Hello,

The problems I'm having with the camera are relatively small, yet as they are related to the smartcards, it can prove a real hastle. Sometimes I get no problems from the card. Sometimes it automatically asks me to format the card. This can happen after I've uploaded the images onto the computer and put the card back into the camera.

More significantly, (and even when I format the card), when I take a photo the camera just freezes up. The red light keeps on and keeps flashing, and a little symbol appears at the top of the camera (I can only conclude that it means 'write...', as the symbol appears to represent a piece of paper and a pen). Sometimes this happens after the second photo I take whilst not effecting the first photo.

Often this is a very random occurance.

Has anyone had the same problem as this, or does someone have a solution for this? All replys will be most appreciated.

Thanks

Adam

-- Adam (awh@cintranet.co.uk), June 11, 2000

Answers

You don't mention what method you're using to transfer images off the card, but you did say "This can happen after I've uploaded the images onto the computer and put the card back into the camera.", so I'm guessing that you use some form of external transfer device like a card reader, floppy disk adapter, or PCMCIA adapter.

I don't have an OLY but have had similar things happen with my Toshibas. As I recall, it happened either when I tried to open the files on the smartmedia and view them with a viewer like ACDSee, or if I moved them from the card to hard disk rather than just copying them, or if I deleted them from the card using the reader or pcmcia adapter.

The rather obvious solution was to reformat the card and "then don't do that!" as the old doctor joke line goes... As long as I just copy the files to my hard disk and then remove the smartmedia and delete the images in the camera, I have no trouble! I haven't needed to format again, since the file system stays unaffected as long as I let the camera do the erasing. Try it and see what happens.

Good Luck!

-- Gerald M. Payne (gmp@francomm.com), June 11, 2000.

A couple of notes:

The Toshiba PDR-M4 & M5 handle smartmedia correctly, and the Olympus C-3030Z uses firmware and software written by idiots. Without going through all my complaints, let's just say that you CAN'T look at the data written to the smartmedia while the card is mounted in the camera, except by using the extremely crummy Camedia software furnished by Olympus. The files simply don't appear as a drive letter, the way they should - only Camedia has the necessary hooks to access them.

As a result, when anything goes wrong, it's hard to tell what's the cause - Camedia has a number of quirks, some of which involve misformatting smartmedia.

With all that said, it sounds to me more like you might have dirty contacts on the card, or possibly other damage. The cards are only $15 for an 8 MB, so the first thing to try is just using a different card, to see if the problem goes away. If it does, and then reappears when you try to use the first card again, voila!

You might try gently using a pink pencil eraser on the metal contacts - you may have corrosion or other dirt. In general, it's best to use a card reader, and format the card using it, rather than rely on the camera's formatting.

-- Mark Grebner (Mark@Grebner.com), June 15, 2000.

Gerald is right. Do not edit the smartcard with you computer. Copy the files then remove the card from whatever reader you're using and delete the card in your camera. Had the same problem with my C-2000.

-- Virgil Howarth (vhowarth@aol.com), June 17, 2000.

Had the same problem on a new Smartmedia card for a new camera. Removed the card, cleaned it carefully with lens cleaner, re-installed, never had a problem since. Simple problem--even simpler solution.

-- Gary Michell (GMichell@barrick.com), June 21, 2000.

I think I can contribute one more potential fix to the 'card error' issue. I usually use a floppy adapter to upload files, but when I had lost it I once used the serial port connection. For some reason the program crashed when I tried to access it. Not a big deal at the time.

More importantly, this rendered my cam (the Olympus C2020) completely illiterate to its smartmedia cards! All it would say was 'card error' and offer to format the card, which did not work. I was genuinely worried I would have to send it back. But out of trial and error I hooked up the camera's TV connector and this seemed to revert its detection back to usual. Try this as a last gasp if something similar happens to you.

Buck

-- Buck DeFore (bdefore@ups.edu), June 25, 2000.

Were you using a Lexar reader? Ive had two to fail (universal paralel) with strange results (asking for formatting)destroying images on card, not reading, acquiring as three color bands in image editor (normal on in-camera viewer), no problems with direct serial download or Flashpath (but its very slow and overpriced for what you get, but you can use it (with the flashpath software installed in almost any computer setup.)Trying a Sandisk now, hope I have better luck, had one bad Sandisk that couldn't see images in directory.

-- Wayne smith (waynsmith@hotmail.com), July 12, 2000.

I've had the same Olympus 3030 problem with several brands and sizes of cards formated by the camera partially filled removed and reinserted. The card error pops up leaving me with the feeling that the shots on the card are gone. Similar things when files are uploaded to the camera through Camedia/USB connection. I tend to use the cardreader more often. In my case there is not a simple, "it's the card reader error" solution. Someone on another forum suggested selecting the eject function prior to removing the card from the card reader. But this doesn't affect the incidence. Turning the camera off, pulling the card out and reinserting doesn't fix the problem. Taking the batteries overnight or several days to reset the camera doesn't work. It only looses the settings and date.

My fix that works everytime is to simply open the card acces door, pull the card out a bit reinsert it, close the door and it works. I've only had to repeat this once. Even though the manual says to always turn the camera off to take the SM card out. My feeling is this is equivalent to a warm boot of the processor. Everyone else that I've recommended this to has reported similar success.

-- Jim Thompson (jat@primus.ca), September 20, 2000.

I had the same problem with 6 cards. The solution was to as stated above, clean them with a pencil eraser. All of them then worked! It was weird having 6 cards go "bad" overnight! TRY THE ERASER THING, IT WORKS!

-- mark baumann (imagesinc@cox.net), August 26, 2004.

Pencil eraser didn't work for me, but cleaning the card with Windex, and inserting/withdrawing a couple times with fresh Windex worked! Probably cleaned the contacts inside the camera..?

-- Katrin (katidesign@hotmail.com), February 08, 2005.