by Ted Kuik

It all started with a desire to upgrade the (initial 8 mb) memory in my HP 315 digital camera. Typically after taking about 8-9 pictures it's full and requires a download to the computer. A friend of mine who is generally less technically inclined than I am had recently added a memory card to his digital camera with good results, so I thought I'd go for it.

I did a little research online to see what my options were (64mb and up) and examined my camera's manual to make doubly sure that installation looked easy (it did). I ended up purchasing a 64 mb card this afternoon from my local Meijer store. It was the least expensive, and multiplying the picture capacity by a factor of 8 seemed like great plenty to me. Installation was indeed easy, and I was happily snapping photos earlier this evening. After taking 27 shots, I eagerly connected my camera to its USB port to unload it to my computer's hard drive as usual. That's when the problems began.

The first sign of trouble was when I got the message "The camera does not contain any files." Well, I was pretty convinced that the camera did contain files, but I checked on the preview screen just to make sure. Yep, there they were - all 27 of them. A few repeated efforts failed to produce any better results. Ditto for trying to just read the drive as another hard drive, either thru Windows XP or DOS. So then it was on to the internet to see what solutions others might have found for this problem.

Well, on the positive side, the problem was fairly well documented - Windows XP (and some other Windows versions) have a problem recognizing memory cards for the HP 315 which are over 32 mb. This might be true for some other brands as well - I think I saw at least one other manufacturer's camera mentioned in a posting describing a similar difficulty. So much for the problem; what of the solution? Well, reformatting the memory card was strongly advised against, and although there were several inquiries out on the web, I could not find anyone who had solved the problem with a simple driver update/software solution. The official answer on the HP web site (which the Microsoft web site confirmed as well) was to get a card reader.

Well I grumbled about that a bit - It seemed rather irritating that HP and/or Microsoft had not come up with a software upgrade to fix what is very clearly a shortcoming in Windows XP, the HP software, or both, and instead expected me and others to cough up still more money to buy yet another piece of hardware to solve the problem. I even toyed with the idea of diving into Linux , on the theory that if it was primarily an XP problem, then removing XP from the equation might be an effective solution. In the end though, I decided that card readers were relatively inexpensive, and since I wanted the problem solved quickly and easily, I headed back to Meijer and bought one of their card readers which happened to be marked down $5.00 as a clearance item.

In keeping with the day's theme of technical problems, I noticed just after wiping my credit card thru the store reader that the memory card had rung up at the regular price rather than the clearance price. I informed the cashier, but she said that since my credit card information had already gone thru and been approved I would have to see the customer service person for an adjustment. That actually ended up pretty well as it seems there is a "Michigan Scanner Law" which resulted in my getting back double the $5.00 the store had overcharged me. Score one for the customer :)

Epilogue - Thursday 5/12/05: Well, the new card reader works ... sort of. Windows XP still gives me an error message if I try to use the camera and scanner detector on it, but at least I can transfer the photos manually using "My Computer". Also, it's still more of a pain to have to take the card in and out every time I download photos. Maybe I'll pick up an old 32 mb card off eBay and just save the 64 mb card for occasions when I know I'll be taking a lot of photos before downloading.