Sandisk 6-in-1 flash reader problem
Dave Martindale
SDDR-86. It's supposed to read CF types I and II, SmartMedia, SD and
MMC cards, and Memory Stick. For the moment I only have CF cards.
It works fine with 3 CF cards, branded Canon and Verbatim. But I have a
no-name CF card that simply hangs in the Sandisk reader. The green
"card installed" LED does not come on. Any attempt to access the device
letter assigned to the CF slot causes Explorer to hang until I remove
the card from the slot, which immediately unhangs it.
Yet this particular CF card works fine in two cameras (Canon G2 and
A200), another CF reader made by Dazzle, and in a CF to PCMCIA
adapter. So it's some interaction between this card and the Sandisk
reader that causes the hang, not either one alone.
Sandisk's support FAQs list a problem with some CF cards not working in
the SDDR-86, and say that they're working on a fix, but nothing more.
Has anyone else seen the problem? What brand of CF card, what size?
Heard anything more specific from Sandisk? Hasn't the 6-in-1 reader
been around for a while now? It seems like they should have had time to
find and fix a bug.
Anyway, if you use CF cards, you might want to avoid this particular
Sandisk reader until they get the problem fixed.
My card has no brand name on it; it just says CompactFlash. It's 256
Mb. I'm using the latest SDDR-86 drivers from the SanDisk website
under Windows 2000 SP3.
Dave
colinco
> Has anyone else seen the problem? What brand of CF card, what size?
> Heard anything more specific from Sandisk? Hasn't the 6-in-1 reader
> been around for a while now? It seems like they should have had time to
> find and fix a bug.
>
>
update that fixes it. I would have thought that Sandisk of all people
should know what makes CompactFlash work.
ajacobs2
problem.
We called it the Rayovac of readers..............
"colinco" <colin...@yawhoo.com> wrote in message
news:MPG.196eb2233...@news.xtra.co.nz...
dhwdmd
the first couple of images in PS Elements 2, then the rest just keep saying
jpg marker too short. Worse when I put the same card, it happens with all 3
microdrives I own, none of the cameras will then work with it. I get a card is
not initialized reply. I have to take the microdrive out of the camera open it
up on my Dell laptop and delete a .trash folder that was created. I thought it
was the Mac that was doing this, but now I am considering the card reader as
the source. All microdrives work flawlessly in both PCs at home and the files
are not damaged by removing the .trash folder. I was very confused, as this
only happened with the Mac. I thought the card reader was OK, now maybe
not...thanks for the heads up.. Don
Bart van der Wolf
> There's been some reports that they have been trialling a firmware
> update that fixes it. I would have thought that Sandisk of all people
> should know what makes CompactFlash work.
AFAIK the no-name CF cards usually come from the same manufacturers that
produce the big-name ones, and there are only a few manufacturers worldwide
anyway. The no-name ones are usually the ones that fail the quality criteria
for the big-name. The question thus becomes; what part of the quality
assurance test (which could be on just a production sample, not all cards
get tested all the time) did they fail? Formatted capacity (would be a crude
and simple one)?
Bart
Dave Martindale
>I have this card reader and have similar problem on a Mac platform. I can read
>the first couple of images in PS Elements 2, then the rest just keep saying
>jpg marker too short. Worse when I put the same card, it happens with all 3
>microdrives I own, none of the cameras will then work with it. I get a card is
>not initialized reply. I have to take the microdrive out of the camera open it
>up on my Dell laptop and delete a .trash folder that was created. I thought it
>was the Mac that was doing this, but now I am considering the card reader as
>the source.
It seems unlikely that the card reader would be creating folders and
moving files around *on its own*, since it is supposed to behave like a
disk drive. But it's entirely possible this is an interaction between
the card, the reader, and the Mac software.
On the PC, Windows Explorer just hangs trying to open the problem card.
It doesn't give an error, it doesn't time out in any reasonable amount
of time, and you can't use Explorer to do anything else until the card
is pulled. Explorer clearly expects the "drive" to respond with either
the requested operation complete or an error code within a fraction of a
second, and screws up when that doesn't happen. So it's a design flaw
(bug) in Explorer interacting with the way the CF card, the reader, and
the device drivers work. Something similar may be happening on the
Mac.
>All microdrives work flawlessly in both PCs at home and the files
>are not damaged by removing the .trash folder. I was very confused, as this
>only happened with the Mac. I thought the card reader was OK, now maybe
>not...thanks for the heads up.. Don
Do all the drives work OK when the Sandisk reader is attached to the
PCs?
Dave
Dave Martindale
>AFAIK the no-name CF cards usually come from the same manufacturers that
>produce the big-name ones, and there are only a few manufacturers worldwide
>anyway. The no-name ones are usually the ones that fail the quality criteria
>for the big-name. The question thus becomes; what part of the quality
>assurance test (which could be on just a production sample, not all cards
>get tested all the time) did they fail? Formatted capacity (would be a crude
>and simple one)?
The formatted capacity of the problematic 256 MB card is listed as 252
MB (264,470,528). I don't have another 256 Mb card to compare to, but a
Verbatim 128 MB card that works fine formats with a capacity of 124 MB
(130,912,256). The cluster sizes aren't the same (4K vs. 2K) so the two
numbers can't be compared directly, but the formatted capacity of the
256 MB card is more than double that of the 128 MB card.
The 256 MB card is the fastest CF card I own. The Sandisk is the only
USB 2.0 high speed reader I own; the other CF reader is USB 1. It's
possible that there is a timing problem between the fast Sandisk reader
and the card that doesn't affect the older slower reader.
Dave
Garrett Mace
identical to what I was experiencing. I posted a fix that worked for
me, though your results may vary. Do a Google Groups search for
SDDR-86. I discovered that a good number of CF cards don't work well
at 3.3V in the SDDR-86, and a Sandisk representative admitted as much
to me. I converted the device to a 5V reader by soldering a wire from
the USB 5V power input to the VCC pins on the CompactFlash connector.
It works flawlessly now.
Dave Martindale
Thanks. I found the thread.
Did you have to cut a trace supplying 3.3 V power to the CF connector
before adding the new wire? Or is there a diode that isolates the CF
connector from the rest of the circuitry?
Dave
Garrett Mace
>
> Did you have to cut a trace supplying 3.3 V power to the CF connector
> before adding the new wire? Or is there a diode that isolates the CF
> connector from the rest of the circuitry?
It looked like there might have been a diode, but I really didn't examine it
that closely. I was about ready to trash the thing and figured "hey, most of
this hardware should be 5V compatible anyway" so I just went for it. I guess
cutting the trace would be a smart thing to do, just in case.
Not that I guarantee it will work for your card...it just worked for me. If
you bother Sandisk support enough they will send you firmware that
supposedly fixes some issues, but they never did actually send it to me
after finding out how I'd gotten around the problem. ;-)
Dave Martindale
I contacted Sandisk Support via their web page. Their first reply took
several days, but subsequent emails have been returned in one day.
The support person said they had new firmware in testing and asked if I
wanted to try it. I said yes, and they sent it. The file provided is
"SanDisk Flasher 20030522.zip", suggesting that the change was made back
in May.
It installed fine, and it did change the reader's behaviour. Before,
when I plugged in the "problem" CF card, the green LED next to the CF
slot remained off; now it turns on - so the reader is recognizing the
card at least. Before, if I tried to open the device in Windows
Explorer, Explorer hung indefinitely until I pulled the card from the
slot. Now, there is a delay of a few seconds and then I get "Please
insert a disk into drive F", just like you'd get accessing another
removable drive with no media.
So, the new firmware is closer to working right, but I still can't access
that one CF card.
Dave