Nikon D5100

PeterJ

I saw a posting of a lady here, old forum, that even after the update 1.02 the SD card problems remains.
I tried several SD class 10 card and until now, i made the update, the error no card inserted, stays from time to time.
My Nikon is almost brand new, 3 moths old.
I used 3 class 10 cards and the 2 most expensive were destroyed during a video session
Sandisk Extreme class 10 45 MB/s 32GB
Just the led, green light, started to burn all the time and the camera would not start.
I put inside, not to lose the live music video session a cheaper Intenso class 10 card and the D5100 started again to work normal.
Coming home later that day I inserted the SanDisk in my laptop but the PC would not recognize the card!

Brought it to the service here but they could not recover the video files.
Got a new one but after a month or so the same thing happened again with a brand new SanDisk 32GB, now I am with a new (3rd) Sandisk

Before selling my Nikon, I love the machine, a question if this could be a error of SanDisk and I just have been very unlucky? Or a Nikon internal hardware problem?
I had a Canon Rebel mark 1 before and never had any related problems.

What I have done so far:
Made a format inside the D5100
Updated the firmware with: D5100_0102.bin

But still from time I have the issue related to the old firmware that there is no card inserted.

I hope someone can solve this mystery before I am forced to get another DSLR

spraynpray

Speak to Nikon - get their perspective. We can guess, they actually know.

How about getting a D7100?

Ironheart

@peterj I have a D5100 and have never had an issue with SanDisk, Lexar, PNY, Kingston, Patriot, Sony, etc... Have you talked to Nikon? You might need a repair, or perhaps avoid SanDisk? If your PC cannot recognize the card, then it is likely not the camera's fault. SanDisk is one of the most highly counterfeited brands (why counterfeit a cheap brand?) Are you buying from a reputable source? Do you know how to check to see if it is genuine? Are the bad ones all from the same source?
http://forums.sandisk.com/t5/Mobile-memory-professional-cards/genuine-Sandisk/td-p/216448
http://petapixel.com/2011/05/20/one-third-of-the-sandisk-memory-cards-on-earth-are-counterfeit/

PeterJ

Yes but look at many post on the net that SanDisk has problems, they know about it.
Yes I only buy from good source.
As i wrote the SD card went broke inside and during the recording.

And spraynpray, thanks for the idea, my daughter told me to change my Audi A6 for a Ferrari

Ironheart

Even from a good source they can be fake, please do a search on how to tell fake from real, you may have some bad ones. Stick with the other brands, and send one of the bad ones to Nikon for troubleshooting.

The way a counterfeit card would break is during recording, as generally the card has way less than the actual capacity and the disk structure has been hacked to mark it appear larger, by marking 90% of the drive as bad sectors for instance. The only way to tell is to write 1GB files to the device and read them back. A program called h2testw is the gold standard:
http://sosfakeflash.wordpress.com/2008/09/02/h2testw-14-gold-standard-in-detecting-usb-counterfeit-drives/

Why not check? It will only prove or disprove if your card is working correctly and help to narrow down issue (camera vs. card).

tcole1983

If you really think it isn't the cards. Do a factory reset on the camera and reinstall the firmware.

PeterJ

well i will do the test thanks to all the ideas and will do the test and will get back with the results here

PeterJ

Ok I think I have a counterfeit card!
I got this one from a well known shop
Here are the results, I tested 2 cards

Intenso Germany 32GB class 10

Test finished without errors.
You can now delete the test files *.h2w or verify them again.
Writing speed: 67.5 MByte/s
Reading speed: 72.5 MByte/s
H2testw v1.4

SanDisk Extreme 32GB class 10

Test finished without errors.
You can now delete the test files *.h2w or verify them again.
Writing speed: 16.4 MByte/s
Reading speed: 25.5 MByte/s
H2testw v1.4

So please what to do now?

[Deleted User]

Hi Peter, I'am Dutch too, the Dutch service center is very good. Do you still have warranty on the D5100?
Further, register the D5100 and look in the database they provide.

http://www.nikon.nl/nl_NL/service_support/service_support_main.page?lang=

I prefer bringing my stuff in, when I have a problem or service, maybe you live nearby, ok everything in Holland is nearby, but we always have traffic jams.

Here is the address:

Nikon Service Point Nederland
De Jong & Van Stijn BV
Wijkermeerweg 50
1948 NW Beverwijk
Tel: 0251-274737

Ironheart

Just curious as to what the reported capacity was on the SanDisk vs what is stamped on the card. If you have a fake, I'm sure your reputable retailer would want to know and make it right.

PeterJ

ok did you see the test results?

Ironheart

That's the speed, not the capacity.

PB_PM

In any case, unless you are on a modern Mac OS computer, the card will always report a different amount of storage capacity than what is marked on the front of the card (due to how Windows calculates memory space, which is different than how manufactures measure drive space).

Ironheart

Yes, but a 32GB card that actually has 4 or 8GB is not a rounding error, it's fraud.

PB_PM

Yes, that much is obvious.

Ironheart

But that's what they do, they take rejected (flawed, too many bad sectors) 4GB and 8GB chips out the back door from the factory, relabel them as 16 or 32GB, create fake packaging, and reformat the disk so that it shows 32GB capacity. Only when you try and write (and fill up) that space do you find out that 24GB are actually just marked as bad sectors, don't exist, and are not usable.

PeterJ

I just tested the 1 GB and again the full 32 GB also on my Mac.
What I like to get the answer on is:
Writing speed: 16.4 MByte/s
Reading speed: 25.5 MByte/s

PeterJ

any body can tell me if this is a fake or genuine?

Ironheart

The speed is within spec for a class 10 card. Is all 32GB of the capacity available?

PeterJ

yes it is but on the card it says 45MB/s and acording the test its 16.4MB/s

PB_PM

That is maximum transfer (read) speed, with a USB3 or Thunderbolt card reader. I doubt you'd get faster than 25MB/s (read) on USB2. Write speed is almost always slower than the read speed, that's kind of a given.

PeterJ

its not on a usb2.
Ans as you can read my other test result of a cheap SD was:
Intenso Germany 32GB class 10

Test finished without errors.
You can now delete the test files *.h2w or verify them again.
Writing speed: 67.5 MByte/s
Reading speed: 72.5 MByte/s
H2testw v1.4 - See more at: http://forum.nikonrumors.com/discussion/comment/92698#Comment_92698