"Card Full" Images printed at Wal-Mart. Unable to remove from card. Images downloaded to laptop...formatted from computer. Insert card in camera...can't take pictures, display reads, "Card Full". Format attempted in camera...ends up with "No Images" indicating format is successful. Still can't take pictures...display says "Card Full" Not my camera. It belongs to elderly uncle who expects me to "fix" his camera! Please help.

My answer:

Your 2000 model year Olympus D-460 Zoom DigitalCamera, that is now possibly going on 8 years old (not sure when youbought it), may not only be having memory card problems so much as it(camera itself) may just be plain tired/worn out period. After all - itmay very well be 8 years old! That is a long time running for anydigital camera!! Olympus included!

First of all - You are hopefully using one of the following SM memorycard sizes in your camera: Removable 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 or 64MB 3V (3.3V)SmartMedia (SSFDC) Cards? I hope so as only these above listed SM sizecards will work in your camera! Anything larger then a 64MB card willnot work, as the camera BIOS chip will not even recognize it at best orsecondly will not even read/write it properly. AND - even if it were totry - the pix saved on it would never be properly (E2PROM) or EEPROM(Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory) saved, and wouldnever be able to be fully retrieved properly!! This I KNOW FOR A FACT!!There has to be power to the memory card first before it will doanything - READ or WRITE!! Thus the EE part of the term E2PROM.

(One Olympus 8MB SM card including Panorama function was initially supplied with your camera as well)

Are you still using that same original 8MB card by chance?? Or are youusing a larger SM card no larger then 64MB? If you are still using thatoriginal 8MB card then I can already see a few possible causes offormatting problems you are having there.

First being - Are the electrical GOLD contact strips on that card youare using at present very dirty & tarnished or DULL looking, asopposed to being a very BRIGHT GOLD COLOR? If they are tarnished (verydull looking), and if you handle the SM card(s) (or any memory cards for that matter) improperly - then that is your problem INDEED rightthere, or at least HALF your problem as it were. If you touch these(real Gold btw) electronic contacts time and time again then they willtarnish and cause parity writing problems (bad memory bits) to thecard. Esp writing problems - as the Read part goes hand and hand as itwere! This again I KNOW for FACT!

When the camera writes bad data (bits) to the memory cards, not onlydoes it store that bad data (bits) everywhere throughout the card, butit is written much like that of a "straight line effect" in that if onebit is bad then the entire line - as it were - is bad as well, andnothing wants to be read back properly!!

Secondly - Same goes for an internally bad memory card as well - inthat - if any one bit of storage space inside the card itself goes bad- then the whole card is bad. Nature of the design with EEPROM designedmemory cards. Rarely does this latter case scenario happen, but itcould with abuse to the card (ie: exposure to excessive heat, excessivebending of the card to any degree, etc)

If your SM card even has ever been forcefully bent while inserting itimproperly into the camera memory slot (whether improperly angled orreversed side in) then chances are some irreversible damage has beendone to it, and time will only tell if it totally fails initially orsomewhere down the road. That is part why the thinner (more prone tobending) style SM cards were phased out to begin with, and replaced bymuch thicker/stiffer, and much stronger cards like the XD cards forinstance.

Here are some very important DOS & DON'TS where SM or XD memory cards are concerned:

Please read what I'm posting below for asimilar XD mem card problem, as I firmly know you are "formatting"your SM card improperly using your home computer instead of"formatting" the card in your camera, regardless of what cmptr OS you are using.

Most early model Olympus digital cameras would only use the CAMEDIAsupplied software that came along with that camera, and ran excellentwith WIN98SE & WIN2000 OS whether using a USB Card Reader or elsedownloading directly from the camera using the USB adapter cablesupplied with the camera. If you are now using XP (or even worse yetVista) and you have any driver issues with your XP at present - thenthat is your 1st priority to clean that up first. Everything else priorsaid above being secondary!

Also the SM type card & size are very important as well!!

What you will have to do is read and download the photos you have/hadonthat SM card using the same CAMEDIA software and/or WIN98SE or WIN2000with or without a "card reader" you may have used before, and thenproperly "re-format" that card in your "CAMERA ONLY". This WILL solveyour SM card problems.

Also -

1st - If you have an older Olympus camera morethen 4-5 years old the newer M & H series XD type cards over 256MBwill probably not work in your older camera, as by the camera'sinternal BIOS firmware chip design of the camera itself. Some cameras wereupgradeable some weren't as to the internal firmware chip, as well asavailable software drivers depending on which computer OS system youwere using ie: (WIN98SE, WIN2000, etc). Has to do with the memory cardread/write chip speed as well, and also has to do with the physicalstorage size of the card itself. Some digital cameras were MAXED OUT with512MB cards, some as low as 256MB. At that point a 2gb card simple won't work inthat/your camera in that case.

If you read the camera's user manual it will possibly tell you this, orelse go online to www.olympusamerica.com and use this link:

Viewwhich cameras are compatible

Select camera model series and scroll down the model # and research themax card size & type you can use (3 basic XD card speed typesavailable - regular XD - M type - H type).

If you are using the wrong type & size card you will need to returnthat card (if you can) and get the right XD size & type for yourcamera.

2nd - You should always FORMAT (same as ERASE ALL and FORMAT modes onmost Olympus cameras) the new card, or any SM/XD card for that matter inyour camera itself. NOT THE HOME COMPUTER!!! The 2 format proceduresare not the same!!

If you are re-shooting (re-using) the same XD card over and over againand then downloading the JPEG pix directly to the computer using a USBinterface cable there usually is no need to re-format the card again aslong as the XD card stays the camera and is not downloaded into a homecomputer via say a "card reader". If you do the latter "card reader" then Iwould advise doing a card re-format in the camera again just to besafe!!

And lastly - If your home computer recognizes the XD card via a good"card reader" (do not FORMAT the XD card here btw, as you are justchecking the card out to see if it is GOOD is all), but the camera willnot then that is a good sign your camera is OK, but it's just the wrongtype & size XD card.

Hope this helps solve your camera SM/XD problems past to present regardless which modelyou have.

See the following camera example info for your specific model at the link belowunder Storage Media:

Steves Digicams - Fujifilm FinePix A330 - User Review
Best regards,

Frank

Try putting the card back in the laptop and formatting it FAT32 and not NTFS. Some cameras are not able to read the NTFS file system.