Images and Videos are corrupted after 4GB of storage is crossed

[mkadmane]

I am facing a peculiar problem with my TX1. I am using a 8GB Sandisk class 6 extreme III card. Once the capacity of the card exceeds approximately 4 GB, the images and videos stored thereafter in the card could not be opened in my PC. However these images and videos could be viewed on the camera itself or after connecting the camera to a TV. Has anyone faced a similar issue? Is there any solution to this problem?

[SilverGal]

I have not, I use a 16G card and dont have a problem.

Have you tried viewing the card on a different computer?  Or using a different card just to narrow things down?

[cybercom]

If the images are NOT corrupted when viewed in the camera or on a TV, then the images are NOT corrupted.

Most likely, there is an issue with your operating system. However, since you do not explain how you are getting the media to your computer, it is difficult to make any suggestions.

More specifics would help.

[mkadmane]

I am using the card reader in my laptop  (dell with vista) to view the media files. The problem happens with both images and videos. Today I will try to view the images in a different computer and find it out.

[mkadmane]

I tried opening the images in a different computer but still the same problem persists. The widows photo viewer tells "no preview available". I tried opening with MS paint and it tells "Paint cannot read this file. This is not a valid bitmap file, or its format is not currently supported."

[robocat]

Firstly 4GB is a magic number (it is the biggest number expressible by 32bits) so it could easily be a bug in something like a driver.

With my 4GB Sandisk /// card a free SDHC to USB converter came with it. Did your card come with one? If so then try that. I have been using the converter with 8GB and 16GB Adata cards with no problems.

Secondly, perhaps your card is a fake (not so likely given you said the files could be played back on the camera, but worthwhile checking!). Some fake cards ( http://www.google.com/search?q=fake+sandisk+III ) can have problems when they get half full. e.g.  http://reviews.ebay.ie/Fake-Sandisk-Ultra-II-4GB-SD-Memory-Cards-on-Ebay_W0QQugidZ10000000003928494 says "I have unwittingly bought 2 counterfeit Sandisk Ultra II 4gb SD Memory cards from 2 Ebay vendors in the UK, they do not perform the same as an original Sandisk card, read/write speeds are significantly slower on the 4GB card, also the experience I had was when the card was half full with pictures, it would corrupt. When this happened up to half of the pictures already stored on the card would be unreadable on the either a camera or a PC and ultimately were unrecoverable."

One test to see if your card was fake is could be to use the Benchmark test in CHDK and see if you get a RAW write speed of about 20MB per second after the card is freshly formatted - run test twice and ignore first result - see http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/Benchmarks. I would guess that a fake card would not be nearly so fast as the real thing (cheaper memory chips run much slower than Extreme ///).

[cybercom]

A 4gb card is an SDHC card. If the card reader you are using is not specifically SDHC, but is only SD, you will have problems. Rather than trying to read them this way, copy them to your hard drive using Zoombrowser - the software that came with your camera - through a USB cable. If they all copy over and you can view them once they are on the computer, then you know it is not the camera, not the card and not the images. Get an SDHC - USB card reader, they're cheap and copy the files over using it. If you can view them and they are all there, then you know it is not your SDHC card or SDHC card reader.

BTW, Paint only opens *.bmp files. The files on your SDHC card are *.jpg.

HTH,

[mkadmane]

Thanks Cybercom.
I was able to download and view the images and videos using zoombrowser.

[cybercom]

That's great news!