Nikon D200 -- compact flash not recognized, tried everything

[juliusgwyer]

My compact flash cards worked fine for a few weeks, then my Nikon D200 stopped

recognizing the cards. It reads "E" (empty) when I put the cards in the slot.

Strangely, Canon and some other digital camera brands and my desktop computer

still are able to read the cards, but not the D200. The problem has occurred

now with the following compact flash cards: two separate Ridata 4GB Pro 150x,

two SanDisk Ultra II 1GB. The cards were originally formatted in the D200. I

tried reformatting in the D200, but since they were not recognized in the D200

as being present, the reformat option was not available in the D200 menu. The

only thing I can think of that might have caused the problem is my use of the

rapid continous shooting mode, during which I might have switched the camera

off & on while it was reading data to the card. Has anyone else experienced

this problem and can suggest a fix? Is there any software out there that will

reset the cards so they are recognized by the D200 again? I tried reformatting

on my desktop, but this didn't help either. I can replace the compact flash

cards under their warranty, but it's a pain to keep having to do this, and I

need to get to the bottom of this problem to avoid it occurring during an

important shoot or while on a photo vacation far from any stores where I could

be buy replacement cards. Is it the D200? My computer? My card reader? Or am I

over taxing the card with my rapid shooting? For now, I am not taking photos

in rapid mode and am very careful not to switch off the D200 while the green

light is blinking. Thanks<div></div>

[ShunCheung]

Does your D200 work with any CF card at all or it is only having problems with those several cards but works with some other cards?

 

Since those cards work with your computer and another DSLR, this sounds more like a camera body problem.

 

If the camera doesn't work with any card, I would open the CF card compartment door and use a flashlight to help you inspect the contact pins. Hopefully none of them is bent.

[joseph_smith3]

I only format cards in camera. I never reformat in the pc as i was advisd against this at a Nikon school. I do rapid shooting all the time and have no problems, but I use Extreme III cards in my d 200. If you have the disk that came with the card, try using it to rformat. Maybe your cards are not fast enough. Joe Smith

[frank_skomial]

"My card reader? " YES. -- Where in "The Nikon Guide to Digital Photography with the D200" is any direction to use any card reader ?

 

"and am very careful not to switch off the D200 while the green light is blinking" - you cannot do this, even if you did that the camera is smarter and will continue writing out the buffer to the card, unless you remove the battery.

 

"switched the camera off & on while it was reading data to the card" - it cannot read to the card, but it only can write to the card, or are you fiddling with your card reader and computer ?

[Peter_in_PA]

I used to experience a lot of CF failure with a D1 and Kodak DCS 14n. I've heard that they are

more reliable now. Maybe not? Sounds like defective cards to me unless it is happening with

every single card. Can you go to a photo dealer and try them in another D200?

[joseph_smith3]

This might be the problem. According to Thom Hogan's guide to the d 200, page 115, different windows format commands are required for different size cards if they are formatted in a windows pc: less than 2gb cards, format using FAT; greater than 2gb, use FAT 32. So if your cards are less than 2 gb and you are using a windows pc, and you did not change FAT 32 (the normal on the pc) to FAT, that might have caused the problem with some of the cards.

 

I suggest you put the cards in your card reader and try and reformat them using the appropriate format command, FAT or FAT 32, depending on the size if the card.

 

I hope I have summarized this accurately. I am not a pc expert. Check this out for yourself.

 

Joe Smith

[juliusgwyer]

Thanks for your feedback. Unfortunately I tried everything suggested with each of the four cards (again, two Ritadata 4gb 150x, and two SanDisk Ultra II 1gb). Any additional suggestions greatly appreciated. Specifically:

 

(1) The two-button format shortcut when the card is inserted (Mode+Delete) does not work, since it doesn't recognize the presence of the card.

 

(2) I checked the compartment for bent or broken pins, no problems there.

 

(3) I tried reformatting the cards on the PC as a FAT32 disk, made no difference.

 

(4) I took the cards to a professional camera store, the cards wouldn't work on three other D200s we tested it with, but did work on the Canon and Pentax.

 

(5) Again, the computer recognizes the cards when I plug in the card into a card reader, the drive reads "Nikon D200" and I can read and write from/to the cards.

 

Many thanks for your advice.

[redchris]

This also just started happening with my D200. It first read CHA with all cards and now reads E. No bent pins and I can read the cards in my computer. But the camera cannot read any cards.

Did you find a resolution to this?

 

Chris

[joseph_passante]

Had a similar problem with my Fuji S2. It gave me a CF card error and would not let me

reformat the card in the camera. The card was readable from my Mac so I reformatted it on

the computer. Still no luck. So I put the card in my G6 which let me reformat it. The CF card

now works in my S2.