Have a Sony Alpha DSLR a100 version 1.0 firmware. Bought new and never used until attempted recently. Installed SanDisk Ultra II Compact Flash Card. Formatted disk in camera. Upon taking the first photo I got a big red "E" in the menu area and was unable to take any photos. Tried a new memory card with the same results. Any ideas?
Hi! I just had the same problem with my Sony A100, when I tried two different CF cards. I was getting the same error message as reported above: "Unable to use card" then "Format?" then that format fails. Thinking the camera
is broken, I checked online camera repair sites and also called Sony
directly. Sony's flat rate, and that of PrecisionCamera is $228 to fix
CF card failure. Then my daughter said, "the CF card in my room works
fine in the camera" - and lo and behold - it does. The CF card that
works is brand PQI and is marked Hi-Speed 60 2Gb. The cards that do NOT
work are marked SanDisk Ultra II 1.0Gb and SanDisk 128 Mb. So my advice
is, before you give up on the camera as broken, try a number of
different CF cards first.
The second cause of CF failure is if
someone has pushed a CF card in the wrong way. That can bend one or
more of the tiny metal contact pins in the CF socket in the camera.
Look carefully to see that all the pins are straight up. [I don't know
how one can straighten these pins, or if the whole socket would need to
be replaced...but at least you can determine the cause of the CF
failure.]
Best regards - Michael
Cannot record picture and memory card cannot be formated
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mine worked fine for about a year, i have a 4gb,2gb,512mb and even a 8mg flash card and all give the same message. when i put the cards in it says "unable to use card." "format?" yes or no. i click yes and then it says formatting card, then i get a message stating "unable to use card." i am at a loss as to how to fix this or what caused it all the sudden. any help would be greatly appreciated.
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I HAVE BEEN USING MY SONY DSLR A100 CAMERA FOR JUST UNDER A YEAR NOW, ALL THE SUDDEN FOR NO APPARENT REASON, THE FLASH CARDS DO NOT WORK. I HAVE (2) 4GB, (1) 512MB AND EVEN A 8MB CARD AND NONE OF THEM WORK. IT GIVES ME A MESSAGE STATING "UNABLE TO USE CARD." "FORMAT?" SO I CLICK YES TO FORMAT. THEN IT STATES FORMATTING CARD THEN I GET A MESSAGE THAT STATES "UNABLE TO USE CARD" THE CAMERA TAKES PICS AND FLASH OPERATES WITHOUT A CARD BUT DOES NOT SAVE SINCE THERE IS NO CARD. ALL THE BUTTONS AND FUNCTIONS SEEM TO WORK. IF ANYONE CAN HELP ME WITH THE SOLUTION TO THIS PROBLEM I WOULD GREATLY APPRECIATE YOUR ASSISTANCE.
exactly the same problem, but also, anytime I tried a new card, all the photos it contained were lost.:S
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