Olympus C-3000 card issues.

[Dan Moening]

I've had an Olympus C-3000 digital camera for around 3 years now. Recently it became difficult to read the storage media (16mb SmartCard). It has now reached the point where the camera will not "boot" when turned on. Says it can't read the card.
I've tried a backup 8mb SmartCard with the same results.
I've tried a brand new 16mb SmartCard with the same results.
I've tried to format all the cards and they wont read.

The contacts on all the cards are clean, smooth and unscratched.
The contacts internally to the camera appear to be fine...can't quite get in there.

Has anyone had similiar problems and what was done for repair?

[Tyler Howell]

Long Shot Dan But !!!!

Try a fully charged battery!
Pop the card in and out several times to burnish the contacts.
Do you have a XD reader??? Will the Chips work there???
Try a can of spray air first, and then contact cleaner if you are more brave on the contacts in the camara.
Use a pencil eraser on the the contacts of one card spray it clean with air. One more try in the DC.
Good Luck, let us know how it turns out.

[Dan Moening]

Tyler, thanks...

First thing I tried was new batteries...cause, well, been there before :rolleyes:

I have 2 card readers :
A USB external deal on one computer...reads the cards hit/miss (but always did...its USB 1.0 on an old PC).
An internal smart card reader for a Soyo MB...reads the cards just fine.
I even used the reader to read/write/delete files from the cards...so I think the cards are ok and the problem lies with the camera.

Burnish the contacts eh?
I'll try that this evening.

My wife stopped by a camera store last evening....$240 to send to Olympus:eek:

Just doesn't feel right not being able to post pictures :D