Nikon D5300 SD Card Error

Robbert538 · Jan 7, 2017

Dear photo enthousiasts,

I recently got myself a Nikon D5300 for Christmas. As for memory I bought a new 32GB Class 10 Sony SD card. I charged the battery and did the setup routine. Everything was fine until I popped in the new SD card, then I immediately got the error: "This memory card cannot be used. Card may be damaged Insert another card." After this error, the camera would not respond to any inputs. When I got the SD card out again, the camera would do everything normal again (exept make pictures of course). After this weird encounter I tried a few things to solve the problem. I put the sony sd card in my father's D7000 and formatted it, it worked fine in the D7000. But when I put it in the D5300 again, it gave me the same error. After that I tried formatting it with a laptop, but no result. Then I tried putting my father's two Sandisk ultra's in the D5300, and again the same error. So after my own attempts of fixing the problem, I started googling the problem. Some people had the same problems, they fixed it with another sd card, blowing in the sd card slot, or resetting the device. Not one of these solutions worked for me. At this point I started to lose faith in my new Nikon. So as soon as I got the time, I went to the store which sold me the device. They were really cool about it, and gave me a new body. They even took the time to test this new body with my sony sd card. Everything worked fine, and I was thrilled to start exploring my new toy. So you might think now, a happy ending.

Too bad, this new body started to give the same error after a few hours, the first time it was easily fixed by turning it on and off. After a few more hours it appeared again, this time it took a few restarts to get rid of the error. I'm not going to take this for granted, I don't want to have a camera on which I can't rely.

I'm not sure the store will give me another body, and I want to solve this before trying yet another body. I would really appreciate if anyone can help me, or if you got some usefull tips for me. Thanks in advance!

(Btw, I put the new SD card in the D5300 first, so there was no computer involved before the error occured. Also when I got the new body, I formatted the sony sd card with the D5300 just to be sure).

Steve Bingham · Jan 7, 2017

Your problem may well be the contacts on the lens - especially if it is a third party lens. If poor contact is made, an Err message will be displayed. Try remounting the lens. If that doesn't work clean off the camera contacts as well as the lens contacts and try again. The contacts could be bent, mis-aligned, or dirty. I use Deoxit - sold on Amazon.com.

Ormart · Jan 8, 2017

You can also check the health of card (in cardreader) with

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/System-Miscellaneous/H2testw.shtml

Robbert538 · Jan 8, 2017

Ormart said:
You can also check the health of card (in cardreader) with

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/System-Miscellaneous/H2testw.shtml

Thanks for your replay. I gave it a try. The test was completed without any errors.

Robbert538 · Jan 8, 2017

Steve Bingham said:
Your problem may well be the contacts on the lens - especially if it is a third party lens. If poor contact is made, an Err message will be displayed. Try remounting the lens. If that doesn't work clean off the camera contacts as well as the lens contacts and try again. The contacts could be bent, mis-aligned, or dirty. I use Deoxit - sold on Amazon.com.

Mako2011 · Jan 8, 2017

Robbert538 said:
Steve Bingham said:

Your problem may well be the contacts on the lens - especially if it is a third party lens. If poor contact is made, an Err message will be displayed. Try remounting the lens. If that doesn't work clean off the camera contacts as well as the lens contacts and try again. The contacts could be bent, mis-aligned, or dirty. I use Deoxit - sold on Amazon.com.

Click to expand...

Steve Bingham · Jan 8, 2017

Some cards can le locked with a simple slide switch on the side. If your card is locked it won't record any additional information. Sometimes cards get locked accidentally.

It also may be a simple card issue, especially if it is intermittent. Perhaps this slider has gotten to the point where it sometimes works. I doubt very much that TWO bodies can have the same issue.

--
Steve Bingham
www.dustylens.com
www.ghost-town-photography.com
Latest postings are always at the bottom of each page.

Robbert538 · Jan 8, 2017

Mako2011 said:
Robbert538 said:

Steve Bingham said:

Your problem may well be the contacts on the lens - especially if it is a third party lens. If poor contact is made, an Err message will be displayed. Try remounting the lens. If that doesn't work clean off the camera contacts as well as the lens contacts and try again. The contacts could be bent, mis-aligned, or dirty. I use Deoxit - sold on Amazon.com.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Mako2011 · Jan 8, 2017

Robbert538 said:
Mako2011 said:

Robbert538 said:

Steve Bingham said:

Your problem may well be the contacts on the lens - especially if it is a third party lens. If poor contact is made, an Err message will be displayed. Try remounting the lens. If that doesn't work clean off the camera contacts as well as the lens contacts and try again. The contacts could be bent, mis-aligned, or dirty. I use Deoxit - sold on Amazon.com.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Robbert538 · Jan 8, 2017

Steve Bingham said:
Some cards can le locked with a simple slide switch on the side. If your card is locked it won't record any additional information. Sometimes cards get locked accidentally.

It also may be a simple card issue, especially if it is intermittent. Perhaps this slider has gotten to the point where it sometimes works. I doubt very much that TWO bodies can have the same issue.

romfordbluenose · Jan 8, 2017

Have a look inside the SD card slot itself and make sure there is nothing in it. There have been old threads about bits of sd card breaking and causing this error. But it does sound like an issue with the camera.

Robbert538 · Jan 8, 2017

Mako2011 said:
Robbert538 said:

Mako2011 said:

Robbert538 said:

Steve Bingham said:

Your problem may well be the contacts on the lens - especially if it is a third party lens. If poor contact is made, an Err message will be displayed. Try remounting the lens. If that doesn't work clean off the camera contacts as well as the lens contacts and try again. The contacts could be bent, mis-aligned, or dirty. I use Deoxit - sold on Amazon.com.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Robbert538 · Jan 8, 2017

romfordbluenose said:
Have a look inside the SD card slot itself and make sure there is nothing in it. There have been old threads about bits of sd card breaking and causing this error. But it does sound like an issue with the camera.

Thanks for your reply. I've checked for bits in there, and I can't see any. I see you have a D5300 aswell, can I ask what type and brand of SD card are you using? And has it worked flawless for you? I might invest in that type of card too then.

TomTrocc · Jan 8, 2017

I'm having the same issue with my new d5500. Sometimes I find turning the camera on/off a few times gets it to recognize the card. Does it with both of my brand new cards. It's not all the time though. Usually it happens to me after I take pictures off of the card on my computer, umnount and then put it back into the camera. Even when I format it via pc whether it be quick or full format i get the error a majority of the time. Only thing that works usually is turning the cam on and off a few times and the reformatting the card in camera.

romfordbluenose · Jan 8, 2017

Robbert538 said:
romfordbluenose said:

Have a look inside the SD card slot itself and make sure there is nothing in it. There have been old threads about bits of sd card breaking and causing this error. But it does sound like an issue with the camera.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply. I've checked for bits in there, and I can't see any. I see you have a D5300 aswell, can I ask what type and brand of SD card are you using? And has it worked flawless for you? I might invest in that type of card too then.

I buy SanDisk extreme, not necessarily the fastest version. I have never had any problems with SD cards in my cameras.

Escape · Jan 8, 2017

Based on everything you've tried, it really sounds like a camera hardware issue. It's just very unusual that both bodies you've tried have the same issue. What are the chances of that? Anyway, it's not acceptable. See if the dealer will let you try a third D5300 body.

FYI, I've tried all kinds of cards in my D5200... SanDisk, Lexar, PNY, even a cheap Transcend card. Never a single issue. Maybe the D5200 is less picky about cards?

Robbert538 · Jan 8, 2017

romfordbluenose said:
Robbert538 said:

romfordbluenose said:

Have a look inside the SD card slot itself and make sure there is nothing in it. There have been old threads about bits of sd card breaking and causing this error. But it does sound like an issue with the camera.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply. I've checked for bits in there, and I can't see any. I see you have a D5300 aswell, can I ask what type and brand of SD card are you using? And has it worked flawless for you? I might invest in that type of card too then.

Click to expand...

I buy SanDisk extreme, not necessarily the fastest version. I have never had any problems with SD cards in my cameras.

Cheers! Will look into them then

Robbert538 · Jan 8, 2017

TomTrocc said:
I'm having the same issue with my new d5500. Sometimes I find turning the camera on/off a few times gets it to recognize the card. Does it with both of my brand new cards. It's not all the time though. Usually it happens to me after I take pictures off of the card on my computer, umnount and then put it back into the camera. Even when I format it via pc whether it be quick or full format i get the error a majority of the time. Only thing that works usually is turning the cam on and off a few times and the reformatting the card in camera.

Robbert538 · Jan 8, 2017

Escape said:
Based on everything you've tried, it really sounds like a camera hardware issue. It's just very unusual that both bodies you've tried have the same issue. What are the chances of that? Anyway, it's not acceptable. See if the dealer will let you try a third D5300 body.

FYI, I've tried all kinds of cards in my D5200... SanDisk, Lexar, PNY, even a cheap Transcend card. Never a single issue. Maybe the D5200 is less picky about cards?

Thanks for your reply! Yeah it seems to be hardware related. I'm glad for you that the D5200 is working better. I might try to get my money back, and go order one online, hoping to get a D5300 from another batch... It won't be easy though, since I have been using this body for a few days.

m1964 · Jan 8, 2017

Robbert538 said:
Escape said:

Based on everything you've tried, it really sounds like a camera hardware issue. It's just very unusual that both bodies you've tried have the same issue. What are the chances of that? Anyway, it's not acceptable. See if the dealer will let you try a third D5300 body.

FYI, I've tried all kinds of cards in my D5200... SanDisk, Lexar, PNY, even a cheap Transcend card. Never a single issue. Maybe the D5200 is less picky about cards?

Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply! Yeah it seems to be hardware related. I'm glad for you that the D5200 is working better. I might try to get my money back, and go order one online, hoping to get a D5300 from another batch... It won't be easy though, since I have been using this body for a few days.

I'd bring the card to the store and explain that while the problem is intermittent it make the camera unreliable to use- hope you can get your money back...

Nikon D5300 SD Card Error

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