SmartMedia isn't being recognized by Computer!

[monalisa]

I used my smart media slot for the first time, with a new 128 meg Sandisk card, and seemed to work in the camera, but when I removed it from camera and put into my Dazzle Hi-Speed USP 2.0 10-in-1 Reader, nothing happens on my computer and I can't find any trace that the computer is recognizing that little tiny drive. The Compact Flash card is working fine though.

Any advice?

On another note, I asked Ted at Tallyn's where I bought my S2 if the CF and Smartmedia cards were supposed to eject out of the reader when I drag their icon to the trash, and he said no, you just pull it out. He also said that when you remove it, you wipe out all the memory so make sure you copy over everything. This doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but I am openminded... especially since I noticed that happened to me the first time I did it with the computer on, but I found that if I turn off my computer before I pull the CF out of the reader, the memory on that card stayed intact. He said I would lose those images as soon as I started shooting, it would overwrite what I'd already shot...but I didn't find that to have been my experience, I just seemed to start shooting where I'd left off. Has there been discussiion on this issue?:monalisa:

[Igor]

I have the same problem.
My Toshiba Satellite S607 notebook has two built-in slots: one for SD cards and one for SM cards. The SD works fine, but when I incert the SM card nothing happens. No "NEW HARDWARE FOUND", nothing...
The card works fine in the camera tho'.

I use Win XP.

Swampy/Bryan, maybe you're aware of some special tricks for the SM card reading?

[Swampy]

I have no clue on Monlisa's issue. It may sound dumb, but maybe the card was inserted upside down in the reader? Not trying to say that your dumb Monalisa.

As for you Igor? When you put the SM card in, it should come up with found new hardware. You should have 2 removable disks in My Computer, or possibly the two slots are recognized as a single removable drive perhaps? If you don't have 2 drives and you can't read the SM card using the one removable drive that's there, then there's a couple of things that may be going on here.

That SM slot may be disabled.
Both card reader slots can't be enabled at the same time.
A driver may not have been installed for that SM slot, which shouldn't really be the case though.

Maybe some other MAC people here can help Monalisa out. :) I charge 4x to even look at Mac issues in real life. Hahaha.

[frankgh]

Igor, My Toshiba laptop has both slots too and they work fine, I just stick it in. I have stuck it in upsidedown before and of course it did not work! :)

Mona Lisa,

If you want to remove your card from the reader without shutting down your computer open My Computer or windows explorer, right click on your card reader and click on eject. This does not physically eject the media from the reader; it just turns it off so you can remove the media from the reader without data loss or corruption. I alway erase or format my memory in the camera.

Hope this helps,

[Igor]

Thanks Bryan,
I must have a closer look into the suggested solutions, though I use this slot rarely, as the SM card is only a backup one in my camera (I have both SM and CF incerted).

[Igor]

Frank,
WHICH side is up and which is down? And How do you incert it into a slot? Label side up and contacts side down?

Also how do you activate your SM slot/drive? In Hardware Manager?

Thanks.

[frankgh]

Ok, just booted up and for my Toshiba the gold contacts face up. I do not get a new hardware found message. The drive is always there under my computer/ removable drive/ D:. You still should right click on the drive and select eject before removing the card or data loss can occur.

:cheers:

[Igor]

Thanks Frank! It worked , but only the first time I inserted the card.
Then I took it off, installed into camera took a test photo, incerted back into the laptop. And nothing happened. Clicking on the drive icon gives "insert a disk"... The cursor changes briefly from normal poiter to "wait"....
Strange.

[frankgh]

Strange... did you right click on the drive in my computer and eject before you removed it? Might be a hardware problem with your laptop or the SM might be bad. If you can get your hands on a USB card reader you could test it out.

[Igor]

Frank, yes I did.
Anyway the card works OK with the camera and reads OK via firewire.

[monalisa]

_Thank you_ Swampy for _not_ trying to say I'm dumb (sometimes I could certainly do some dumb things). In this case, I couldn't put my smartmedia card in but one way, though I tried them all, I tried the most obvious way first, logo writing on top, which seemed to seat well in the slot... when that didn't work (show up as a new drive on my desktop, nor anywhere else) I tried putting the card in the other directions but it wouldn't go in any _other_ way, without bending, so I figured I must have put it in the right direction the first time with the writing on top, top being "up" relative to the logo on the reader itself. So I got brave, and used the firewire with the camera - It worked great, I am also most thankful for all the comments and insight from other members about their experiences and also about the importance of dragging the icon to the trash when finished downloading, even though nothing appears to happen, I realize now that it does indeed! I guess my 10-in-1 Reader may really be a 9-in-1?:stupid: :monalisa:

[monalisa]

Ok, I admit, it appears I HAD INSERTED IT UPSIDE DOWN, ... I don't know how I did that, as I couldn't replicate it again, but I went to the zio.com support page and found this vague discription of how to insert the card:
"SmartMedia - insert the media with the gold contacts on the right and the notched corner facing down and farthest from you." Anyway, I gave it another try, and now I find that I couldn't insert it the way I thought I'd inserted it, with the label up, it would only go in with the lable down. I'm miffed, but happy to report the reader is now working in any case.

[Swampy]

;)