Hi,

My generally reliable Ricoh RDC-1 camera has developed a problem.

I switched the camera on today and the display comes up with the "no/Card" error, the same error state that results if you power up with no PCMCIA memory card in the slot. I rarely, if ever take the card out of the slot, and the camera has not been exposed to any extremes of shock, humidity/wetness, etc. The batteries were not fully charged but were OK. Same condition exists when operating off the AC adapter. The camera has never had any significant problems before.

I don't have a spare PCMCIA memory card lying around to test the camera, and I don't have a laptop or access to a PCMCIA reader to verify the card. Ejecting the card, removing the batteries and allowing the camera to sit for several minutes (maybe the internal CPU, etc are hosed up?) has no effect.

Given the age and the feature set of this camera I don't want to spend a lot of money on resuscitating it.

FWIW, I've probably taken about 2000 or so pictures with this camera in the two years I've owned it. This is the 8 meg card supplied by Ricoh with the camera. (I purchased the camera through an online auction site, onsale.com, and possibly the camera had been sitting in warehouses for quite a bit longer yet.) I realize that these cards are stated to have a limited life span (they supposedly last only for a certain number of duty cycles) but can anyone give their $0.02 whether these PCMCIA cards are THAT short lived?

I suppose I should first try a new card with the camera. If I buy a second card to test the camera, can anyone say whether a non-AIMS card will work in this camera? (If the camera is kaput I'll probably keep any such card as a backup and buy a new camera.)

Thanks,

Don Wallace

-- Don Wallace (donwallace@altavista.net), February 22, 2000