get a prompt, just the same result (two folders on my desktop). I thought maybe it wasn't recognizing that the disk contained pictures, but I've got the "prompt me" checked for all four types of content (music, pictures, video, mixed content).
Strangest damn thing. Not sure what to try next.
Thanks, Ryan, know your posting will probably help others, though. I'm game to listen to a suggestion re #2. :~)
Madperc said:
Best recommendation for when drives (like your flash card reader) start acting fritzy: With your computer on and your drive plugged in, right-click on "My Computer" and select properties. Click the Hardware tab and then, in the middle of that area is a section "Device Manager." Click on device manager and then you see a list of stuff hooked up to your computer. Depending how your flash reader is hooked up, you'll maybe see it listed under "Universal Serial Bus Controllers" at the bottom of the list. If it has a big yellow exclamation point next to it, double click it and check if it gives your any troubleshooting instructions. If not, right click on the flash reader in device manager and delete it. Don't panic, the computer auto-restores the drivers when you start up again. Then, restart your computer and let XP reinstall the driver, and it should recognize your flash reader as it did when you first used it.
Sorry my suggestion is so long. Hope it works, though.
JD said:
Thanks, Madperc. Here's an update: I uninstalled and reinstalled the Dazzle drivers. I don't think the drivers are the issue here, tho. I spent an hour on the phone with tech support from Dazzle, which seemed baffled by Win XP's behavior here. They finally suggested that I do a System Restore. So I tried to do the msconfig | System Restore trick -- twice -- but the Restore failed. (I went back as far as it would let me, to April 8, 2003, although the last point at which I manually created a restore point was Feb. 7, 2003. Another flaky outcome from our Microsoft friends.)
What next? I'm ready to throw in the towel.
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