Camera Labs

ok so it may be a coincidence...
so i took 233 pics at the recent airshow in my home town last week and i just plug in the sony a200 to check them out when my pc suddenly shuts down...
so i waited for it to reboot and sat patiently as the windows xp screen thingy did its thing, but half way through it just said 'entering sleep mode'...then the screen offering me the safe mode start-up options came along and i chose the 'last settings that worked ok' or whatever it says..
same result - no booting up at all... bugger
so i tried the safe mode start up and that worked but i can't find the source of the problem. i checked the events log (after looking on various websites) and there's something about Killme and MOM.EXE and it seems to refer to my ATI graphics card and i'm really ticked off now..
and of course i didn't back up all my photos..
yes - i know - I KNOW!!!!!!

must be a coincidence - the CF card hasn't been in anything but the camera, but i'm not looking at my a200 with my usual affection..

need a new PC methinks..
robbo[/i]

_________________
Sony a200
kit lens 18-70mm f3.5-5.6
sony lens 75-300 f4.5-5.6
MyFlickr

If you can get in safe mode, at least its likely your hard disk is fine as are the files on it. Copy it off any way you can in case things get worse.

Without knowing more, I would guess at this point it is a windows software wobbly or something hardware. In other words, could be anything. If you've connected the A200 the same way many times before, what makes you think this time it decided to murder your computer?

_________________
Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Hi robbo141,

As you know pretty much when the problem started you could consider doing a "System Restore". Doing this from Safe Mode is possible, but not intuitive, so have a gander at the Microsoft article How to start the System Restore tool by using the safe mode option with the Command prompt in Windows XP.

Bob.

P.S. I think the "Computer hardware and operating systems" is a more natural home for this thread so I've moved it and left a "shadow" behind so it can also be found from "Off-topic".

_________________
OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

cheers guys
i tried a restore to settings from a week back but still the same..
going to do some serious research on line but first things first - get my data onto a separate hard drive..

rob

_________________
Sony a200
kit lens 18-70mm f3.5-5.6
sony lens 75-300 f4.5-5.6
MyFlickr

Hi rob,

If it were me then once I'd got all my data safely backed up I'd uninstall all the extra ATI "utilities" which shipped with your graphics card. After any necessary reboots your problem might be solved in which case you can start installing freshly downloaded copies. With luck that will get you fully up and running again or identify the problem software. If uninstalling the utilities didn't solve the problem then uninstall the graphics card driver and, after the obligatory reboot, install a freshly downloaded driver.

But if you can only get into Safe Mode maybe the Windows Installer won't run? If so then the article here may help but following that procedure would very much be at your own risk as it's definitely not Microsoft approved as far as I can tell.

If you don't want to take the risk then a slightly safer option (but still back up your data first) would be to rename the the ATI utility executables whilst in safe mode and then reboot. But make sure you know what you are renaming! If you can boot normally then see if you can then uninstall them in the usual way and then install fresh copies as outlined above.

Bob.

_________________
OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.