CF Card Errors

[Paul Spatafora]

I'm hoping someone can help me regarding an issue I'm having with my SLRn and a Sandisk Ultra 2 card. After I installed firmware 5.4.9 I did a quick format on the card and now after say 10 shots, I get cannot write to card error meesage. It seems to be repeatable. I haven't done a secure format on the card yet, but I was wondering if anyone else was having this problem. I'll reformat the card tonight, but I was curious to get others feedback.

How often should I Secure format the card and is it necessary to do it that often.? I'll try another card to see if i's the camera.

Thanks in advance.

Paul

 

[kchroma]

Hello:

I have not had a problem with my Lexar cards. I secure format about every third or fourth usage but that's probably way to much for most people. I normally tether for most jobs just for a comfort factor that the art directors need. OK, OK, I need that comfort too!

Now that I think about it, I seem to remember that you can go 15 or 20 times without secure formating. I thought that topic came up over at Rob Galbraith's old forum a couple of years ago.

Paul

 

[1goodeye]

Heres my experience. After many months of "quick erase", my lexar cards started to show an occasional card artifact - lines, etc.
This progressively became worse until I used secure erase.
No problems after that.
I try to remmeber to SErase every two months or so.

I am using some cards that are 3 yrs old and have had no CF problems since (2 years ).
William

--
williamwgood dot com

 

[Martin Wood]

I have just had my 2nd only card failure (Lexar 1GB 80x pro) The first got fried in the camera on the hot deck of a Turkish Gulet in the Agean in camera. -the SLRn is fine though a couple of years on.

Anyway this 2nd failed with a cannot format 1001000 error. I have not used it for a while.

However it formats and works in an Olumpus ok but plays up in the SLRn and will not format on a PC either. I have, since it first failed, upgraded the firmware and it is the same. Other cards including Lexars and Sandisks work fine.
Strange it is ok in an Olympus though.
--
Martin Wood

 

[ASTROJAZ]

I have just had my 2nd only card failure (Lexar 1GB 80x pro) The
first got fried in the camera on the hot deck of a Turkish Gulet in
the Agean in camera. -the SLRn is fine though a couple of years on.
Anyway this 2nd failed with a cannot format 1001000 error. I have
not used it for a while.

However it formats and works in an Olumpus ok but plays up in the
SLRn and will not format on a PC either. I have, since it first
failed, upgraded the firmware and it is the same. Other cards
including Lexars and Sandisks work fine.
Strange it is ok in an Olympus though.
--
Martin Wood

Martin,

I wonder if the Olympus camera "actually does any formatting", or even checking. Perhaps it just deletes the directory structure on the card.

I took a new Lexar 2GB SD to my Best Buy shop because I had trouble formatting it on my SLR/n FW 5.4.6, and also on an older card reader and PC. The fellow popped the SD into some consumer P&S, and it was formatted in less than a couple of seconds. The same 2GB SD card took about 15 mintes to format (using SDFormatter.exe) on a newer card reader (and a 3.4 GHZ PC), and a typical 1 hour and 45.5 minutes for a Secure Erase in the SLR/n with new FW 5.4.9

So, that is why I would be suspicious about your card's quality by way of another camera's capability to format it. The card may still be defective, and waiting with a Gotcha, just when you need it in the field, potentially losing the entire capacity of stored shots, on the Olympus.

The SLR/n may be lethargic in comparison, but it may also be meticulous about making sure there are no potential memory failures on your PRO shoot.

Joe

 

[Paul Spatafora]

Usually, when the formatting takes only a few seconds, the procedure only removes the FAT32 table and the header. It doesn't actually format sector per sector like the secure format does. That's why, the Kodak takes so long. Think of quick formatting this way. You have a book with no cover page and no table of contents or index, but all the words are still there. It's the table of contents that tell the camera and the OS where the files are. Without the FAT Table, the files are lost to the camera and the OS.Subsequently, when you take a new photo, the camera over writes the old files with new ones. Secure formatting removes everything and checks the integrity of the sectors.

I think I got it right. Corrections are welcomed.

Paul.

 

[Richard Boyd]

My experience has been Lexar WA cards. I have about 9 of them. One of my 2 Gig cards kept acting odd, so I had to do the secure formating. Otherwise, I just do short format several times a week, or when switching camera bodies.

Richard

 

[Martin Wood]

Now that makes sense because the Olympus "formatted" card in the pc was blank. No DC1m or Misc folders but an image copied across to it ok. It then would not format.

Thanks for the insight
--
Martin Wood

 

[kchroma]

Hello:

As soon as I read "hot deck of a Turkish Gulet in the Agean", I started humming the theme to a James Bond movie. You European guys lead such exotic lives!

Paul

 

[Keith Snell]

Paul,

I haven't had very good success with the Sandisk cards in my SLR/n. I've always used Lexar, and not had any problems, but just recently bought 4 Sandisk 2 GB cards for a great price. I kept getting random write/read errors on the Sandisk cards with the SLR/n, so now I only use the Sandisk with the D2X. I have 7 Lexar cards that have never given me any problems in the SLR/n. I'm still using firmware 5.4.6, so I don't think it's a firmware 5.4.9 issue.

Keith

 

[the signatory]

Paul,

I haven't had very good success with the Sandisk cards in my SLR/n.
I've always used Lexar, and not had any problems, but just recently
bought 4 Sandisk 2 GB cards for a great price. I kept getting
random write/read errors on the Sandisk cards with the SLR/n, so
now I only use the Sandisk with the D2X. I have 7 Lexar cards that
have never given me any problems in the SLR/n. I'm still using
firmware 5.4.6, so I don't think it's a firmware 5.4.9 issue.

Keith

Hi Keith,

Interesting. I've just completed another studio art copy shoot, albeit only a small one of only around 20 clicks, and I too had a couple of card write error messages appear whilst using my Sandisk. Somewhat disappointingly, moreover, I am using the 5.4.9 firmware, and had hoped from other users reports that this problem had been eradicated. Although it only happened just twice, and both occasions the error was ... errmm .... erroneous, it still doesn't inspire confidence as occasionally in the past the error was in fact a genuine one.

I am encouraged by your experience with the Lexar cards and feel that will be my way forward. Thank you!

Coincidentally, I have also just been reading an article about CF media at f2photo.co.uk (downloadable pdf file after registering for free), and it explains a great deal about the incredible operational inconsistencies inherent in this hardware, not to mention those of price! ;-)

--
Kind regards,
Nigel
--

Kodak DSLR Firmware v. 5.4.9 and Custom Looks requests: Please send an email to my profile address, with just the word 'FIRMWARE' in the subject line - no body text is necessary. You will then receive an auto-generated email response containing download links to obtain the software. If you use a spam filtering service, then please ensure you add my email address to your 'Approved' list. Many thanks.

 

[JonTA]

I have had the same problem with my sandisk ultra 2gb cf card after instaling the new firmware. No solution yet :-(

 

[fishbain]

Me too,

Most of the time I’m capturing directly to the computer, but when I turn the camera on I’m getting a “bad card” message (sundisk + new firmware).

--
moti fishbain

 

[Paul Spatafora]

I have 6 Sandisk CF cards and very rarely did I have a problem with FW 5.4.6. Does anyone have a copy of this version they can send me. I deleted it after installing 5.4.9

I have noticed that start up is much faster than in previous version. Also, I haven't lost any files. The ones the camera didn't capture were they only ones I lost. Not that great, but can be worse!!

Thanks in advance.

Paul

 

[Vertumnus]

My SLR/n with 5.4.9 firmware refuses to work with 2GB Sandisk ultra CFs and SDs at all.Neither quick nor secure erase helps.No problem with Sandisk ultra SD 1 GB however and I can allways rely on my trusty Lexars 1GB CF.
--
Etruscus

 

[Chiarascuro]

Since upgrading to the 5.4.9 system on my camera, I too have been seeing write errors. I have had write errors on both Sandisk ultra II 4gb cards and on Hitachi 4gb microdrives. I would get this rarely before, but on a photoshoot I had last Friday, it popped up twice, then again on Saturday.

 

[the signatory]

Since upgrading to the 5.4.9 system on my camera, I too have been
seeing write errors. I have had write errors on both Sandisk ultra
II 4gb cards and on Hitachi 4gb microdrives. I would get this
rarely before, but on a photoshoot I had last Friday, it popped up
twice, then again on Saturday.

What a pain! If you want a copy of the last firmware file (5.4.6), drop me a mail at my profile above and state which camera you have please. Cheers and hope this helps.

--
Kind regards,
Nigel
--

Kodak DSLR Firmware v. 5.4.9 and Custom Looks requests: Please send an email to my profile address, with just the word 'FIRMWARE' in the subject line - no body text is necessary. You will then receive an auto-generated email response containing download links to obtain the software. If you use a spam filtering service, then please ensure you add my email address to your 'Approved' list. Many thanks.

 

[Chiarascuro]

Hi Nigel,

Thanks so much for the offer, but I still have the old firmwares on my computer (just in case).

I have done a secure erase, but am also getting a strange message on my slrn with the 4gb compact flash card saying that there is a card error. If I turn it off and turn it back on it doesn't give me the message again.

I will do another secure erase, give it a bit more time, and then see what happens.

thanks for your help,
bob

 

[the signatory]

Hi Nigel,

Thanks so much for the offer, but I still have the old firmwares on
my computer (just in case).

I have done a secure erase, but am also getting a strange message
on my slrn with the 4gb compact flash card saying that there is a
card error. If I turn it off and turn it back on it doesn't give
me the message again.

I will do another secure erase, give it a bit more time, and then
see what happens.

... does this only occur when JPEG images are also written on the card along with the RAW? I ask because firmware 5.4.1 was supposed to cure a JPEG file compression problem which led to write failures. I have only just discovered this, and therefore haven't yet had the opportunity to test this out for myself. Will be able to do so next week when I have another shoot to do, but in the meantime, it would good to hear of anyone else's experiences in this respect. I don't normally shoot with the JPEG option selected, as I tend to shoot only RAW. But on my last shoot, I did have both turned on as I was doing some exposure tests and perhaps that's why I got the card write errors show up, albeit erroneous ones. )

--
Kind regards,
Nigel
--

Kodak DSLR Firmware v. 5.4.9 and Custom Looks requests: Please send an email to my profile address, with just the word 'FIRMWARE' in the subject line - no body text is necessary. You will then receive an auto-generated email response containing download links to obtain the software. If you use a spam filtering service, then please ensure you add my email address to your 'Approved' list. Many thanks.

 

[Chiarascuro]

Hi Nigel,

No jpegs in my cameras. I only shoot RAW.

thanks,
bob