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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?
July 5, 2003 at 11:25 PM in Computing | Permalink
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Comments
I'll take a jab at the first one for you...
If you go into My Computer you should see the device drive letter that your Compact Flash (CF) card usually sits at. (Let's say "G:")
Right click on the G: drive and select properties...
When the "G: Properties" window opens up, click the "AutoPlay" tab.
Under this tab you can choose what to do with the assorted file formats that may exist. Chances are one time you selected some and had the check box clicked for "don't ask me this again" (or the message is something like that). You should be able to click the "Restore Defaults" button at the bottom of the window, but if not, just go through each content type and choose "Prompt me each time to choose an action."
If that doesn't work...well, I'll just cry. (Maybe I won't cry, but I will be willing to look into it further.)
As far as #2...I have an idea, but it's too late at night for my brain to work properly and I'd probably only confuse you. I'll see if someone else has the answers, by tomorrow, otherwise I'll give you something to try then as well.
Posted by: Ryan at Jul 5, 2003 11:37:30 PM
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. :~)
Posted by: JD at Jul 6, 2003 6:15:10 PM
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.
Posted by: Madperc at Jul 7, 2003 10:48:09 AM
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.
Posted by: JD at Jul 7, 2003 1:52:10 PM
running XP Pro.....all of a sudden all photos on line including yours are all fuzzy and out of whack....what happen????
Posted by: Richard D. at Nov 24, 2003 4:40:13 PM
Same thing happened to me- Oh well, Windows is weird.
Posted by: Rob at Nov 30, 2003 11:16:17 AM
I have also had problems with my compact flash/smartmedia cards not autopplaying the menu for selecting the scanner/camera wizard. I saw your comments on this site via search engine. I don't have a solution, but am still bent on finding one. I am willing to bet you have Adobe Photoshop Elements installed on your system. Upon installation on mine, I began noticing the glitch. I Have discussed the issue with both Microsoft and Adobe. Microsoft thought it was Adobe's problem, and Adobe looked into it, but never gave me a satisfactory answer and ended the problem ticket. Sorry it's not a solution, but perhaps the info might help.
Posted by: Duane at Dec 4, 2003 3:54:00 PM
I'm having the problem as well. Take a look at Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 822660:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;822660&Product=winxp
Perhaps it will help you, it didn't help me however, so I am looking deeper to see what I find. I will let you know when I find a solution :)
Posted by: Pete at Dec 16, 2003 3:57:19 AM
I didn't realize how old this thread was, so if you still need a solution I found it at the Gateway support site (believe it or not!):
http://support.gateway.com/s/issues/2-748931857.shtml
This is a great page detailing a list of several progressive solutions. The last one finally worked for me. GOOD LUCK!
Posted by: Pete at Dec 16, 2003 6:44:55 AM
Folks, Pete's solution worked for me. See the full explanation here:
http://www.newmediamusings.com/blog/2003/12/a_solution_for_.html
Posted by: JD at Dec 16, 2003 6:11:25 PM
Gateway's solution hasn't worked for me. Can anyone confirm if this is getting fixed in SP2?
Posted by: crazyvag at Dec 28, 2003 9:32:23 PM
Rob, I just installed Adobe Photoshop Elements, and now my autoplay doesn't work. Even though I have the box checked off that says "prompt me" when the camera is plugged in, nothing happens. The computer beeps, letting me know that it recognizes the camera, but the box doesn't come up asking what I want to do. Did you ever get an answer from Adobe? Is there a way to run the camera and scanner wizard manually? I can still access my pictures, but I like the way the wizard would sort and name them for me.
Posted by: Kristin at Jan 3, 2004 9:35:42 AM
Kristin, I had installed Photoshop Elements as well, and I'd heard from someone else that she suspected it was the cause of her autoplay no longer working. In any event, try the solution that Pete posted above and see if it works. It worked for me.
Posted by: JD at Jan 3, 2004 4:11:45 PM
There are a huge number of people having problems with autoplay not running when peripheral removeable USB drives such as digital cameras are attached. In cases where the camera (or other software)is installed (that is the drivers install), the device is recognized as a drive in My Computer, or Windows Explorer, and the photos can be downloaded manually, but the wizard does not start when you attache the device. In some cases, the wizard never worked, in others, it stops working suddenly after it worked well for a long time. This seems to be related to registry conflicts that can occur with many new software and hardware installations.
It is a problem with "autoplay", and simply going to the drive in My Computer, right clicking on properties, and trying to turn on the autoplay function DOES NOT WORK.
Various people have suggested fixes including some manual registry edits (sometimes works, but there are many registry entries invloved), and using a Microsoft PowerToys uitility "TweakUI" (didn't work for me).
The fix I had luck with was a microsoft utility called "autofix.exe". It can be found at:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=c680a7b6-e8fa-45c4-a171-1b389cfacdad&displaylang=en
You isntall it, run the utility with the device attached to the USB port. It is menu driven, and gives you a choice of drives to correct the registry/autoplay function for. Once finished, you need to reboot.
Posted by: Michael Hillis at Jan 16, 2004 5:36:54 AM
I had the problem with the Scanner and Camera wizard not coming up on my XP. I found the only solution that worked for me here on a Dell Support site.
Posted by: Russ R at Apr 8, 2004 5:14:51 PM
This has become a great page for tips for this problem. A worthwhile tangent might be that Adobe Photoshop Elements has built in ways of moving pictures from a card to a new folder (What the XP Wizard makes so easy). Some users find it frustrating when Auto Play starts and they never use it because they have another tool.
I realize that there are many reasons the Auto Play Wizard is still useful, but I wanted to contribute this. My personal wish is that Microsoft make the Auto Play Wizard something that I can open like a program. Does anyone know the name of the executable that can be run?
Thanks for this great page!
Posted by: Brian Haines at Jun 18, 2004 6:18:16 AM
I had this problem and tried all of the fixes mentioned in the link in Pete's post. None worked. I had recently installed a free version of RealPlayer, and when I uninstalled this, the Autoplay feature resumed working properly.
Posted by: bob at Mar 21, 2005 7:04:09 PM
Interesting, Bob, I may try this. Thanks!
Posted by: JD at Mar 22, 2005 12:51:11 AM
