Problem: 128MB Smartmedia Card

[lesged]

While transferring files from my Oly C4000Z to my laptop, something went beserk with the 128 MB Smartmedia card in the camera. I could only transfer a small portion of what I left on the memory card and lost the rest.

When it stop functioning correctly, I got a warning message: "Card full!", then "Card Error!" but now when I turn the camera on I get a window marked Card Setup with two Hobson choices:Power Off or Format one above the other.  using arrows up or down , I highlight Power Off or Format

Clicking Power Off it does that function. Clicking Format--which seems to be what the card wants-- doesn't perform that function. Instead I get two more choices, Yes or No If I click No, it reverts to the former screen with  and Format But if I click Yes, I get a caution message in red: "Caution Erasing All" If I click Yes I get warning message "Card Error"

Woe is me! I only brought that 128MB Smartmedia card to Florida. Is it kaput, ruined forever? Or is there some way to revivify the 128MB memory card?

We have past the half way marker for our three month snowbird wintering over in Florida. At home I have more Smartmedia cards, but with much lower capacity. I think I have 8 and 16MB cards.

If the card is fried , I'll put a WTB ad in NFf, but if the camera is ruined, I'll just use my Lumix DMC-LS75, , as a back up to my K10D , but without a vf it is hopeless to use on sunny days.  Btw, the K10D seems to have grown heavier since I got here. Or my my neck muscles are atrophing.

I made a swap with Peter L.: my last XA2 for  Pete's Oly C4000Z  It has been working very well despite the time I fell on a boardwalk when James and I were in a nature preserve in MA. The tele lens' position  developed a 30 degree departure from the basic lens mount.  I wiggled it back into position and the zoom action has been A-OK ever since. I also dropped the camera on our macadam driveway as I was getting into my car, and still the C4000Z worked perfectly fine right up till this afternoon.

Any suggestions?

[Mike Kovacs]

Sounds like its bricked to me. Hope you didn't pay much. I can't even find a card under 2 gigabytes anywhere these days.

[jamesmck]

Les - Are you using a card reader or hooking the camera itself to the computer?  Reason I ask is that the problem could be with the card or the camera (and it sounds suspiciously like it may be the camera).  Pity you don't have another small card with you.  SM cards are not plentiful, as you probably know.  Amazon.com has some here: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_15?url=search-alias%3Delectronics&field-keywords=smartmedia+card&sprefix=smartmedia+card, but you don't want to invest in one if the problem is in the camera.  I have an 8MB SM card I can put in an envelope for you to do a test.  Give me your FL address.

James

[lesged]

Thanks Mike and James for your speedy responses. I checked eBay's completed lists and they have sold as high as $45.95 for one !28MB SM card. With that in mind I was ready to pack it away and test it when I get home in April.

That was before I saw your response James.  Even an 8MB will be a great help to find out if it's the card or the camera at fault. I'll PM my Florida address ASAP


Thanks Mike & James!


  

[LarryD]

WOW!!!!! That card is an antique. I always take mine out of the camera use a card reader then dump the card. I sometimes even reformat it as I have noticed that some of my older cards get stupid. Though nun are as old as that one. I just got a 16G card for $10.00 at Big Lots.

[jamesmck]

WOW!!!!! That card is an antique.

Larry - The SmartMedia (SM) format is the antique, not Les's card.  128MB was humongous and very cutting-edge for that format (Olympus shipped some cameras with a free 4MB card!).  I still have a couple of 'vintage' digitals that need SM cards, and am reminded by this discourse that I should pick up some cards while they are still (barely) available.

[LarryD]

Sorry there I misread the SM card thing. Seems though my Plus-X that was just discontinued by Kodak still fits all my cameras. I need to get some soon. Things change so fast it is not funny.

 I just looked at my multi card reader and found it had a SM slot I always wondered what that was for.

[lesged]

James,

I forgot to answer your question re card reader. I hooked up the Oly C4000Z to my  Dell Latitude D610 with standard USB cable, because I didn't have an SM card reader.

I actually was doing a triage when the SM card started doing peculiar things. I was deleting all the bad shots, which were in the strong majority, then checked which of the decent ones had already had been transferred into folders in my hard drive and dumped the duplicates.

At a certain point, I couldn't see many of the files as thumbnails anymore, just empty  boxes with file numbers. When I tried to delete them, sight unseen, a warning screen came up saying the file could not be read. I eventually deleted all the empty boxes, in batches, and left 3 thumbnail images.

When I turned the camera on, expecting to see just the three photos and looked to see how many more shots were available, were left a message popped up:  CARD FULL!


I'll wait till I get  your 8MB SM card and see if it will work. If so, I'll shop around for another 128MB, but I'd be happy to find lower capacity ones of 32MB or 64MB  That's plenty. There is no reason to store so many images on the SM card. Ive been spoiled with 4GB SD cards on other digicams.  OUAT, 36 exposures were a lot of frames for a camera shoot. I don't shoot video with my digital cameras, so less will be better for Les. Think twice before shooting! Don't mistake the camera for a machine gun.

Thanks again for offering the 8MB card.

[taulen]

If the card/camera shows up as a disk when connected to the computer, try formatting it from there. Have woked for me in the past, but never used smart media cards tho.

[Mike Kovacs]

Ahhhhh SM card.

Les you could probably get a decent 2nd hand digital camera cheaper than feeding this one expensive antique cards!

I'm guessing a card reader is out of the cards for an SM card.

[lesged]

Jonny,  (aka Taulen)

I would like to be able to format the card, but the camera won't allow it in the bizarre state it's in. The warning message "Card Error!"appears when I try.

Maybe if my 128MB SM card is put in someone else's camera that uses the SM system, my card could be correctly formatted and all will be well again with my Oly C4000Z 

But if my SM card is corrupted I question if it can screw up someone else's camera. My gut feeling says it couldn't. but I'd hate to be wrong and pass my problem on to another person's camera.

For now I'll wait for James' 8MB card and see if the C4000Z is still working A-OK
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mike, Larry , Jonny and James

I found an article that looks like another person had a similar problem though the woman's card was a different memory card (xD-Picture Card).

Should I try downloading free recovery software? Any recommendations for those listed or some you’d recommend?

http://www.oempcworld.com/support/honeymoon.htm

[LarryD]

Les it can't hurt.

[jamesmck]

Mike: Many current 'universal' card readers have a SM slot.

Les: When you connect via a USB cable, is your camera read directly as a drive, or is some Olympus software coming into the picture?  If the latter, this software might be causing a problem and need reinstallation.  For all types of cards, a reader makes more sense than direct camera connection.  Get a cheap 'universal' and use it with all your cards.

As Larry said, trying the recovery software wouldn't hurt.  The 8MB card is in the mail, and should arrive by Friday or Saturday.

James

[lesged]

James,

C4000Z was hooked up directlyto my my laptop . There was no Olympus software involved.

The only USB card reader I have in FL is for SD cards, which I got from  Dan Iggers  with his Lumix DMC- LS75. I see those are very reasonable  and I will get one.

[Ron G]

The card can be saved with a low level format.I have the program around here somewhere that will do that.I use it from time to time.If you cannot find it I will send it to you.Just checked my stash and the name of the file is smformat.exe.It is a Sandisk product.
Use PCInspector Smartrecovery first to see if you can save any of the pics on the card but the format program will give you your card back.Ron G