Windows 95 and digital cameras

MossRoad · Dec 23, 2002

If it's the case that you haven't bought the camera yet, buy any inexpensive USB product, like a mouse, and plug it in to see if the system recognizes it. 

That's a great suggestion. I didn't catch in the first post that he might not have purchased the camera yet./w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif

I've seen USB mice at Walmart for $6.00.

BillyP · Dec 23, 2002

I don't have anything that's USB to try. A friend does have a USB mouse and told me I could borrow it to see if it'll work.

I've been reading up on the different card readers. I've come to the conclusion that if the USB doesn't work, I'm going flashpath. I found one online for $36 which isn't too bad. I know it's a lot slower than USB but at least it will work on my system.

Thanks everyone
Billy

JohnMiller3 · Dec 23, 2002

Hello Billy,

Why not get a new hd & another stick of memory (super cheap now), borrow your friend's Win98SE system disc and load it up and have the best of all worlds... /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

The plug n play works extremely well, many new devices are USB (not just cameras), you won't have to worry if something will work or not... and you ended up giving your computer a new lease on life... a cost effective way...

I'm typing on one of my girl's computers right now... an extended life Pent. II 400 Mhz. overclocked @ 500 Mhz. with 768 meg. of memory, 80 Gig HD, running W2K... and the throughput speed is as fast or faster than many person's 1 Ghz. machines... using about 6 USB devices.../w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif

...or you can always bite the bullet and buy a new machine... /w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Bird · Dec 23, 2002

if the USB doesn't work, I'm going flashpath

That's what I use, and even though I'm running XP and have the cables, I've never tried them to see how they work; just use the flashpath adapter. And you've sure found a better price than I paid Circuit City for mine.

Anonymous Poster · Dec 23, 2002

Bird
sorry to change the subject for a minute, but how do you fined XP and is it worth the money.

Bird · Dec 23, 2002

Vin, my first experience with Windows was Windows 3.01, then Windows 98 on a new computer (I skipped Windows 95), then Windows 98 SE, then another new computer (this one) with Windows ME, and then "upgraded" to XP. They were IBM computers until I got this latest one and it's a Dell. It came with Windows ME, along with a certificate to upgrade to XP when XP became available for $20. So, when Dell had XP ready, I went for it. I very carefully followed all the instructions to "upgrade" and it crashed the whole system and nothing worked. I don't even remember how many people I talked to on the phone in Dell's technical support, but at one point they simply gave up and said they had no solution. Well, for reasons unknown (premonition maybe?) I had not paid for this computer outright when I bought it, but let them finance it for awhile (Thank Goodness!). So when their 3rd or 4th technician could not come up with a solution, I told him to go find his supervisor then and ask where they wanted me to ship their junk because I wasn't going to pay for it if it wouldn't work. Lo and behold, in about 5 minutes they figured out how to do a "clean install" and got it working; i.e., dump everything and start from scratch. Fortunately, I had made copies of all my data before starting the upgrade. So, now everything works just fine except for one oddity that no one has an answer for. My hard drive is now drive "E" instead of "C" and my zip drive is "C". No one knows how that changed, or why, but it's not a problem when you know which drive is which./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

I guess the simple answer to your question is that I like XP much better than any of the earlier versions. It's been much more stable, has more neat features (many of which I don't use), and has caused me fewer headaches than any of the others once we got it installed and working. I am disappointed in the vast number of "updates" that Microsoft has had to come up with, mostly in the area of security, but overall I wouldn't want to go back to any of the earlier versions.

MossRoad · Dec 23, 2002

My camera came with a serial port connection only. It takes 3 minutes per picture to download. I bought a USB compact flash card reader and I pop the memory out of the camera and into the reader. It now takes me less than 1 second to copy a picture to my hard drive. As an example, this summer I took about a hundred and twenty pictures at Disney land and it took about a minute to copy them to my computer with USB. The serial cable would have worked, but it would have taken about 6 hours. I don't know if it is the camera interface or the computer interface, but one of them is a dog. The USB is really nice. The time savings alone in a year could probably pay for your upgrade to Win98.

JohnMiller3 · Dec 23, 2002

...My hard drive is now drive "E" instead of "C" and my zip drive is "C"....

Hi Bird,

Iomega has a utility that will switch "drive letters" to whatever you wish... find and run the utility and swap the hard drive and zip drive respectively "C" & "E"...

I find the Window upgrades about as successful/predictable as tossing a coin... heads you lose... I win... or tails you lose... I win... /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

MossRoad · Dec 23, 2002

My hard drive is now drive "E" instead of "C" and my zip drive is "C". No one knows how that changed, or why, but it's not a problem when you know which drive is which.

Start/settings/controlpanel/administrative tools/computer management/disk management/

Right click on the drive and change the drive letters.

EDIT:::!!!!! If you do this you could hose your system, as some programs will be looking for the original drive letter and may have to be re-installed. !!!

EDIT #2::: Apparently they made it MossRoad Proof as it would not allow me to change it because it is the sytem volume. /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif/w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif/w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif

Or just leave it alone, since you seem more than happy the way it is /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

(just thought you might want to know where to change it, just for knowledge)