Optio S40 download to pc problem

Hi - I've been using my S40 for over a year with no problems. Now when I connect the USB cable to the camera and then to the USB port on my pc, the pc VDU switches off and the message 'No Signal' is displayed. Switching the camera on makes no difference - and the lense actually activcates and extends (which it did n't before). When I disconnect the USB cable the VDU comes back to life - but warns that there has been a power surge to the USB port, which must be 'reset' to avoid damage???
I can take the SD memory card out of the camera and plug direct into my Canon Pixma MP130. Downloading takes ages - and I cna NOT then delete images from the memory card, as I am advised that it is 'Write protected'.
Has anyone else seen this problem please??

I would suggest you buy a card reader, which should solve all these problems and also be much quicker.

Thanks for this. I am not familiar with card readers. On 'Picstop' website there are several - I'm looking at SanDisk MobileMate SD+ 5-in-1 Reader / Writer, at £10.90. Presumably this will plug into USB port and allow hi-speed downloading & deleting??

Correct, but it's also important to remember that once you have downloaded your images and backed them up, when you want to delete them from the card format the card in the camera. Deleting and formatting from the computer can cause problems.

Thanks again - I'll format as suggested, once I've backed up to memory stick / flash drive

I always delete from the computer, by using Move rather than Copy. I have never had any problem, and I have shot well over 50,000 images on my two *ist D bodies.

It's the quickest way to clear the card.

G

Sorry, but I beg to differ... slightly

When you move the directory on the card gets updated after each file is pulled off. As we are talking NAND flash, that means that the PC has to rewrite the sector onto another NAND flash page each time. You see NAND flash has blocks that are divided into pages. The pages are usually 512 or 2048 bytes (plus some extra bytes for error correction etc). You can write to a page, but you can't erase it - you can only erase the whole block (of 2k or 128k).

Consequently, although it may be more convenient to move the files from the card to the PC (and perhaps faster with a USB2 reader), you are actually causing pages to be written to more than they need to.

A format, on the other hand, isn't the same as a hard disk format. This erases the used blocks, and rebuilds a fresh directory structure. That's why it only takes a second or two in camera.

Just bear in mind that NAND flash has a physical erase limit of between 100k - 1M erases, and then the block is dead. But then, that's a LOT of photos and card transfers

Matt

Interesting info Matt. I too use the method George described. I'm not sure I can reprogramme myself to use a different workflow though so I'll probably continue using the same method

I find it handy to have CaptureOne LE delete the images from the card after importing.

WOW!!! I should ask Matt to translate into English - but I still don't think I would understand...
Thanks all - I've just ordered my card reader, and will probably format the card in the camera when I have made backups.