How can I transfer pictures to my computer without it crashing in the process?

August 22, 2005 8:46 AM

I'm trying to transfer pictures from my digital camera to my computer, which is being made very difficult by the constant bluescreens Windows is giving me.

In the past I've had no problems copying pictures from my xD picture card to my computer by using the card reader that's in my computer. But I just tried copying over a bunch of pictures and after one was copied, Windows threw up a bluescreen error that said something like "An error has been detected in your system," followed by much more that I was unable to read because the system immediately restarted. I tried again, and after two more pictures were transferred the same thing happened. I tried one more time, and while there appeared to be no problem re-copying the three pictures that had made it over to the computer, as soon as it tried to copy another picture I got the bluescreen again. What's going on and how can I fix it?

(Side question: If I were to use tech support on this, who would I go to? The camera manufacturer? The computer manufacturer? Microsoft?)

posted by punishinglemur to computers & internet (10 comments total)

XP Professional, on an Acer TravelMate 4400 (TM4402WLMi)
posted by punishinglemur at 8:47 AM on August 22, 2005

Can you copy the pictures in safe-mode and then reformat the card?

You can also find more information about what caused the blue-screen by looking in various spots, including the Event Log for the system. Here's a question I asked about reading blue-screen information that went by too quickly when the system automatically restarts.
posted by odinsdream at 8:50 AM on August 22, 2005

Well I found some "Save Dump" messages in the event log, which pointed me to the dump, but I don't know what if anything to do with that to stop the crashes.
posted by punishinglemur at 8:57 AM on August 22, 2005

I think there's a program out there that can read dump files and tell you what dll or other object caused the error.

If your card reader required drivers, maybe downloading new ones, if available, will solve your problem.
posted by angry modem at 9:00 AM on August 22, 2005

I tried using safe mode. Using the Minimal and Network options, Windows did not recognize the card reader. Using the DSRepair option let me access the card reader, and then the system crashed when I tried to transfer the pictures.
posted by punishinglemur at 9:11 AM on August 22, 2005

I don't know if the card reader needed any drivers (it came with the system), but I looked through Device Manager and the only thing that might be what I'm looking for is "SDA Standard Compliant SD Host Controller," which claims to have a driver created by Microsoft, which I assume means the driver is a basic one included with XP and there is not going to be a driver update available.
posted by punishinglemur at 9:16 AM on August 22, 2005

1. Click the Start button, right-click My Computer, click Properties, click the Advanced tab, and then click Settings under Startup and Recovery.
2. Under System Failure, view the Automatically restart check box. If the Automatically restart check box is selected, Windows automatically restarts if the computer stops unexpectedly.

Then you'll know what the error is. Last time I had a USB device making Windows bluescreen it was the device that was failing.
posted by ed\26h at 9:44 AM on August 22, 2005

I think I found what's triggering the problem. I successfully copied all but one picture from the card. But when I try to transfer this one particular picture, the progress bar goes halfway, stalls, and after a few seconds, bluescreen. Viewing the image shows that 1/2 - 2/3 of the image is there, but the bottom portion of the image is solid grey. Is there any hope for recovering the image or is this a lost cause? And does this indicate any sort of problem with the camera or card?
posted by punishinglemur at 10:20 AM on August 22, 2005

it sounds like some sort of problem with the card and with the driver (ie, something is messed up on the card and when the system tries to read it, it doesn't know how to handle the problem and crashes). formatting the card might fix the problem.
posted by clarahamster at 5:04 PM on August 22, 2005

CHKDSK /F /V /R

On the card.
posted by ed\26h at 8:29 AM on August 23, 2005