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#1
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HP 935 5.1mp digital camera. Error message: "SD card is locked".Need a cure to take pictures again.
I have an HP 935, 5.1MP. If no one can answer this question, I will
have to throw this camera in the trash can. HP wants $35 just to say Hello to me. This is like throwing money down the toilet. The only thing that they want to talk to me about is selling me a used (refurbished) camera for just a few bucks less than what I paid for this one. And yes, they are telling me to throw away this camera. Some customer service! The camera will no longer take pictures anymore. It's _neve_r been dropped, and has been used approx 4 times during a two year period. The camera now tells me that the SD memory card is locked (which it isn't). A brand new memory card produces the same results. Does anyone know how to "unlock" the memory cards? I need a fix for this camera. I am not talking about the switch on the side of the memory card. This is a software error, or the sensing switch for the card is not functioning. Thanks |
#2
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On 2005-06-12, onederer wrote:
I have an HP 935, 5.1MP. If no one can answer this question, I will have to throw this camera in the trash can. HP wants $35 just to say Hello to me. This is like throwing money down the toilet. The only thing that they want to talk to me about is selling me a used (refurbished) camera for just a few bucks less than what I paid for this one. And yes, they are telling me to throw away this camera. Some customer service! The camera will no longer take pictures anymore. It's _neve_r been dropped, and has been used approx 4 times during a two year period. The camera now tells me that the SD memory card is locked (which it isn't). A brand new memory card produces the same results. Does anyone know how to "unlock" the memory cards? I need a fix for this camera. I am not talking about the switch on the side of the memory card. This is a software error, or the sensing switch for the card is not functioning. Thanks The 'write protect switch' seems to be a purely mechanical thing on the card itself, and peering into the slot on my camera [1] it looks as though the 'detector' inside the slot is a micro-switch. I'm guessing, but perhaps there is a little bit of dust or something inside your camera that has the micro-switch jammed in the 'write-protected' position? Another guess would be that the electrical part of the switch inside the camera is faulty. The SD card slots don't look as though they can be dismantled for maintenance; whether it makes economic sense to change the card-slot in a camera, I don't know; HP's attitude suggests that from their point of view, it isn't. An independent repairer might be able to do it at a price you could tolerate - but that too is just a guess. If the alternative is to junk the camera anyway, perhaps it would be worth trying a puff of compressed air from one of the cans sold for cleaning computers? That might dislodge whatever is jamming the mechanism. Even more drastic, a cotton bud moistened with the liquid used for cleaning tape-deck heads or record-player pickups? I'm still new to digital cameras, but I have seen 'digital camera care kits' in the shops. I'd also be inclined to ask the shop for advice, if you haven't tried that already. [1] My camera is a Samsung, not an HP, but I expect the SD card slots are much the same. -- -- ^^^^^^^^^^ -- Whiskers -- ~~~~~~~~~~ |
#3
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onederer wrote:
I have an HP 935, 5.1MP. If no one can answer this question, I will have to throw this camera in the trash can. HP wants $35 just to say Hello to me. This is like throwing money down the toilet. The only thing that they want to talk to me about is selling me a used (refurbished) camera for just a few bucks less than what I paid for this one. And yes, they are telling me to throw away this camera. Some customer service! The camera will no longer take pictures anymore. It's _neve_r been dropped, and has been used approx 4 times during a two year period. The camera now tells me that the SD memory card is locked (which it isn't). A brand new memory card produces the same results. Does anyone know how to "unlock" the memory cards? I need a fix for this camera. I am not talking about the switch on the side of the memory card. This is a software error, or the sensing switch for the card is not functioning. Almost certainly it's the switch in the camera. The SD card switch is purely mechanical, on both ends. Could be that the switch in the camera has oxidation on the contacts, the contacts could be bent, or their could be a speck of dirt in it (assuming that it must be closed for writing, which I am not sure of, and the SD organization doesn't publish the specification, you have to be a member to get it). For point and shoot cameras, they are not going to open the camera and attempt a repair; if it's out of warranty they are going to trash it. Camera makers love SD because it's small and cheap, but Compact Flash is much better. You could try blasting some air in there, as someone else suggested, but this is a long shot. OTOH, you don't have much to lose! |
#4
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Steven M. Scharf wrote:
[] Camera makers love SD because it's small and cheap, but Compact Flash is much better. You could try blasting some air in there, as someone else suggested, but this is a long shot. OTOH, you don't have much to lose! What makes you say that CF is much better? SD can be made without the troublesome switch, e.g.: http://www.kingmaxdigi.com/news/news..._p20040303.htm and the contact arrangement strikes me as much better than CF. The OP could try this brand of card in his camera. (We've used them without problems). David |
#5
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On 2005-06-13, Steven M. Scharf wrote:
snip Almost certainly it's the switch in the camera. The SD card switch is purely mechanical, on both ends. Could be that the switch in the camera has oxidation on the contacts, the contacts could be bent, or their could be a speck of dirt in it (assuming that it must be closed for writing, which I am not sure of, and the SD organization doesn't publish the specification, you have to be a member to get it). There is this http://www.sandisk.com/pdf/oem/SD_SDIO_specsv1.pdf snip -- -- ^^^^^^^^^^ -- Whiskers -- ~~~~~~~~~~ |
#6
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David J Taylor wrote:
and the contact arrangement strikes me as much better than CF. The OP could try this brand of card in his camera. (We've used them without problems). It isn't the card that's the problem here, it's the switch on the SD card socket. I don't think that there is any camera maker that does not implement the WP functionality. |
#7
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On Mon, 13 Jun 2005 20:23:22 GMT, Steven M. Scharf wrote:
It isn't the card that's the problem here, it's the switch on the SD card socket. I don't think that there is any camera maker that does not implement the WP functionality. The OP could try using an MMC card instead, which should bypass any switch on the SD socket. It wouldn't be as fast as an SD card, but it might not be any slower if used in an HP 935. |
#8
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"ASAAR" wrote in message ... On Mon, 13 Jun 2005 20:23:22 GMT, Steven M. Scharf wrote: It isn't the card that's the problem here, it's the switch on the SD card socket. I don't think that there is any camera maker that does not implement the WP functionality. The OP could try using an MMC card instead, which should bypass any switch on the SD socket. It wouldn't be as fast as an SD card, but it might not be any slower if used in an HP 935. Interesting, how close is the compatibility between SD and MMC? |
#9
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ASAAR wrote:
On Mon, 13 Jun 2005 20:23:22 GMT, Steven M. Scharf wrote: It isn't the card that's the problem here, it's the switch on the SD card socket. I don't think that there is any camera maker that does not implement the WP functionality. The OP could try using an MMC card instead, which should bypass any switch on the SD socket. It wouldn't be as fast as an SD card, but it might not be any slower if used in an HP 935. Good idea. I wonder how smart the camera's firmware is. If the switch on the socket is stuck in "WP" mode for SD, is the firmware smart enough to ignore this when an a MMC card is inserted, because MMC doesn't support WP? I wouldn't count on this. |
#10
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On Tue, 14 Jun 2005 14:03:57 -0400, Rudy Benner wrote:
Interesting, how close is the compatibility between SD and MMC? The only difference I'm aware of is that of speed, and I believe that that is due to SD cards having a wider data path. I know that in PDAs, MMC cards work, but are much slower moving files and loading programs. Some ancient device that was designed to work with MMC cards *might* not be compatible with SD cards, but any device designed to accept SD cards should work with MMC also, but with limitations. One example would be in cameras claiming to allow unlimited length videos to be made. If the card isn't fast enough, usually that video length is very limited, such as to a length of 20 seconds. I've been told that some cameras don't stop recording, but simply drop images when the card can't keep up. In such a camera, MMC cards would be guaranteed to produce horrendous videos. Still images wouldn't suffer, other than shot to shot delays might be longer than if SD cards are used. |
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