Secure Digital (SD) Reader on X40 Gets Disk Format Error

[Strong Eagle]

This particular machine (X40) has an SD card reader built into it. However, whenever I attempt to read an SD card, I get a message, "Disk format error - Format?" Of course, if I say yes, the SD card is then unreadable by the camera.

I bought a USB port SD reader and got exactly the same message. I also get the same message when I try to read the card while it is in the camera using a USB connection.

This card and camera work just fine on my IBM T42 laptop, so the problem does not lie with the camera or the card.

Machine is XP, SP2. SD drivers were reloaded from the IBMTools dir. All latest drivers, BIOS, etc. downloaded from IBM website.

There is a similar but not exact problem listed on MS website.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.as ... -us;823084

That is for Win 2K, and only under certain conditions. Mine is a hard failure, no matter the state from which the PC was roused.

Tips greatly appreciated.

Strong Eagle

[Strong Eagle]

May I add that the USB ports work fine with other types of USB devices... DVD burner, external hard drive, mouses, printers, and thumb drives.

[mikeyboy]

I have the same problem with my 4 gb Transcend SD card. I have use SD cards in the past in my X40's SD slot without problems, but this one always causes the "Format?" error. The card works fine in my Axim x51v and my desktop's IDE multi-card reader. Is this just a limitation of the built in SD slot? I don't believe I am able to use the slot in either Windows XP or in Ubuntu.

[em500]

Not tips per se, but two random remarks:

1. 4GB SD cards are a non-standard extension that fall outside the official SD specs, so compatibility can be a hit or miss. The official standard for 4GB and larger is called SDHC and is not backwards compatible, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Dig ... patibility

2. XP SP2 has build in drivers for the internal SD reader of the X40, the IBMTools driver is for Win2K and pre-SP2 XP.