Please help my with an SD disk formatting problem!

[Soupermom]

I have a Canon 3SIS that I have used with my Dell computer for 3 years without any problems. Lately I've been having trouble viewing the images from the disks. If I leave them in the camera and hook it directly up to the computer, everything is fine. But if I use the card reader it now says that the "device is not formatted...do I want to do that now?" What is that about? I usually format my disk in my camera...low level...every time I empty it to reuse. Never had a problem before. I also have one SD card that I have a file of filtered pictures on. (I opened them on the computer, ran them thru noiseware and they were saved in a fold on my disk. I deleted the un-filtered ones). I've done this before, too, without a problem, but the computer won't even recognize the SD card/reader when I look at it.

This is so frustrating! Can anyone help?? Please?

 

[seashoreCM]

The card reader may have gone bad, particularly if it had a flexible cord in which a wire could have broken.

The card might not be making good contact inside the reader, for example some sticky substance got onto the contacts inside. Same possiblity with the plug into the computer.

 

[Soupermom]

Hmmm...no cord on the card reader; it plugs directly into the usb port.

 

[WillCAD]

FYI - these are solid state flash memory cards, not disks.

Seashore is right, it could be a bad card reader or a bad USB port. It could also be a bad card that works when in the camera but not in the card reader. To narrow the list of suspects, try these procedures:

Plug the card reader into different USB ports on your computer (you might have to temporarily unplug your printer or something else to do this). If the problem persists on all USB ports, then it's not the USB port.

Plug the card reader into a completely different computer. If the problem persists, then it's not your computer.

Plug the card into a different card reader. If the problem persists, then it's not your card reader.

Fixes:

If the problem is the card, throw the card away and buy a new one.

If the problem is the card reader, throw the card reader away and buy a new one.

If the problem is one particular USB port on your computer, stop using that port for anything.

If the problem happens on all USB ports on your computer, then you have a problem with the USB controller that's built into your computer. Stop using all USB ports on the computer and buy a USB expension card from Best Buy or WalMart. The expansion card will give you new USB ports and a new controller, so you can abandon the old ones.