InspectorOyster Posted October 30, 2007 Share #1 Posted October 30, 2007 Advertisement (gone after registration) I've been reading through the lockup threads and haven't seen anything like what I have going on right now. I have about 35k shutter activations on my m8 from april 2007. I've had the normal occasional lockup with a battery reinsertion bringing things back about 5-10 times before this. This weekend I was shooting heavily but not much more than normal and I started to get a lockup every 10-15 frames. The buttons would go unresponsive but the light meter and battery/counter display were still active. It would alternate between the sd card light being stuck on, off, and (much less often) flashing. This happened for a few hundred frames and then I hit a card that only locked a few times. Then I hit one that shot all the way through. I dumped cards and, pretty much, the same thing happened again. I have 5 sandisk 2gb ultra IIs and it seems that either 4 of them went bad, at the same time , to varying degrees or I have a camera problem. I was able to run through the one "good" card a couple times today. It only has trouble when one of the bad cards locks the camera up and I put the good card back in after the lockup. It will lock up a few times and then be fine until I put a bad one back in. I thought about dirty contacts but cleaning them did nothing. Rewriting the firmware did nothing. Letting the camera sit overnight with no battery did nothing. Does anyone have any ideas? Any mac software to check the integrity of a card? I read about a Leica warranty loaner program. Has anyone been able to pull that off? I'm in full swing on a project and it would really hurt to send this thing to Germany. Switching cameras would blow the continuity of the work so I'm a bit desperate here. Thanks for any suggestions. Let me know if any of this needs clarification. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted October 30, 2007 Posted October 30, 2007 Hi InspectorOyster, Take a look here Sudden Lockups After 35k Frames. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
farnz Posted October 30, 2007 Share #2 Posted October 30, 2007 35,000 shots in 7 months?? That's an average of 166 shots EVERY day! How do you find time to take all the shots and process them? Did you really intend to write 35,000? Pete. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shootist Posted October 30, 2007 Share #3 Posted October 30, 2007 Let see you have problems with a few cards and with at least one card you have no problems. I'm sorry but have you thought about buying some new cards and NOT using the ones you are having problems with. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bradreiman Posted October 30, 2007 Share #4 Posted October 30, 2007 dumb question but do you reformat your cards often? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
InspectorOyster Posted October 30, 2007 Author Share #5 Posted October 30, 2007 Yeah. 35,000. They back up and I go on an editing kick when I need to get away from shooting. Yes I have. But 4 cards going bad at the same time sounds a little unlikely. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
InspectorOyster Posted October 30, 2007 Author Share #6 Posted October 30, 2007 Yes. I format every time I dump them. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
robsteve Posted October 30, 2007 Share #7 Posted October 30, 2007 Advertisement (gone after registration) Yes. I format every time I dump them. Do you format in the camera or with the computer? What OS are you using? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
InspectorOyster Posted October 30, 2007 Author Share #8 Posted October 30, 2007 I always format in camera. Haven't changed the way I dump cards since I got the camera. I did switch to leopard though. Hmmm... I don't know how that would affect anything. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
robsteve Posted October 30, 2007 Share #9 Posted October 30, 2007 I did switch to leopard though. Hmmm... I don't know how that would affect anything. I was wondering that when I noticed some of these lockup problems started appearing again, just after Leopard was introduced. Were any of these problem cards read or written to by Leopard prior to your problems this past weekend? In other words, did the problems start after you had read theses card with a machine running Leopard? You could try reformatting the cards with a utility from the card manufacturer using a computer not running Leopard and see if the problems still exist. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
InspectorOyster Posted October 30, 2007 Author Share #10 Posted October 30, 2007 Yeah, I read them all with the leopard machine. I'll try formatting the cards in a non leopard machine and see if that does anything. I've been testing and just got the one card that has been reliable to lock the camera up. Argh. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
etrigan63 Posted October 30, 2007 Share #11 Posted October 30, 2007 Format them in the camera, not the computer. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hankg Posted October 30, 2007 Share #12 Posted October 30, 2007 Format them in the camera, not the computer. Absolutely -Never format in the computer and don't delete files while shooting. Reformat in camera. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
InspectorOyster Posted October 30, 2007 Author Share #13 Posted October 30, 2007 Formatted in tiger. Locked up after a few frames. Reformatted in the camera and it finished but locked up again after a few frames. Tried to format again and it locked up during the format. That's a first. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
fordfanjpn Posted October 30, 2007 Share #14 Posted October 30, 2007 I would suggest trying some new cards, and don't put any of them in a computer running Leopard, at least until you see if the problems still occur with the new cards. Bill Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
InspectorOyster Posted October 30, 2007 Author Share #15 Posted October 30, 2007 Yeah, I'll pick some up tomorrow. Has anyone else had problems with the m8 and leopard? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
M6J Posted October 30, 2007 Share #16 Posted October 30, 2007 Mine locked up twice in 70 shots on Sunday -as I describe in another thread- and I never changed my Tiger. Maybe it should be called "the October syndrome" ? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
marknorton Posted October 30, 2007 Share #17 Posted October 30, 2007 Sound to me like it is card related because the Intel processor does not respond to buttons while it is writing to the card. Although commercial grade SD cards sockets have a rated life of 10000 insertions, it's possible that we are taking cards in and out more than Leica intended because the USB connection is not worth the trouble. I think you should consider cleaning the connections of the SD card socket. Here's how I do it: - Take a pac-pad and cut it to the width of an SD Card, maybe a little less. - Find a thin plastic strip - I use the type which are inserted into flower pots to identify the plant, cut to size and fold the pec-pad over the end and tape in postion - Apply Eclipse fluid to the end, wet, not damp but not dripping. - Insert into the SD card holder - GENTLY - and move it over the contacts, keeping in mind they on on the rear side of the socket. - Repeat with a dry pec pad and then leace the camera for a couple of minutes to let the fluid evaporate. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest V64 Posted October 30, 2007 Share #18 Posted October 30, 2007 My take on this is: 1. Format (with erase) on a PC or Mac writes to every disc sector and takes quite some time to do 2. Format in-camera does (from the time it takes) little more that re-write the directory tables 3.If an SD Card is faulty you wont find out until you write to the faulty sector in which case a 'lockup' will probably occur, either in-camera or in PC/Mac. 4. If the write failure/lock-up occurs while writing images in the image buffer then all the images in the buffer (including those which have been written) may well be lost David H Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eikonphoto Posted October 30, 2007 Share #19 Posted October 30, 2007 I've been reading through the lockup threads and haven't seen anything like what I have going on right now. I have about 35k shutter activations on my m8 from april 2007. I've had the normal occasional lockup with a battery reinsertion bringing things back about 5-10 times before this. This weekend I was shooting heavily but not much more than normal and I started to get a lockup every 10-15 frames. The buttons would go unresponsive but the light meter and battery/counter display were still active. It would alternate between the sd card light being stuck on, off, and (much less often) flashing. This happened for a few hundred frames and then I hit a card that only locked a few times. Then I hit one that shot all the way through. I dumped cards and, pretty much, the same thing happened again. I have 5 sandisk 2gb ultra IIs and it seems that either 4 of them went bad, at the same time , to varying degrees or I have a camera problem. I was able to run through the one "good" card a couple times today. It only has trouble when one of the bad cards locks the camera up and I put the good card back in after the lockup. It will lock up a few times and then be fine until I put a bad one back in. I thought about dirty contacts but cleaning them did nothing. Rewriting the firmware did nothing. Letting the camera sit overnight with no battery did nothing. Does anyone have any ideas? Any mac software to check the integrity of a card? I read about a Leica warranty loaner program. Has anyone been able to pull that off? I'm in full swing on a project and it would really hurt to send this thing to Germany. Switching cameras would blow the continuity of the work so I'm a bit desperate here. Thanks for any suggestions. Let me know if any of this needs clarification. Hi I feel for you. I'm the one with the shutter 'ding' (one of several I should say) and joined the pro repair/loaner program, and as I suspected - only to be told that there are no loaner M8's. There is supposed to be someadvantages in turn around repairs, but as of today I can't comment on that. It's important to me, too, so we'll see. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hankg Posted October 30, 2007 Share #20 Posted October 30, 2007 It seems the M8 is very touchy about cards. I have been using Transcend 4GB 150x. 2 cards no problems. I believe Guy Mancuso is using the same card as it was based on his comments that I purchased them. I have not found any diagnostic tools for sd cards. The Transcend 150x cards are really cheap maybe you should give them a try. Perhaps Leica should consider a rent while repair program with the rental fees just covering cost. That way they could allocate enough camera's to the program to make it work. Not as nice as a loaner but better then no camera for 2 months for a working photographer. They would send you the camera and you would send yours back in the same packaging/same courier after you confirmed the replacement worked. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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