Why doesn't my PCMCIA SD card reader recognize the correct size of my SD card?

[jakobkraft]

I have a 4GB Transcend SD card, which my USB SanDisk 5-in-One reader reads perfectly off my desktop PC. Also the built-in SD card reader on my wife's laptop reads the card appropriately as well - which it should, the card has been out now for about 2 years.

I got a new, although pretty generic looking, PCMCIA card reader from ebay for my slightly older IBM Thinkpad. XP recognized the device as plug-n-play, installed automatically - but when I inserted my 4GB card, it came up as having only 993 MB; in otherwords, 1GB.

I went online to see if there was a more updated driver for the reader but no luck. I restarted my machine but still no luck. I only had about 800 MBs of the card used up, but when I tried to add another 500 MBs of music, I got a message saying the drive was full (in case it would let me fill it to 4GB, even though the Capacity under 'Properties' was coming up as 1 GB.

I guess this card reader is a dud and should arrange for a return?

Any help/feedback would be greatly appreciated - thanks!

 

[T9D]

The one I have does that also. Sucks. I guess it's just to old. Dont know why it should make a difference though. You'd think they would be able to read indefinite amounts. Whats so different about them to make them not be able to read future largers sizes? Seems lame.

 

[jakobkraft]

Originally posted by: tk109
The one I have does that also. Sucks. I guess it's just to old. Dont know why it should make a difference though. You'd think they would be able to read indefinite amounts. Whats so different about them to make them not be able to read future largers sizes? Seems lame.

It does suck - but I guess I should've known, given how it's listed on e-bay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi...&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT&rd=1

When anything is that over-advertised on e-bay, that's usually a good indicator that, while it may work to a degree and might be satisfying to some, it's essentially junk.
Hopefully, I've learned a lesson:disgust:

 

[jakobkraft]

Actually, while I'm on the subject, can someone point me to a PCMCIA SD card reader that DOES read 4GB SD cards? I really do need something asap and don't wanna make the same mistake twice....thanks

 

[sandeep108]

4 GB SD out for 2 years? I thought they were just recently released. The 2 GB ones have been out for some time. I had a mjor problem with my old Transcend USB 1.1 7-in-1 card reader when I popped in a 1GB SD card. Not only did it not work, the ******* reader corrupted the card, resulting in loss of quite a few nice pics. I bought a new reader (generic USB 2.0) and all works fine. The old reader works only upto 512MB cards it seems.

 

[jakobkraft]

Actually a little more than 2 years - I got my 4GB Transcend card shortly after I got my Dell Axim x30h which was nearly 3 years ago. They're not widely available in stores, for some reason but I got mine early from eCOST (they may have been the first to carry them, I think), a friend got one from Newegg a short while later. I think Transcend maybe the only brand that does make the 4GB SD card, since I haven't seen any from other manufacturers.

But I assure you it's been around for awhile...

 

[imported_ColinT]

For what it is worth, a recent Thinkpad bios update now provides additional support for XP on some Thinkpad models 1200.

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-4RXLGP