D5200 & SanDisk SDHC 16GB problem reading

Bryan

I noticed a thread on the old discussion board about an issue the D5100 had with the SanDisk SDHC 16GB card. It appeared to be resolved for that camera with a firmware update.
I wonder if it is coincidental that I have just had a problem with reading the same SanDisk SDHC card in my laptop's card reader. I at first blamed the 8 in 1 cardreader (from ASUS) which had no trouble reading other media including the regular SD cards, however, there are lots of posts out there about needing to update drivers in Windows to read the high capacity, but, the card reader after checking all of that should have been able to read the card.
I was able to download pictures using the USB cable, that's just not my preferred method.
I narrowed it down to the cards themselves (yes I had two of the SanDisk cards) when I plugged in a Kingston SDHC card I had lying around...it worked perfectly in the camera and the card reader. I tried formatting the SanDisk cards both in camera and using the computer (through the USB of course) with no change in the issue with reading the card.
I have reported the issue to SanDisk, Asus and now here just in case it helps someone else

bland

@Bryan I was having problems with the good SanDisk cards and changed to pro master. I haven't had one problem with the pro master cards.

LNuffesse

I had the same problem. Scandisk 16 MB SD card, Nikon 5100 (from Best Buy), newest firmware. I got the camera for Christmas and took less than 100 picts that week. Didn’t use the camera again until March when I went to Kauai for a week. The first few days I took 550 picts and luckily copied them off the card to both my ipad and my PC Windows 8 laptop midway through the trip. The last day there we went on a whale watching sunset sale and I took 400 some picts of whales, until the card was full. I then tried deleting picts from the card using the camera. After deleting maybe 8 picts I got the hourglass and a light on the camera back.

From that point on nothing could ever read the card again. I downloaded maybe a dozen apps that all said they fixed SD cards, none worked. My Ipad couldn’t see the card, the camera didn’t see it, nor did my PC. I have had dozens of cameras over my lifetime, all types and manufactures and have never had an SD card go bad before. In fact I have a drawer of full SD cards going back a decade, and this is the first time one has gone bad. I have always loved Nikon, in fact my old dog, who I had 14 years, was a named “Nikon”, but I am extremely unhappy with them right now. Even though this is a new camera I am considering buying a new one because I am scared to use the camera again now.

I did get my picts back, but only after paying ADR Data Recovery $610.00 to repair the card (539.00 for the repair and 99.00 for a new drive to put the picts on). My dad was asking me what camera he should buy last week, I told him anything but this one!

dissent

I've been using my D5100 with a SanDisk SDHC 16MB card for nearly a year now with no issues. Have taken several thousand snaps in that time. Glad to hear you got your pics back, LNuffesse - the whale shot is very nice; I would have been annoyed to think I had lost them as well. Do you think your problem was the SanDisk card or the camera? Have you had issues with any other brand cards in the same camera?

Msmoto

It is sad you had to pay so much for your photos to be recovered.

My experience with memory devices is that as the card fills up it also begins to have problems. And, it would seem to actually fill a card has in my past experience courted disaster.

Thus, my practice is to do a shoot, then move the photos to another storage device. I may do this two or three times daily. I always reformat the card in camera following this. And, so far, no problems as you describe.

haroldp

Msmoto's advice is good, in addition, I always secure erase all new cards the first time to overwrite any residual strings to bin '0', and format fat32 in a computer. Then I use the procedure Msmoto described going forward.

An astonishing proportion of Sandisk cards in circulation are counterfeit, including almost all sourced from ebay vendors.

I only buy sandisk from B & H, Amazon (direct, not marketplace), Adorama, or other vendor big enough to source directly from Sandisk rather than Distributors where counterfeits enter the supply chain.

... H

John

I have been using sandisk cards for the last 8 (approximately) years.
First 4 and 8GB models on a non-nikon digital camera and more recently 16 and 32GB "top of the line" (95MB/sec) cards for my D800.
None of them have ever failed me.
I also know a few other people who use sandisk cards and who don't even format there cards after use (just delete the pictures on the pc) and who haven't had a single problem in years (and thousands of pictures)

Msmoto

steveraw asked this question

Hey friends,
My big brother recently purchased the Nikon D5200 DSLR w/ 18-55mm and 18-200m F/3.5-5.6G ED VR II Lenses
Just wanted to know if anyone of you has had any problems with it. Thanks.

Mrtychrs

Since buying my D3200 my laptop will not read the sd card (card needs formatting error) but camera has no problem reading or writing. The laptop will not format the card although I can do it in the camera. If I take a photo using the card in my old D40, my laptop will then read all pics from both cameras. A system reboot sometimes fixes this but not always (and it takes 15 minutes each time!). Any help would be much appreciated.

Ironheart

@Mrtychrs, what kind of laptop, what OS? What kind and size of SD card? No computer should take 15min to boot, sounds like you have some serious issues there. Try a friends computer to see if it's the card, camera, or computer. Buy a new card (they cost like 15 bucks and I wouldn't switch between cameras without a reformat each time) and try the same tests.

PeterJ

The problem started right after I opened the D5100 as the Sandisk was not recognized several time, only inserting the SD card several times again and again would make it work.
That time all files were lost in total and the SD card was broken and got a new one from the shop, as warranty.
Because of users also making a complain on various social media about the Nikon and the SD problems I tried the Intenso which was according the testing read and write software faster than the Sandisk.
I came to the conclusion after talking several times with Nikon support that Nikon is aware of the problem with SD cards.
Even one time the writing protect switch on the SD card has been broken so I repaired it with tape, saw how to do it on YouTube. The card works in my laptop, Olympus, Sony but does not get recognized inside the D5100.

Even last problem was that I did a video shoot with the D5100 and from 7 mov files 4 disappeared and were only being recovered by un-delete software.
I will soon place a video on my YouTube channel proofing that the D5100 has indeed big problems with SD cards.
I used original Sandisk Pro Extreme and tested the read and write although the much cheaper Intenso card was even faster in writing.

Ironheart

Did you send it in under warranty to get it fixed? Are you formatting the card in the camera?

tcole1983

Did you install the newest firmware. If you are using the first version there are lots of known problems. At lesat with the D5200 I haven't had any issues with multiple brands and sizes of cards (sandisk and samsung) 8, 16, 32 GB cards.

I would even possibly try a factory reset and installing the newest firmware again.

PeterJ

yes normal i did and not only ones, twice as the problems stayed

PeterJ

yes i did and tried many ways, I am a experienced user and bought this one as a urgent things as my D90 was stolen and did not have enough money to finish my project.

tcole1983

If the camera is under warranty I would send it in.

PeterJ

yes i will do or offer it on ebay and get another brand as soon as I have enough funds, I am working far aways from the country i got it from and need a slr daily for work

Ironheart

What version of the firmware are you running? I have no issue with my D5100.

PeterJ

i just took a SD card which was repaired, the lip writing protect was broken, inside my old Olympus and it was recognized at ones, it's not accepted in the D5100 so sure the D5100 has problems reading and accepting SD.
Again I did a factory reset and for the 3rd time made the update file.

PeterJ

and Ironhearth as you can read in my postings I have the latest update

Ironheart

Did you reformat the card in the d5100? Why is it so hard to give the exact version string, I'm just trying to help (and checking the version number is a double check that the firmware installed correctly)

PeterJ

sure you want to help and thank you, when i say i have the latest software installed please accept it from me without going into details..i am a experience user.
And reading my post you can also see that I already did answer this with yes
I also know that I am not the only user with the SD problem...the D5100 has a known issue with SD even with the brands that they recommended!
I my circle there are 3 users on my FB that reported the same, not exactly like my problems but lets say SD related.
A fact is that my card is accepted inside both slots of my older Olympus and pocket camera of Sony and also on my PC card reader and Laptop. Inserting the SD inside the D5100 will give you the famous Nikon D5100 message: No SD Card inserted
Again the problem did not only start with destroying my 32GB Sandisk Extreme Pro but when replaced just deleting 4 of my 7 video shoots (mov)
Lets say that if Nikon refuse even to come and talk with me and try to solve the problem, that is clearly a problem inside their card slot, i will leave them.
And nice to hear also people here that never ever had any problems, you are indeed lucky.
I had a D90 before which was stolen and never had a problem with the same card which was destroyed soon after my purchase 7 months ago of the D5100.
Pity is that I lost faith in Nikon after being a owner of SLR for over 25 years i was even owner of a old N6006 film camera.
Support is answering with the standard number 1 to 10 question even when i explained in details after 6 emails from them they still even spell my name wrongly..fact they don't even take the time to read the things i wrote..
Example I wrote that the problem started with Sandisk Extreme pro and after the warranty (replacement) I lost mov files recorded on the new card and also told them that I even tried another brand like Intenso and the write protection switch broke, repaired by me and not being accepted inside the D5100
I never said i lost the mov files in this SD card, well they just replied that it might have something to do (about the losing-deleted files) with the Intenso SD
Again I told them the files were lost on the Sandisk SD..prove that they don't even read the email and they just pick some words from their standard support guide towards the customer.

I will move to another camera probably to the panasonic lumix gh4 4k camera, its just a pity that I have many lenses for the Nikon and I'm losing lots of investments i made throughout many years.

PeterJ

A 1.02
B 1.01
L 1.009
Software version
SD FORMATTED IN THE D5100 Name of SD card is Nikon

Ironheart

Thank you. First off, I personally would buy a new SD card, and only ever use it in my D5100, brands that work well for me are Lexar, patriot, Kingston. To fix the cards you have you need to erase the partition table on them and reformat in the D5100. The partition table was corrupted by the old firmware and needs to be reset now that you have upgraded. Here is one way to do it: http://cs.iupui.edu/~pengw/writing/fix-nikon-dslr-sdcard-error.html
If you are not a Linux hacker I can tell you how to do it in windows or Mac, just LMK.

PeterJ

i already did that weeks ago, the card is ok...just does not work in the D5100 in other cameras it works, the problem is as I wrote there..D5100 is too choosy with brands of SD cards and not only that in my case files were being deleted that is why I am going to go for another SLR

Ironheart

It would have been good to mention that in one of your three previous diatribes. Are you sure you did a low-level erase? A simple format command will not do the trick. I have used about a dozen different brands in my d5100 without any issue.

Here is the formatter from the SD card consortium. I would try a low-level format with this. I would also still recommend springing the $16 for a new card, but hey whadda I know....

https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/

The official formatter aims to ensure that all cards formatted using it are entirely compliant. This can mean better read and write speeds, buffering, and available storage.
The SDA states:

The SD Formatter was created specifically for memory cards using the SD/SDHC/SDXC standards. It is strongly recommended to use the SD Formatter instead of formatting utilities provided with operating systems that format various types of storage media. Using generic formatting utilities may result in less than optimal performance for your memory cards.