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Who Makes SM For Olympus??

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Alvin Tyler

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Hi,

I was wondering if anyone out there knows what company makes the Olympus brand smart media cards? Does Olympus manufacture them themselves or does some other company (ie Viking,Kingston etc..) do them and Olympus just puts their name on them. The reason I am asking is that I am having a problem with my Zio card reader. It freezes my computer every time I place my card in it (Olympus Brand). Some one else on here is also having the same problem but it works fine with his Fuji brand cards. I only have Olympus brand cards so I was unable to try any others. I was hoping this might narrow down the problem to a company specific compatibilty problem. Although Micro Tech states complete compatibilty. I spent over three hours on the phone with Micro Tech support and they still were unable to get it to function. Now they say one of their engineers will have to research it and get back to me. Thanks for any help.

Alvin
 
Hi, I'm having the same problem with the Oly cards, I bought some Sandisk 32s and they work fine with the Zio reader. I would be interested in what Tech support is able to figure out.
p
Alvin said:
Hi,

I was wondering if anyone out there knows what company makes the
Olympus brand smart media cards? Does Olympus manufacture them
themselves or does some other company (ie Viking,Kingston etc..) do
them and Olympus just puts their name on them. The reason I am
asking is that I am having a problem with my Zio card reader. It
freezes my computer every time I place my card in it (Olympus
Brand). Some one else on here is also having the same problem but
it works fine with his Fuji brand cards. I only have Olympus brand
cards so I was unable to try any others. I was hoping this might
narrow down the problem to a company specific compatibilty problem.
Although Micro Tech states complete compatibilty. I spent over
three hours on the phone with Micro Tech support and they still
were unable to get it to function. Now they say one of their
engineers will have to research it and get back to me. Thanks for
any help.

Alvin
Click to expand...
 
This is very interesting - haven't heard of this problem. I use an eFilm Reader-5 from Delkin Devices with no problems. I have both a 16MB and a 64MB Olympus SM card. I wonder if the problem you are encountering has anything to do with the Panorama function that Olympus codes into the card?
Kristi
Alvin said:
Hi,

I was wondering if anyone out there knows what company makes the
Olympus brand smart media cards? Does Olympus manufacture them
themselves or does some other company (ie Viking,Kingston etc..) do
them and Olympus just puts their name on them. The reason I am
asking is that I am having a problem with my Zio card reader. It
freezes my computer every time I place my card in it (Olympus
Brand). Some one else on here is also having the same problem but
it works fine with his Fuji brand cards. I only have Olympus brand
cards so I was unable to try any others. I was hoping this might
narrow down the problem to a company specific compatibilty problem.
Although Micro Tech states complete compatibilty. I spent over
three hours on the phone with Micro Tech support and they still
were unable to get it to function. Now they say one of their
engineers will have to research it and get back to me. Thanks for
any help.

Alvin
Click to expand...
 
Alvin,

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I seem to remember a combination offer from Olympus that included the ZIO card reader when you purchased an Olympus D490. I am not positive that this was an Olympus offer and not a promo from a store, but if it was an Olympus offer, there should be no compatability problems. I would query Olympus about this, they might be able to answer the question for you.
Mike D.
Alvin said:
Hi,

I was wondering if anyone out there knows what company makes the
Olympus brand smart media cards? Does Olympus manufacture them
themselves or does some other company (ie Viking,Kingston etc..) do
them and Olympus just puts their name on them. The reason I am
asking is that I am having a problem with my Zio card reader. It
freezes my computer every time I place my card in it (Olympus
Brand). Some one else on here is also having the same problem but
it works fine with his Fuji brand cards. I only have Olympus brand
cards so I was unable to try any others. I was hoping this might
narrow down the problem to a company specific compatibilty problem.
Although Micro Tech states complete compatibilty. I spent over
three hours on the phone with Micro Tech support and they still
were unable to get it to function. Now they say one of their
engineers will have to research it and get back to me. Thanks for
any help.

Alvin
Click to expand...
 
I just purchased an Oly 64 meg card. Tried to use it on my Newer Technology SM card reader and it froze up my computer. I waited it out and after about ten min. it gave me a "no media" error. I put the card back in the camera and all the images were still there.

I checked the Newer Technology website to see if they had any new drivers that addressed the problem (I thought that, since it's a really old reader, they may have sent it out without software supporting a 64 meg card.) Unfortunately their website informed by that they went bankrupt on Dec. 27, 2000. Gahhhh!

I was gonna get a new reader, but after reading this thread I started thinking that there may be something wrong with the Oly card. Has anyone figured out what's going on?
Alvin Tyler said:
Hi,

I was wondering if anyone out there knows what company makes the
Olympus brand smart media cards? Does Olympus manufacture them
themselves or does some other company (ie Viking,Kingston etc..) do
them and Olympus just puts their name on them. The reason I am
asking is that I am having a problem with my Zio card reader. It
freezes my computer every time I place my card in it (Olympus
Brand). Some one else on here is also having the same problem but
it works fine with his Fuji brand cards. I only have Olympus brand
cards so I was unable to try any others. I was hoping this might
narrow down the problem to a company specific compatibilty problem.
Although Micro Tech states complete compatibilty. I spent over
three hours on the phone with Micro Tech support and they still
were unable to get it to function. Now they say one of their
engineers will have to research it and get back to me. Thanks for
any help.

Alvin
Click to expand...
 
How's this for problem in the opposite direction I have a Sandisk card (32 MB) that will not work in my camera (C2500L), but works in every other camera I have tried it in, ALL of them Olympus. As the driver for Smartmedia is in camera does that mean that the firmware in my camera needs to be updated? Or could it just be the cards themself that causes the problem everyone is having. All the Cards I have are Sandisk 6 in total all 32 MB the balance work find with no problems.

Dave
 
Hello Alvin,

There are only two SmartMedia Manufactures: Toshiba and Samsung. Olympus buys from one of the two. They aso encode the cards for panoramic views. I belive the problem you are encountering is because of this encoding. Try to format the card in the camera (you may may want to download the pics first using the camera's cable) and then bring it back to your reader. This generally refreshes the file system on the card and allows windows to read it......
Alvin said:
Hi,

I was wondering if anyone out there knows what company makes the
Olympus brand smart media cards? Does Olympus manufacture them
themselves or does some other company (ie Viking,Kingston etc..) do
them and Olympus just puts their name on them. The reason I am
asking is that I am having a problem with my Zio card reader. It
freezes my computer every time I place my card in it (Olympus
Brand). Some one else on here is also having the same problem but
it works fine with his Fuji brand cards. I only have Olympus brand
cards so I was unable to try any others. I was hoping this might
narrow down the problem to a company specific compatibilty problem.
Although Micro Tech states complete compatibilty. I spent over
three hours on the phone with Micro Tech support and they still
were unable to get it to function. Now they say one of their
engineers will have to research it and get back to me. Thanks for
any help.

Alvin
Click to expand...
 
Hi Alvin, any follow up from Zio? Anyone NOT having this problem?
p
Alvin said:
Hi,

I was wondering if anyone out there knows what company makes the
Olympus brand smart media cards? Does Olympus manufacture them
themselves or does some other company (ie Viking,Kingston etc..) do
them and Olympus just puts their name on them. The reason I am
asking is that I am having a problem with my Zio card reader. It
freezes my computer every time I place my card in it (Olympus
Brand). Some one else on here is also having the same problem but
it works fine with his Fuji brand cards. I only have Olympus brand
cards so I was unable to try any others. I was hoping this might
narrow down the problem to a company specific compatibilty problem.
Although Micro Tech states complete compatibilty. I spent over
three hours on the phone with Micro Tech support and they still
were unable to get it to function. Now they say one of their
engineers will have to research it and get back to me. Thanks for
any help.

Alvin
Click to expand...
 
Well they never got back to me. So I got back to them. They still have no cause for this. Seems to me it could have something to do with panoramic feature of Olympus cards. Micro Tech denies any incompatability problem. They offered to replace the reader. They say it could have been damaged in shipping. After hearing many other people experiencing the same problem, they all could not have been damaged. So I think I will decline their offer of another reader and purchase a different brand.
P. Trachsler said:
Alvin said:
Hi,

I was wondering if anyone out there knows what company makes the
Olympus brand smart media cards? Does Olympus manufacture them
themselves or does some other company (ie Viking,Kingston etc..) do
them and Olympus just puts their name on them. The reason I am
asking is that I am having a problem with my Zio card reader. It
freezes my computer every time I place my card in it (Olympus
Brand). Some one else on here is also having the same problem but
it works fine with his Fuji brand cards. I only have Olympus brand
cards so I was unable to try any others. I was hoping this might
narrow down the problem to a company specific compatibilty problem.
Although Micro Tech states complete compatibilty. I spent over
three hours on the phone with Micro Tech support and they still
were unable to get it to function. Now they say one of their
engineers will have to research it and get back to me. Thanks for
any help.

Alvin
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Alvin,

Just want to give you one data point (my experirence, which is, of course the experience of just one person). I have used the Microtech reader for several months. Although I do not use the Oly card that came with the camera now (it's too small, and I then bought Viking and Sandisk SM cards) I did use it when I first got the camera and there was no incompatibility problem with the reader.

It may be that it's set up wrong. It may also be that your reader is defective, but my hunch is that it's software incompatibility having to do with your computer, and/or the way it was installed, etc. all of which is a mess to sort out. Is it possible to deinstall it and reinstall it again? If your computer is freezing up, then I'd look into incompatibilities with the operating system, the method of installation, and your methods of use before doing anything else.

If you can afford it, then replacing the Microtech reader with another brand is the fastest way out (even if the Microtech reader is not defective or the cause of your problem, etc.)

Paul
Alvin said:
P. Trachsler said:
Alvin said:
Hi,

I was wondering if anyone out there knows what company makes the
Olympus brand smart media cards? Does Olympus manufacture them
themselves or does some other company (ie Viking,Kingston etc..) do
them and Olympus just puts their name on them. The reason I am
asking is that I am having a problem with my Zio card reader. It
freezes my computer every time I place my card in it (Olympus
Brand). Some one else on here is also having the same problem but
it works fine with his Fuji brand cards. I only have Olympus brand
cards so I was unable to try any others. I was hoping this might
narrow down the problem to a company specific compatibilty problem.
Although Micro Tech states complete compatibilty. I spent over
three hours on the phone with Micro Tech support and they still
were unable to get it to function. Now they say one of their
engineers will have to research it and get back to me. Thanks for
any help.

Alvin
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Alvin,

I may need to change my last note to you. I now realize you are talking about somthing called a Zio reader (whatever that is). I got confused because elsewhere you referenced a Microtech reader. It occurred to me that Microtech may make the Zio reader. If that's true, then my last note to you makes no sense and you should ignore it. I thought Microtech only made a reader with their name on it. I use a USB "Microtech" reader.

Sorry if I confused you.

Paul
Paul said:
Just want to give you one data point (my experirence, which is, of
course the experience of just one person). I have used the
Microtech reader for several months. Although I do not use the Oly
card that came with the camera now (it's too small, and I then
bought Viking and Sandisk SM cards) I did use it when I first got
the camera and there was no incompatibility problem with the reader.

It may be that it's set up wrong. It may also be that your reader
is defective, but my hunch is that it's software incompatibility
having to do with your computer, and/or the way it was installed,
etc. all of which is a mess to sort out. Is it possible to
deinstall it and reinstall it again? If your computer is freezing
up, then I'd look into incompatibilities with the operating system,
the method of installation, and your methods of use before doing
anything else.

If you can afford it, then replacing the Microtech reader with
another brand is the fastest way out (even if the Microtech reader
is not defective or the cause of your problem, etc.)

Paul
Alvin said:
P. Trachsler said:
Alvin said:
Hi,

I was wondering if anyone out there knows what company makes the
Olympus brand smart media cards? Does Olympus manufacture them
themselves or does some other company (ie Viking,Kingston etc..) do
them and Olympus just puts their name on them. The reason I am
asking is that I am having a problem with my Zio card reader. It
freezes my computer every time I place my card in it (Olympus
Brand). Some one else on here is also having the same problem but
it works fine with his Fuji brand cards. I only have Olympus brand
cards so I was unable to try any others. I was hoping this might
narrow down the problem to a company specific compatibilty problem.
Although Micro Tech states complete compatibilty. I spent over
three hours on the phone with Micro Tech support and they still
were unable to get it to function. Now they say one of their
engineers will have to research it and get back to me. Thanks for
any help.

Alvin
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Something I've found helps with my USB Sandisk reader is to turn off the Write behind feature on Windows. This is found on the performance tab on the Windows System Properties setting screen (right click on the My Computer and select Properties on my Windows 98 system). Maybe you could bounce this off Microtech when you speak with them to see if this is useful.
Alvin said:
Hi,

I was wondering if anyone out there knows what company makes the
Olympus brand smart media cards? Does Olympus manufacture them
themselves or does some other company (ie Viking,Kingston etc..) do
them and Olympus just puts their name on them. The reason I am
asking is that I am having a problem with my Zio card reader. It
freezes my computer every time I place my card in it (Olympus
Brand). Some one else on here is also having the same problem but
it works fine with his Fuji brand cards. I only have Olympus brand
cards so I was unable to try any others. I was hoping this might
narrow down the problem to a company specific compatibilty problem.
Although Micro Tech states complete compatibilty. I spent over
three hours on the phone with Micro Tech support and they still
were unable to get it to function. Now they say one of their
engineers will have to research it and get back to me. Thanks for
any help.

Alvin
Click to expand...
 
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