Sandisk 8gb Extreme IV CF card problems

eoren1 · September 20, 2009

I just received my three Sandisk 8 gb Extreme IV cards for my Canon 50D yesterday (couldn't resist a pretty slick deal :wink). Used one card without any issues. Today, I used the same card and took a few 100 shots when I got an error 80 (first one I've ever had on this camera). Also, when I loaded the images in LR2, I got an error message that some images could not be loaded but the number of images was 'zero'. I noticed in scrolling through images that about 20 images were not imported. Tried to reinsert the card and was advised it was not readable and needed to be formated. Put in camera and red light went on for 20 seconds followed by message that it needed to be formated. Tried formatting which failed.
Put in a different 8 gb card today and shot 220 images. Just imported into LR2 and got the same error - not all could be imported with a number of images of 'zero' that weren't brought into LR. Saw that 180 images were actually imported and I know that some taken at the end of the card are missing. Took card out and put back into CF card reader - same as earlier - card not formatted; needs to be initialized.
This is all on a Mac with OS 10.6.1 and latest version of LR. So one card I could chalk up to a bum card but two??? Any thoughts :dunno
Thanks,
E

AlbertZeroK · September 20, 2009

eoren1 wrote:

I just received my three Sandisk 8 gb Extreme IV cards for my Canon 50D yesterday (couldn't resist a pretty slick deal ). Used one card without any issues. Today, I used the same card and took a few 100 shots when I got an error 80 (first one I've ever had on this camera). Also, when I loaded the images in LR2, I got an error message that some images could not be loaded but the number of images was 'zero'. I noticed in scrolling through images that about 20 images were not imported. Tried to reinsert the card and was advised it was not readable and needed to be formated. Put in camera and red light went on for 20 seconds followed by message that it needed to be formated. Tried formatting which failed.
Put in a different 8 gb card today and shot 220 images. Just imported into LR2 and got the same error - not all could be imported with a number of images of 'zero' that weren't brought into LR. Saw that 180 images were actually imported and I know that some taken at the end of the card are missing. Took card out and put back into CF card reader - same as earlier - card not formatted; needs to be initialized.
This is all on a Mac with OS 10.6.1 and latest version of LR. So one card I could chalk up to a bum card but two??? Any thoughts
Thanks,
E

Bad Batch?

What type of memory cards were you using previously? What type of memory card reader are you using (is it UMDA capable?)

I've heard roomers that if you delete pictures from your card in camera, it can sometimes corrupt the card - never happened to me, but I rarely delete in camera.

I've never had issues with Elite III stuff (I don't use Elite IV, I use Transcend 300x and just ordered a couple of their new 600x). Even have some Elite II and III SD cards - never had an issue and I consider Sandisk media VERY reliable, so I'm with you thinking something is wrong else where.

Do you think your camera may be acting up again? I thought you just got it back from service for AF issues?

run_kmc · September 20, 2009

Sandisk cards are popular items to counterfeit. If it was an amazing deal, they may not be real Sandisk cards.

I only buy CF cards from trusted sources like B&H for this very reason.

eoren1 · September 20, 2009

Bought from Adorama - deal was the buy 3 get a Visa cash card back. That + bing.com made it a better deal than buying one card.

I previously used the same card but in a 4 gig version. Rotated two of them and never had any issues - no error in camera or missing images with downloading. I never erase in camera and made sure to format each card before using. The camera has been working great since coming back from Irvine.

Using the same Sandisk USB card reader that I have used for the past year with those cards.

I have the Sandisk Rescue Pro program running now and it seems stuck at 1% so I am losing faith in recovering the lost images.

Thanks for the thoughts. Posted to the Sandisk board as well and will call them tomorrow.

eoren1 · September 21, 2009

it's not only me...

Heard from another purchaser of this card from Adorama who had one of three fail on him. Calling Sandisk when they open in a few hours. Adorama I think is closed for the Jewish holidays.

E

ziggy53 · September 21, 2009

eoren1 wrote:

it's not only me...

Heard from another purchaser of this card from Adorama who had one of three fail on him. Calling Sandisk when they open in a few hours. Adorama I think is closed for the Jewish holidays.

E

I would expect Sandisk to stand behind the product, but it sucks when this sort of thing happens. I suggest a different card reader, just to rule that variable out. UDMA should not be a problem with CF cards because they should be backwards compatible with even slower read/write devices.

I see that the other user you mention, Foto Jay on another board, is using Windows, so that seems to rule out OS as a likely suspect.

I see that Amazon is also getting some complaints from 8 GB Extreme IV users:

http://tiny.cc/FEHdh

It does appear that these cards may have some design defects as well as counterfeit versions in the wild.

eoren1 · September 21, 2009

ziggy53 wrote:

I would expect Sandisk to stand behind the product, but it sucks when this sort of thing happens. I suggest a different card reader, just to rule that variable out. UDMA should not be a problem with CF cards because they should be backwards compatible with even slower read/write devices.

I see that the other user you mention, Foto Jay on another board, is using Windows, so that seems to rule out OS as a likely suspect.

I see that Amazon is also getting some complaints from 8 GB Extreme IV users:

http://tiny.cc/FEHdh

It does appear that these cards may have some design defects as well as counterfeit versions in the wild.

Thanks for pointing me to the Amazon reviews. Those all look like counterfeit issues. As I bought mine from Adorama and it looks just like my other Extreme IV 4 gig cards, I am not sure that is my problem but will confirm with Sandisk. I did reach Adorama who did not note any other complaints recently about the cards and who referred me to Sandisk as they do not take back memory cards after they have been used.

I'm hoping Sandisk has better tools to recover photos as well as I lost at least 30 shots of my kids between the two cards.

E

eoren1 · September 21, 2009

Update: Sandisk issued an RMA and will hopefully be sending me three replacement cards promptly - or at least by the time I drive up for the Shootout

E

chrismoore · September 21, 2009

Wow, what an eye opener. I had no idea these were being counterfeited. I checked all my cards as I just bought a batch of 4Gb Extreme III for an upcoming shoot. I'm glad I bought from Adorama as I feel confident they would not sell a fake. Thanks for sharing.

eoren1 · September 22, 2009

I should point out that Sandisk confirmed these were legit cards. I just ended up with a bad set

E

chrismoore · September 22, 2009

eoren1 wrote:

I should point out that Sandisk confirmed these were legit cards. I just ended up with a bad set
E

If nothing else you were just unlucky to get two bad apples in the bunch. From the few sites I pulled up about the counterfeit issue, it seems there are millions of fakes in the wild. Glad you were able to get the issue squared away

eoren1 · September 24, 2009

update
Heard from another user who had three of the cards fail with the first use. And they have the same batch number!!
Beware of Sandisk Extreme IV CF batch BI090506477B
E

bradyust · October 18, 2009

Catastrophic failure of Sandisk Extreme IV CF Cards
Here is copy of the post that I put on the Sandisk forum site today

ATTENTION EVERYBOBY!　 I went to the Sandisk headquarters in Milpitas, Ca on Friday, October 16,2009. I was able to meet with one of the senior techs / relationship execs.　He was very professional,　helpful and　forthrightful.　　　Here is the jist of my meeting. THERE IS A MAJOR PROBLEM (a complete failure) 　with one batch of the Extreme IV CF cards. They are the batch / ID　Number BI090506477B.　I was told that all the affected cards, approximately 1,600, were sold by Adorama. According to my conversation, Sandisk has recalled all the remaining cards from Adorama. The problem seems to have something to do with the way the cards write to the 2nd level of the cards internal flash memory. That is why they seem to work for awhile, and if you don't　 "fill them up with data", they seem to perform fine. But once they reach a certain point (about half way), they catastrophically fail!　Once the failure happens, the card is gone, and the data is irretrievably　 LOST!　
　
I asked about whether there was a formal recall and　what about all those cards that were sold and are sitting in a photographers bag, not yet used. He told me that was not his department!　
　
At no cost they quickly replaced my affected cards, but I think this misses the point. I lost about 210 pictures from a local　event that only happens once per year, they need to issue a formal recall NOW! (and Adorama needs to participate too!). I really feel for people like "jmaryn" who lost all those shots from Africa!　If you think about it, these are "Pro" cards, used in "Pro" cameras. Sandisk needs to bite the bullet and ISSUE A RECALL before someone else’s hard work and once in a lifetime shot is gone. By the way, these were NOT counterfeit cards, and there is a good chance yours weren't too!
　
Please spread the word. I plan on posting this message wherever I can, as well as sending this to Adorama.

My email address is bradyust@aol.com

ziggy53 · October 19, 2009

bradyust wrote:

Here is copy of the post that I put on the Sandisk forum site today
ATTENTION EVERYBOBY!　 I went to the Sandisk headquarters in Milpitas, Ca on Friday, October 16,2009. I was able to meet with one of the senior techs / relationship execs.　He was very professional,　helpful and　forthrightful.　　　Here is the jist of my meeting. THERE IS A MAJOR PROBLEM (a complete failure) 　with one batch of the Extreme IV CF cards. They are the batch / ID　Number BI090506477B.　I was told that all the affected cards, approximately 1,600, were sold by Adorama. According to my conversation, Sandisk has recalled all the remaining cards from Adorama. The problem seems to have something to do with the way the cards write to the 2nd level of the cards internal flash memory. That is why they seem to work for awhile, and if you don't　 "fill them up with data", they seem to perform fine. But once they reach a certain point (about half way), they catastrophically fail!　Once the failure happens, the card is gone, and the data is irretrievably　 LOST!　
　
I asked about whether there was a formal recall and　what about all those cards that were sold and are sitting in a photographers bag, not yet used. He told me that was not his department!　
　
At no cost they quickly replaced my affected cards, but I think this misses the point. I lost about 210 pictures from a local　event that only happens once per year, they need to issue a formal recall NOW! (and Adorama needs to participate too!). I really feel for people like "jmaryn" who lost all those shots from Africa!　If you think about it, these are "Pro" cards, used in "Pro" cameras. Sandisk needs to bite the bullet and ISSUE A RECALL before someone else’s hard work and once in a lifetime shot is gone. By the way, these were NOT counterfeit cards, and there is a good chance yours weren't too!
　
Please spread the word. I plan on posting this message wherever I can, as well as sending this to Adorama.

　
My email address is bradyust@aol.com

Wow! This is a problem. I don't think any vendor does any recording of memory card batch numbers so issuing a recall is going to be a problem.

I will request clarification from Sandisk and see what they are doing regarding the problem.

bradyust · October 20, 2009

Update Sandisk Extreme IV CF card corruption issue

bradyust wrote:

Here is copy of the post that I put on the Sandisk forum site today
ATTENTION EVERYBOBY!　 I went to the Sandisk headquarters in Milpitas, Ca on Friday, October 16,2009. I was able to meet with one of the senior techs / relationship execs.　He was very professional,　helpful and　forthrightful.　　　Here is the jist of my meeting. THERE IS A MAJOR PROBLEM (a complete failure) 　with one batch of the Extreme IV CF cards. They are the batch / ID　Number BI090506477B.　I was told that all the affected cards, approximately 1,600, were sold by Adorama. According to my conversation, Sandisk has recalled all the remaining cards from Adorama. The problem seems to have something to do with the way the cards write to the 2nd level of the cards internal flash memory. That is why they seem to work for awhile, and if you don't　 "fill them up with data", they seem to perform fine. But once they reach a certain point (about half way), they catastrophically fail!　Once the failure happens, the card is gone, and the data is irretrievably　 LOST!　
　
I asked about whether there was a formal recall and　what about all those cards that were sold and are sitting in a photographers bag, not yet used. He told me that was not his department!　
　
At no cost they quickly replaced my affected cards, but I think this misses the point. I lost about 210 pictures from a local　event that only happens once per year, they need to issue a formal recall NOW! (and Adorama needs to participate too!). I really feel for people like "jmaryn" who lost all those shots from Africa!　If you think about it, these are "Pro" cards, used in "Pro" cameras. Sandisk needs to bite the bullet and ISSUE A RECALL before someone else’s hard work and once in a lifetime shot is gone. By the way, these were NOT counterfeit cards, and there is a good chance yours weren't too!
　
Please spread the word. I plan on posting this message wherever I can, as well as sending this to Adorama.

　

My email address is bradyust@aol.com

Sandisk deleted my post! (The one you can read here) They only left up a post I put there a few weeks ago. I don't know about you but I think that’s pretty messed up! Not sure what they are trying to hide. They also said I was misinterpreting the information from the person I met with on Friday at Sandisk. I know that I am not. In fact I was very careful to relate the conversation accurately. I just think that they (Sandisk) are in damage control mode. Check out the Canon forum on this same subject. By the way, I heard from several people at Adorama, they seem to be concerned, and are responding to this situation quickly and appropriately.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
The bottom line is that batch of the Sandisk Extreme IV CF cards are messed up and don’t use them!

Rocketman766 · October 20, 2009

I'll be watching this one closely as I have two of the 8GB cards from that batch. One of them was in use this past weekend when I suddenly got Error 02. Lucky for me I had backups ready.

eoren1 · October 20, 2009

Rocketman766 wrote:

I'll be watching this one closely as I have two of the 8GB cards from that batch. One of them was in use this past weekend when I suddenly got Error 02. Lucky for me I had backups ready.

I would recommend getting those replaced ASAP and not taking any chances. I had one of three that seemed okay but, having lost images on the first two from this batch, was not willing to take any chances.
E

AlbertZeroK · October 21, 2009

eoren1 wrote:

I would recommend getting those replaced ASAP and not taking any chances. I had one of three that seemed okay but, having lost images on the first two from this batch, was not willing to take any chances.
E

It sounds like from the description, that filling the card all the way up would cause a failure, I would definately try that.

I'm wondering if there is a tool to check CF cards. I have a few tools we use in the office for hard drive reliablity testing including HDDScan, but wondering if there is anything for CF Cards?

time2smile · October 21, 2009

when a card is in a card reader Windows sees that card as a drive. It can be scanned and defraged. I do this all the time for a SD for my PDA. Lets face it cards are getting more crampt with higher capacities, greater mass production. This means they are more delicate than their previous counterparts. I would test every card out with several cycles of shots and transfers to verify my confidence in the card before I use it on a shoot.

Rocketman766 · October 21, 2009

Rocketman766 wrote:

I'll be watching this one closely as I have two of the 8GB cards from that batch. One of them was in use this past weekend when I suddenly got Error 02. Lucky for me I had backups ready.

I just looked at the folder where I (attempted to) save what data I could and there are only 61 photos, less than 800MB of data that was on this 8GB card when I got my error and failure. I am going to contact Sandisk today in an attempt to replace them.

HelenOster · October 22, 2009

Message from Helen at Adorama Camera

Rocketman766 wrote:

I just looked at the folder where I (attempted to) save what data I could and there are only 61 photos, less than 800MB of data that was on this 8GB card when I got my error and failure. I am going to contact Sandisk today in an attempt to replace them.

Update:

Any customer who has a faulty card can call Sandisk @ 866-Sandisk & Sandisk will swap the card for them

[Adorama isn't able accept any open packages where the blister pack has been opened or the UPC code cut out. We also don't have any for exchange as we're out of stock.]

NB If it were me, I wouldn't wait to find out if I had a faulty one; if it's from a batch that RiaGurl over on POTN has flagged, I know EXACTLY what I'd be doing......

ziggy53 · October 22, 2009

HelenOster wrote:

Update:

Any customer who has a faulty card can call Sandisk @ 866-Sandisk & Sandisk will swap the card for them

[Adorama isn't able accept any open packages where the blister pack has been opened or the UPC code cut out. We also don't have any for exchange as we're out of stock.]

NB If it were me, I wouldn't wait to find out if I had a faulty one; if it's from a batch that RiaGurl over on POTN has flagged, I know EXACTLY what I'd be doing......

Thanks so much for following up on this. You're the best and you are one of the reasons why I continue to do business with Adorama.

Rocketman766 · October 22, 2009

HelenOster wrote:

Update:

Any customer who has a faulty card can call Sandisk @ 866-Sandisk & Sandisk will swap the card for them....

Thanks for the update. I just placed the call and they simply asked a few questions, had me read off the numbers on the side of the card, asked what camera I was using then said they would send me packaging and labels to send back my cards. After they receive them, I should receive my new replacement cards in 7-10 business days.

HelenOster · October 28, 2009

Message from Helen at Adorama Camera

Rocketman766 wrote:

Thanks for the update. I just placed the call and they simply asked a few questions, had me read off the numbers on the side of the card, asked what camera I was using then said they would send me packaging and labels to send back my cards. After they receive them, I should receive my new replacement cards in 7-10 business days.

Sandisk finally released a statement in relation to the Extreme(R) IV 8GB CompactFlash card...............

SanDisk has received a handful of complaints on the SanDisk Extreme(R) IV 8GB CompactFlash card that have resulted in card failure issues. Based on the testing that was performed on the returned (RMA) cards, we have identified that it is a limited problem for an isolated card batch that may affect some of the cards in that batch. We have already taken steps to retrieve the cards from the sales channel that may have been affected .

Regardless, if you have an 8GB Extreme IV CF card with the date code that starts with BI0905, which is found on the side of your CF card, please contact SanDisk Tech Support at 1-866- Sandisk.
Upon confirmation of that date code, SanDisk will gladly provide a replacement card free of charge.

AlbertZeroK · October 28, 2009

Has Adorama sent out emails to customers who bought those cards yet?

Sandisk 8gb Extreme IV CF card problems

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