"SD card locked" error on unlocked SD cards

[bradreiman]

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i've had random similar problems with three of my four sankisk II cards comencing immediately after the last firmware update which coincided with my Leopard upgrade. One of the cards is unusable now and unfixable with disk utility. Hmmm. When the problem occurs the "remaining shots" led display always shows an unusually high number of shots remaining in the 400's. The images in review (if I can get that far) are all black (not the rugby team) and i can delete them until the shot number goes into negative numbers.strange that the lcd screen shot numbering sequence even has a "minus" sign.

[photoneil]

My original post was to a person that said TO "NEVER" format the card in a computer, NOTE the word NEVER.

That is a total URBAN MYTH and TOTALLY FALSE.

The rest of the post went on to suggest some possibilities of why the cards are showing lock when they clearly weren't. One of those possibilities is that the cards had died and that is totally possible.

 

Thanks.

 

With the greatest of respect mate you responded to a post that said this...

 

"This seems to be a relatively common occurence where SD cards are formatted in the pc. The fix is normally to format the card in the M8 - personally I only format cards in the camera and have not experienced this problem."

 

There's no mention of the word "NEVER" so please don't misrepresent this.

[Shootist]

With the greatest of respect mate you responded to a post that said this...

 

"This seems to be a relatively common occurence where SD cards are formatted in the pc. The fix is normally to format the card in the M8 - personally I only format cards in the camera and have not experienced this problem."

 

There's no mention of the word "NEVER" so please don't misrepresent this.

 

Yeah Whatever.

Have a nice day.

[photoneil]

Yeah Whatever.

Have a nice day.

 

oops...

 

and you too.

[afineman]

that is happening to me with a loaner M8, It never happened with my M8 or any that I have rented before, but it is also happening to me now. I find that if I take the card out and carefully put the card back in it usually works fine after that.

[enboe]

To the original poster:

 

I was having a similar problem, spanning multiple examples of Sandisk and Kingston cards, both of which are on the approved list. The problem was more prevalent when shooting in the vertical, portrait, position, but it would happen intermittently in the horizontal position too. I tried formatting in camera and in computer, but this did not clear up the issue. Finally, I became frustrated enough at not having a reliable camera that I sent it back for the 3-4 month repair trip.

 

I will post the outcome of the repair trip next year when my camera returns.

 

Eric

[vogelsango]

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Try reset in the menu. Leica Switzerland gave me this information and it works. I didn't have any problems with cards locked since. Hope il will work for you.

All the best

 

Olivier Vogelsang

[gman]

I tried the reset- but nothing different happened. I have problems only with Kingston cards. I recently returned one to Kingston and they sent me a new one- same thing! As soon as that card is put in the camera and I turn it on I get the 'locked' message.

 

Never had a problem with other brands. I'm just not going to bother with the Kingston cards anymore nor return the bad ones. Why bother? Just use other brands.

 

jeff

[MarcRochkind]

Regarding formatting a card with a computer:

 

It is always true that formatting in the camera does it right (assuming the camera is working properly--if it isn't, where the card was formatted won't matter).

 

It is possibly true that formatting with a computer can cause a problem. It is impossible to say for sure, because there are these variables: computer, card reader, card, software, human operator.

 

If a card acts up that was formatted in the computer, one will never know if that was the reason, because cards act up when they were formatted in the camera, too.

 

One plausible reason for problems with the computer is that there are more things to go wrong, more other things going on at the time, and much less stable software. The camera is a much more stable formatting platform.

 

The card-problem events are rare, reporting is entirely anecdotal and sporadic, and the circumstances are never completely and accurately noted. Therefore, there is no scientific basis on which to form a recommendation.

 

Conclusion: Always format in the camera. That way any problem with formatting in the computer, existing or "urban myth", can be ruled out.

 

A recommendation to format in the computer would have to be backed up with a scientific basis but, as I said above, no such basis exists. Opinion not supported by statistical evidence is worthless, at least to me.

 

--Marc