Camera and computer incompatibilities

• My camera died and inexplicably killed my computer in the process. Upfront, I know I am a complete idiot, I'm just stating the obvious so no one else has to. I am on vacation, and failed (mistake number one) to bring my camera (Samsung Digimax i5) charger with me. I didn't think I would need it for a four day weekend. Last night as I was uploading pictures from the camera to my laptop (hp pavilion, running XP), the battery on the camera died. My son, failing to realize that the camera had died, logged out of the system and shut the lid. Later on, when I tried to boot up, I got the queerest message, which was even spelled poorly, telling me that my computer was dealing with any number of unintelligible issues, and did I want to start up in safe mode? I did just that, and I don't remember when exactly I actually unplugged the camera from the computer. In my haste and fear, I may have unplugged it while the computer was trying to power up. My camera's battery is completely dead, and I have been all over Madison, WI this afternoon looking for a replacement charger (to no avail), so that I can charge the camera, reconnect it to the computer, and maybe the computer will make nice nice with the camera and restart beautifully and life will be good again. As it stands right now, I have a dead camera, and I can only get my computer to start in safe mode. I have tried a system restore twice, neither of which was successful. Please, hive mind, hope me!

• Answer:

  First, I don't think the camera 'killed' the computer. The poor spelling sounds odd, though- I'd almost knee-jerk and say virus, simply because MS isn't going to have too many spelling errors in its core system (way too much testing and localization work to allow a lot of blaring typos through). However, it's possible that it's the camera driver/software that's crashing, and that is what is sending you messages that are so poorly spelled. Suggestions: 1) Tell us the messages!!!! Also tell us when they are happening, how far in the boot process they happen (do you even get to the login screen, or the Windows XP splash screen, etc...) . I don't think even computer gurus can do much with "the queerest message" as a troubleshooting technique. :) 2) The whole point of safe mode is to load up without most drivers or software, etc. The likelihood then is that something is loading at boot that's crashing your computer. If it boots in safe mode, the system core is pretty much fine, and it's something additional that's breaking. So, safe mode gives you a chance to find out what, and do something about this! Some basic troubleshooting steps: Go into safe mode, go to start -> run and type 'msconfig'. In the Configuration applet, choose "Diagnostic mode", and then click OK- you should be prompted to restart. This will load up your system with only the basic drivers and software, similar to safe mode. If this works, which it probably will, then you know that something loading on startup, likely a 3rd party driver or software, is crashing your computer. So... here's how you find out what that is: 1) After booting up (hopefully fine) in diagnostic mode, go back into msconfig, and choose "Selective Startup" instead of diagnostic. Next, go to the Services tab, check the box "Hide Microsoft services", and de-select all the remaining boxes. Go ahead, click OK, reboot. This will tell you if some service is breaking your bootup. 2) If you do boot up okay, it's one of those (and you can probably jump ahead and see if one of those services is related to your camera's software set!). Simply find which one via trial and error, enabling one or a few at a time till the problem reproduces. If you don't boot up okay, then it's not these services. Go back to the Services tab and re-enable all the ones that you disabled in step 1, and then continue to step 3. 3) Now, go to the startup tab, and choose "Disable all". This will uncheck all these startup items, many of which are 3rd-party software that start up and create things like system tray icons, etc. Most of them you probably don't need anyway, but for now disable all of them. 4) Reboot- does the problem reproduce? Yes? No? If you're still having problems, I'd be surprised. If the problems go away with these startup items disabled, the services enabled, and your system booting okay, then the problem is in one or more of these set of startup software (again, probably related to the camera or something). 5) Try selectively re-enabling a few at a time, until you find the one breaking things (or leave them all disabled- you probably will find your computer runs faster without them :) ).