Hello I've purchased my Olympus Camedia 3030 zoom about one month ago. I thought it was the best possible choice. I simply adore it. But recently one thing really shock me and I'm looking for any other users of this camera who would know what the problem is. It would really appreciate if you could explain behavior of my camera. I've received 16MB Smart media card with my camera and I bought additional 64MB card at the same time. Mainly I was using 16Mb card, it worked quite well but once it just happened and format screen appeared. I've choose no (off) in menu and reinsert the card. The same thing also happened about 3 times on several occasions. The fourth time I had to actually format the card and it was OK for some time. Then when the format screen appeared again and I've have to confirm it the camera answered with card error. I've turned off the camera and when I turn it on again the small LCD displayed 81 pictures free space (impossible for 16Mb card) but the objective didn’t pop out and color LCD remained blank. From this time on I couldn't use this original Olympus Smart media card any more. And I use 64Mb card, but now this card also start the same behavior. I must say I've used this 64Mb card only three times. I took 80 pictures and then erase them with “clear all” command. I've used erase all command only 3 times on this card. I've read that Smart media has a limited lifetime. But to rewrite it only 3 times is not normal I think. When I've tried to connect with computer with 16Mb card inserted it first claimed that the card has no pictures on it to display, when I've tried to upload pictures the answer was the card is full. If you have any experience with similar problems or any information about lifetime of SM card, please contact me. Best regards Tomash

-- Tomash Stropnik (tomaz.stropnik1@uni-mb.si), September 10, 2001

Answers

Dear Tomash,

Allthough your message is from quite a long time ago, I will respond on it. For about a year I am the forunate owner of an Olympus C3030 and just like you I bought it with an 16Mb smart media card. After a some time I bought a 64Mb card and with both cards I made quite a lot of photos in the meen time and doing so I never had any problem. I'm sorry for you and I hope that you will become as enthousiastic as I am. John Kranenburg

-- John Kranenburg (jk53@xs4all.nl), June 22, 2002.

I bought two SM cards, 128MB and 64MB for my Olympus C-2100UZ, and the 64MB one basically from the first insertion in the camera SM slot gave me a card error. Every times it prompts for a repair, but selecting the repair options is no use. I tried to repair it with a USB SM reader and smprep.exe, it reports a bad CIS, but refuses to repair ("CIS recovery failed, unable to continue operation"). I don't know what could be the reason, the two cards were sent in the same envelope, and the 128MB one works perfectly (already taken 250MB of photos with it). Did you found any solutions with your cards?

-- Lucio Baggio (baggio@science.unitn.it), June 26, 2002.

I had that exact same problem with the card that came with the camera. I had to stop using it. I bought a second 16mb card and 128 also and have so far had no problem. I think it must be the cards.

-- Chris Campbell (adcastillo@yahoo.com), July 03, 2002.

I have exactly the same problem on a C-3000 with a 32mb card - number 81 flashing, and everything. I hate goddamned Olympus. I won't be buying any more Olympus products in the future.

-- (dhmdamnation@yahoo.com), August 16, 2002.

I have bought an Olympus C-700 on July, 30, 2002 and I'm very pleased with it, although this camera has some difficulties in low light situations but I already knew that from my searches before buying.

I've taken almost 900Mb of photos and movies and never experienced any problems with smartmedia. I currently use one Olympus 64Mb card. When it's full I sometimes use the original card with 8Mb witch gives me a few more shots.

-- Vitor Amorim (amorimvitor@sapo.pt), August 26, 2002.

I've solved the problem without too much hassle.

After banging my head against the wall, attempting to manually edit the data on the card, I realised the cards were under warranty still...

I took one of my "corrupted" cards to Jessops and explained the problem, even that the card formats fine with windows and demonstrating the issues, then I suddenly had a brainwave, just format the card in a Fuji 6900 or other digital camera!!!

It worked. Thanks to a friendly shop manager, problem solved!

It seems olympus wont put a proper formatter in the firmware of their cameras. Dont believe the rumours that formatting the card in a card reader or mp3 player irreversibly damages the smartmedia. ITS NOT TRUE!

There is even a much simpler way to backup your card than your report on http://www.digit-life.com/articles/smcrestore/ and it will work with any smartmedia reader - not just the MAUSB-2 as long as it is accesible as a mapped drive from "my computer"

Method Make a backup image copy of a smartmedia card that works in your camera, borrow one if possible, or like me go to the store where you bought it and ask someone to format it like I did. (it has to be the same size), Then put it into your USB smartmedia card reader. and run Winhex Use Winhex ( a hex editor for Windows) http://download.com.com/3000-2352-6535814.html?tag=lst-0-1 go to Tools>disk editor then file>create backup.

With this image backup, you can overwrite a seemingly corrupted card, and hey-presto, you can now use it again in your olympus.

I have an image file in zip format that is 800k for a standard (non panorama type ) 128Meg olympus friendly smartmedia card if anyone needs it, please let me know, and I will email it to you. After all, having tried to hex-edit - why bother when there's a simple way!

regards - and spread the word!

regards - spread the word!

Derek c Foley

http://www.derekfoley.com

-- derek c foley (dirk@derekfoley.com), September 09, 2002.

Don't know if anyone else has had luck with this but it’s probably worth a try - I have an Olympus C3020 and two different times now have gotten a card error when putting the smartmedia card back into my camera after transferring and deleting pictures on the disk while it was in the reader connected to my computer. The first time I had problems, I had not gotten all my pics off the disk, so I tried backing up the disk through windows file manager by right-clicking the drive letter and selecting "properties". Fortunately the backup worked, and magically, my smartmedia card was able to be read by my camera when I put it back in. Now, a few months and a few hundred pics later, I just had the same problem - my camera would not read or even format the card. I searched for fixes on the internet, and upon not finding much of anything, tried to backup my card, even though I had just purposely deleted all 115 images off of it after copying them to my hard drive. Well, what do you know - after I backed up the disk, I put it in the camera and - voila! It works again!

-- cee cee (cgaff99@adelphia.net), November 17, 2002.

We have been using an Olympus 490 for almost 2 years, shooting lots and lots of pics of our young son, almost exclusively on a smartmedia 64mg card- we have used the 16mg card very little as we shoot more on high quality. Last month I started losing pics off the card when I tried to view thru my sandisk reader... everytime I shot a few more pics, I would lose a few more assorted ones back in the middle of the card. I called a photo shop and found out that yes, the cards are faulty and do wear out. Bought a new 128 card. Immediately having the same trouble - I decided it could be the reader. I called same photo shop and a month later they inform me that they have decided to no longer stock the smartmedia cards because of so much trouble with them and that the cards are being fazed out altogether. Told me buying a new reader couldn't hurt though -bought new Dazzle reader and for 2 weeks have been satisified until tonight. Now when I put the card in, the reader prompts me to format it... and I cannot even look at them on the camera which in the past I have at least been able to do. Good thing I bought that card at Costco - it is going back courtesy of their no questions asked return policy. I will start shopping for a new upgraded camera with the new memory cards... I can't imagine life without my digital camera, we use it almost exclusively. Good luck to everyone out there.

-- kriskz (3zembruskis@msn.com), November 22, 2002.

Hi, I'we received many e-mails regarding the SM problems. Here is the solution, of my problems, which I described in original Question.

Hi I've solved my problems with SM card. I never used any SM readers. (no need for that) It seems like camera holds information about inserted card. If you exchange the card this information can get mixed up. My camera actually displayed the same space for 64Mb card and 16Mb card. It looked like both cards are bad but I solved my problems with this:

Insert the card. Take bateries out of camera for more than 10hours. Reinsert the batteries Imidiately format the card.

The same procedure for the other card.

Since i've done that I took about 3GB of photos with any problems.

My friend has Cammedia 3020 and he had the same problems. I advised him to take the same procedure and it worked.

Best regards

Tomash

-- tomaz stropnik (tomaz.stropnik1@uni-mb.si), November 22, 2002.

I have made a format utility that repairs the cis and Panorama feature on olypmus smartmedia cards. But need to work with a card reader that uses smrep utility. I rewrote the hex values per this site http://www.geocities.com/roberthaus/pan/ This repaired all of my cards 128mb and 64mb non Olympus cards. And put the Panorama feature on them also.

-- Robert Ashmun (rjashmun@attbi.com), January 12, 2003.

There are more resources at my site for this subject. You will need a card reader/writer that uses the Smprep utility Then you may try one the files we have for Zio reader/writers and Microtech so far.

http://home.attbi.com/~slobo66/ or Try http://www.geocities.com/roberthaus/pan/index.html

-- Robert Ashmun (slobo66@attbi.com), February 17, 2003.

After transfering files with my PQI USB2.0 all in one card reader , and deleting files afterwards in reader as well. MY 128 MB smart Hi everyone card became unusable with my olympus C-700.. I made a backup copy of working 128 MB smart card and loaded it to my faulty card with WINHEX. It didn't solved the problem,I still can't format it in camera "CARD ERROR". I guess it is because WINHEX doesn't access nor modify CIS of the card.However SMPREP is not available to download for my reader for download and I did not try that.

-- Bruno (bruno_@netlane.com), April 07, 2003.

Hi out there!

I've been experiencing just about a million problems with my SmartMedia cards. Recently I bought a PQI USB 2.0 reader, did something to the cards which rendered them unusable in my Olympus Camedia 4040 Zoom. I've tried CW software, Flaspath, SMPREP (can't get it started at all because it's incompatible with the reader), everything I could throw at the cards, but I just can't get them working. If anyone out there has any solid advice, please HELP!

-- Sasha Samac (samac@hi.hinet.hr), May 01, 2003.

Just to confirm (but not offering a solution), I too have had probs for 2 months w/ C-3030 not being able to read or even format/repair SM cards. I,too, have a PQI USB 2.0 card reader. Coincidence??? My 16MB card continues to work, but 2 32MB cards and a 64MB card are dead to my camera, but quite readable in the card reader. I tried getting a friend's non-Olympus camera to reformat the cards, but not readable there, either. Can't be the cards--3 different cards from different manufacturers having the same failure at different times.

-- Dave (davewilt@yahoo.com), May 31, 2003.

I have experienced the same problems with a D-550, a 128mb SM card, and a Soyo BayOne AVI 6.1 reader. After I simply downloaded the pictures from the card in the reader, then the D-550 would not recognize or reformat the card, all I get is a "card error". The card still works fine in the reader. I have done this many times without a problem, my question to Olympus was; why this time? Well, no good answer, just "don't use a card reader". Really? Olympus sells card readers and I have read that their readers cause the same problem. I think that Derek Foley hit the nail on the head when he said that it is an Olympus camera problem, not a card reader problem. Olympus needs to change the way it's cameras format the card in order for this problem to go away. I have not heard of any other make of digital camera that uses SM cards having this problem. I think that maybe I could salvage the 128mb card for use in my D-550 if I could get at least one of the avalable utilities (like SMPREP, AXE 3, or card wiper) to work with my BayOne reader, if anyone has any advise please e-mail me.

-- Wade Greco (wag123@austin.rr.com), June 03, 2003.

I came here looking for answers about my funky SM card. Well, here is the end result of what I found. Good fortune in your own seach;

http://www.marshost.com/~rashmun/

-- Jesse Molina (nospam-jesse@opendreams.net), June 28, 2003.

I to have the soyo bayone, Same errors with the format in the camera. At a total loss on how to fix the card. I do have a couple old readers around here, although I dont think that would help me out any. If anyone could help with a solution on the bayone issue I would love it. Soyo does not supply software for the bay reader that came with my motherboard (dragon kt400)

-- Larry I (overspray66@hotmail.com), July 05, 2003.

I had the same problem. First here's my data:

Olympus Camedia C-3000 zoom (bought in June 2001) It came with a 16MB smart media card (which I hardly use) I've bought 3 additional SmartMedia cards from Sandisk I've been connecting my camera to both a Windows 98 computer and a linux computer with the CamediaMaster 2.0 software provided with the camera (Windows) and GtKam/Gphoto2 on linux.

The first time it happened, I was on Linux. By chance, after trying the 3 cards who returned me the card error, I put in the 16MB card and... it worked. After that, inserting the other cards, the error disappeared by miracle. Now that I think back, I think that 16MB card had never been formatted with this camera yet.

This time, it happened again. I'm on a travel and don't have that "rescue card" at hand. After downloading the photos on a windows 98 computer from one card, I turned off the camera, with the camedia software still pointing to the directory of the camera. I think this is the big mistake that causes everything. I inserted another card I wanted to download the pictures from, and there I had the card error problem. Then I stumbled on this website and all I had was to look for a digital camera shop and ask them to try inserting a blank card. And YAY! it worked. I can't say what kind of card it was, but I think the only relevant thing is that it hasn't ever been formatted by an olympus camedia camera.

P.S. I hardly ever check my hotmail address. If you want to write to me, you might send a copy to the same username at yahoo.com

-- Erich Iseli (erichiseli@hotmail.com), July 15, 2003.

sorry this isn't an answer, but i'm thinking my problem is related to the problems everyone else is having--using a 490 zoom and 32mb smart media cards-- no probs for couple of years but limited use---last year used two 32mb cardsfor trip overseas, used camera last night and reviewed several pictures night before flying back to u s-hand carried camera and cards with card in camera and at 1 or 2 images left through security in paris, normal security scan-- when home used reader to download 1st card-- no prob-- put in 2nd card-no pictures, in repeated efforts, finally found space used on card, but could not pull all the jpeg info.-- decided my error, somewhere in downloading-- used partial card in may this year and several other times with no problems-- july this year, used 49 of 64 images, reviewed images night before flying home, went through no xray only filter check security in oakland(camera checked in luggage) and when attempted to download, no pictures, camera still showed 14 images left and i took image after all this, counter progressed on and that image is still available-- is it olympus, is it smart media, is it me? no error messages anywhere, only no pictures

-- JIM PIPER (JIM@1PLATINUM1.COM), July 31, 2003.

sorry my english is very bad

may be this:

http://users.bigpond.net.au/borge/SMbackups/

worked with PQI reader writer

-- zoolus (zoolus@hotbox.ru), August 18, 2003.

For those who are having problems with C-2040s. Right click My Computer-goto Properties-goto Hardware Device Manager-expand USB list- right click first USB driver and select "update driver". This worked for me.

-- Anonymous (camediauser@work.net), August 26, 2003.

I've had a C-3000 XOOM for 2 years now. I've taken over 10,000 photos witht he camera and never had any problems.

Today I inserted several cards 2-64MB 1-32MB and 1-8MB cards intot he camera all with "Card Errors" and the camera format did not work. I place the cards into an older D-460 and they formatted fine. Place the cards back into the C-3000 and "Card Error" again or "No Card". Cards were formatted in a Lexar SmartMedia USB reader and the 2 64MB cards worked. After testing the two other cards, the 64MB cards worked no longer. Now the main error is "No Card" but they are able to be read in the D-460 fine.

-- Jeremy Murphy (webmaster@lonestarthrills.com), September 06, 2003.

Here is my problem. I took about 30 pictures on a trip and had the camera say I needed to format the card. Now won't formatting it cause me to lose all my pictures. Any way of recovering these pictures??? Help I need these photos!

Thanks!

-- Rich Wolf (info@julianactive.com), September 08, 2003.

I found an answer to my problem by doing an internet search. There is a program called photo restore which will restore photos off even corrupt media. I downloaded their demo program which restored all 30 of my photos. They give only thumbnails, unless you buy the full version which I will be doing. Their address is as follows: http://www.photo-restore.net-software-download.com/

-- Rich Wolf (info@julianactive.com), September 10, 2003.

Similar problems as here. I used this program to get the pictures off the disk - http://www.pcinspector.de/smart_media_recovery/uk/demo.html It's freeware and it worked like a charm. Once the recovery was done, I tried to format in-camera again and it worked (wouldn't before). Hope this helps someone.

-- 3020Z User (mrsblandings@yahoo.com), September 21, 2003.

Just for the record: Camera: C-3000 zoom Smartmedia cards: - 2x 64 MB dane elec - 1 x 128 MB apacer - 1 x 64 MB apacer - 1 x 16 MB olympus all with similar problems: camera crashes after which cards need formatting. It looks like bad sectors, but I can't believe 5 different cards (some brand new) all have so many bad sectors.

Anyone thought about contacting Olympus? (I just did, still waiting for a reply)

-- Roland (foto@klopt.nl), September 24, 2003.

I called Olympus and with minimal information (camera type, camera age, brands of my 5 smartmedia cards and 1 line 5 seconds of problem description) they concluded that the smartmedia connector is dirty and/or corroded and my camera needs service. I don't know wheter this is a real solution to a know/common problem or just some standard solution they'll have me try before really investigating the problem.

-- Roland (foto@klopt.nl), September 25, 2003.

I had similar problem (C3030). I used a generic USB reader/writer, and accidently "saved" a jpg that I cleaned up in PSP to my 64mb SM. I could "see" my pics using the reader, but my camera gave me "card error" and refused to format. I had a 32mb SM that worked, so, using NERO I made a backup of that one. Then I erased the 64mb SM, and "restored" the b/u to it. I put it back in the camera and it worked perfectly. I immediately reformatted it. Both cards working fine now. Hope this helps someone. Regards, Dee

-- Dee Clinton (a1912@yahoo.com), February 06, 2004.

I just had the same problem with my Olympus C3020, I use 128mb SM and yesterday got that blinking 81 too. I got that when viewing the pics, which after 6 pics my LCD went blank. I got no problem when taking pics. So i tried to backup all the pics using USB card reader and it done nicely. I formatted the card in my camera and it works again. The one thing I wonder is can I really use my USB card reader to format my SM, coz I don't want to damage the card permanently. Thanks for any responses :)

-- Alwin Jasim (alwinjasim@hotmail.com), March 17, 2004.

I've had the same problem with my 32MB SM card I bought from Maplin. After a bit of research it seems to me that it is the CIS (Card Infromation Structure) which is damaged/missing/incomplete. This is not accessable through any gerneral windows utility (eg Winhex, PartitionMagic etc). Apparently the smprep.exe utility can access the CIS through a card reader but this is a proprietery (to the SM format) system, hence it only works with some readers with the ability designed in. My solution was to buy a Zio Dazzle reader from Jessops, use it with the smprep.exe file and then return it. This fixed the proble. Now I just have to make sure I don't format in windows again!

If anyone is interested, the camera rejects the card because its media descripter signature in the CIS has to match that in the first sector of the card. When windows formats the card it changes the signiture in the first sector but not the one in the CIS. There is no real justification to this as far as I can see... It may be some convoluted way to check media integrity, or it might be that they just want to sell more SM cards.

-- Dan (danielrogers@blueyonder.co.uk), April 08, 2004.

I OWN A D-550 CAMERA WHEN I TURN THE CAMERA ON I GET THE FORMAT THE CARD MESSAGE I TRIED OTHER CARDS I GET THE SAME MESSAGE AND WHEN I FORMAT THE CARD I GET CARD ERROR I CONTACTED OLYMPUS THEY TOLD ME TO US A PENCIL ERRASER ON THE BRASS PART OF THE CARD THEN WIPE IT CLEAN WITH ALCOHOL I TRIED THIS IT DID NOT WORK FOR ME THEY SUGESSTED I SEND CAMERA TO THEM AND THEY WOULD REPAIR FOR 140.00 RIP OFF

-- MIKE (MINOS58@AOL.COM), April 08, 2004.

I have been having the "format card" upon insertion error off and on for the last couple years that I have owned my Olympus 3030z. Before that I had an Olympus 220L (a bad, bad camera) which exhibited the ame type of behaviour, but much more frequently. When I first bought the 3030z, it was at least 6 months before it began to have the prolem. Now it happens more frequently. I spent some time examining the memory card insertion mechanism and I have two thoughts about what might be going on. The first is that the card contacts may be slightly corroded - if they are gold plated then more power to olympus, however I suspect they are not. The second is that, at least on the 3030z, the camera-to-memory card pin contacts are retracted inside the camera while the card is not inserted. They only come out of their housing when you put the card in and give it the little push which "locks" it in place. This prevents the pin contacts from scratching the memory cards during insertion, and from wearing down the pin contacts themselves. After inserting the card and removing it without giving it the "unlock" push, it is possible to observe the pin contacts as they project from their housing within the memory card slot. On my 3030z they appear to be *UNEVENLY* extended from the camera body. That is, some of the pins extend almost all the way down to the other side of the memory card slot, other pins are only barely protruding from their retraction slots. My suspicion is that the mechanism which holds them all in place has become warped over time and some of the memory card contact pins are only barely touching the memory card, while others have secure and firm contact. This could certainly result in the camera having trouble reading the memory card and requesting a format, and later being able to insert the card in a PC-> USB smart media reader which indicates there are intact pictures on the card (which I experience regularly). Further, if the camera is writing to the memory card and has a flakey connectiong during the write cycle, it is very possible it could inadvertantly write to an incorrect memory location in the card and render it "unusable" until it is reformatted in another smart-media device. At this point I am reluctant to send it to olympus because I am sure repair would be expensive, and I am equally reluctant to begin taking the camera apart. If anyone has sent their camera to olympus to repair this specific problem, I would be very interested in what line olympus takes on the situation.

-- bz (birchAT_AT_AT@naturalpoint.com), April 12, 2004.