P2 card "cannot be read" in Mac PB G4 PCMCIA slot suddenly

[rjcam]

I have a Mac 15" PB G4 laptop with stock PCMCIA slot. I used that slot to transfer probably 100 -200 P2 cards over 16 months. Using the 16GB cards, have 2 of them. One day after a year plus of no problems, it suddenly started saying the card "cannot be read" and would I like to "Ignore" or "eject" the card.

The card icon shows up in my upper pulldown mac bar by the clock, but I can only eject it there. It does not show up in Mac's Disk Utility and it does not show up in the Log and Transfer window of FCP 6.0.2 as it had in the past.

Both cards have same problem. After about 30 insertions and ejections, I did get one to recognize and then work correctly as it used to, work in FCP and transfer the footage from P2 into FCP successfully. What gives? I tried the cards in another older 17" PB Mac and they work fine as they should. They also playback fine in the camera after I eject the card from the faulty 15" laptop.

I know I can use the camera as a remote reader over FW, but it's so slow and annoying and ties up the camera, plus I fear burning in the non-changing blue screen into the Camera's LCD as it takes a long time to transfer and sometimes I'd rather step away. I just downloaded and installed the latest P2 drivers from Panasonic yesterday dated June 09 with same screwy results as before - IE not working.

Anyone else experience this problem or have a suggestion? Thanks!!:badputer:

[mcvideo]

have you tried restarting your laptop?

[grimrebes]

Have you tried using any other cards in the PC Card slot? Maybe the cardbus is shot? Have you tried the cards in another machine? They could be the problem too...

[Daniel Epstein]

Does sound like the slot on the G4 has a mechanical contact issue. Maybe it has worn or some thing is blocking a contact partially. If the cards work in the camera and other places then you can assume the computer has a problem. You might want to try repairing permissions in case something software wise is acting intermittently. You might want to try some compressed air on the slot itself to see if something has gotten in the slot which is creating the disruption

[rjcam]

Thanks for the suggestions.

Sure, I had tried re-starting the machine multiple times. Happened many times over the span of months now, won't read it properly.

Have two 16GB cards, both have same non - recognizing result. They do both work in another laptop and in the camera - even after my laptop claims it cannot be read.

Just repaired permissions and re-started. Fixed all ten thousand permissions or whatever in Disk Utility and still no dice - same non recognition of P2 card in laptop slot. Grrr.

Thanks, anyone else suddenly experience this problem (and have a fix?)

[rjcam]

By the way, I shined a Maglite into the slot (empty) to see if anything looked amiss. All pins seems intact, copper / gold color, and no dust bunnies or particles that I can see lodged in there.

[jonfowler]

I had essentially the same problem - check the thread about it here: http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/193/872785

Once you rule out the slot as the problem, you may have to wipe your drive and re-install everything. Hope I'm wrong, but if it's not the slot a corrupted OS might be the culprit. As an FYI, nothing seemed amiss with my OS according to Disk Utility and other diagnostics. Apple Support walked me through everything and came to the conclusion that my OS was fine - but it in the end they were wrong.

[rjcam]

Thanks for the help Jon.
I am going to consider doing that (OS reinstall), although not immediately as that involves some drama.
Were you on an Intel machine with that adaptor? I am on the PowerMac with the built in slot. I also have a friends newer Intel machine (no slot) here. I am thinking of experimenting and booting my machine in Target mode and hook it to Intel Mac with a FW cable and try a card in my mac. However, if I have the latest drivers from Panny in my PowerMac, is that enough to be potentially read in the Intel mac through FW while I am in Target mode? I would prefer not to install drivers in other machine for this test.

Anyone chime in on that?

Thanks, also curious if anyone else has ever had this problem. My machine...
Mac 15" PowerPC 1.5 GZh chip (pre intel), 1.5GB RAM, OS 10.4.11

(one very tiny footnote, my laptop screen liked to occasionally freak out and the lower 60% of screen was unreadable garbage. One suggestion was a loose cable connection, so I took the mac apart, including the PCMCIA slot a bit nervously as I use this daily and rely on my PCMCIA slot for my work with P2, but after re-assembling the machine with crossed fingers, it still worked as normal with my usual fast P2 card transfers, no problem then). I wish I had another PCMCIA device to test the status of the slot.

[rjcam]

Ok, this is getting very weird. I did a System Profiler of the mac, and the PC slot shows no information. However, when I loaded one of the 16GB P2 cards just now, it then states: "pci10f7,8206:
Function: Memory
Vendor: Unknown
Type: CardBus
Vendor ID: 4343
Device ID: 33286

I was almost sure I checked this before. The panasonic card Icon is showing up next to my wireless connection in upper mac OS bar, with three options, only "Power off Card" is available in black letters.
I also just ran Disk Utility, and the card is now showing up there, although it comes up as 'Unmounted' and if I 'mount' the card, it essestially ignores me and won't mount it - tried a few times. In the past few days inserting the P2 card into my machine with an app open - maybe it was Disk Utility - it hard crashed my system 2x to the point I can't force quit anything, only hold the power button down for a re-boot. this problem seems to be getting nasty.

[jonfowler]

Ok- once we're in this weird tech territory, I admit that things are way over my head. I can say that I had strange similar things happen when my OS went goofy. Sometimes the express card icon would show up, other times it wouldn't. Eventually it got to the point where inserting the card (well, the Duel Adapter and card) would lead to a total crash... screen going deathly gray (aka kernel panic).

Re-installing is traumatic for sure - I would definitely find a PCMCIA device to rule out the slot. (Use Wal-Mart's rental program?). Wish I had more advice... good luck.

[rjcam]

I did finally try a wireless modem card in that slot. Finder seemed to recognize it somewhat as hardware (it was a PCMICA card for PC only use). And the P2 card seems to be recognized that there is something in the slot in the same fashion when I visit the system profiler clicking through 'about this mac" and 'more info'.
But still it's a cranky mess and pretty much won't read the stupid cards. I've been keeping this mac as my daily computer b/c of the slot, and now it's not working. This is such a pain in my ass.

[rjcam]

Ok, this is getting more irritating and strange. I just read a 5 year old post about putting the card in with the write protect off. Lately I've been keeping that on to protect the data. Works fine in the 17" PowerBook. But my 15" PB is still being dumb. Wouldnt read the card with the protection 'ON'. so I ejected card, switched protection 'OFF' and then it mounted on Desktop correctly. So I Fired up FCP 6.0.2 and opened the Log and Transfer window. Nothing there, then it started to mount the card and then it crashed and FCP died. Tried to re-open FCP and would not. Ejected P2 card. and then re-inserted card and it won't read it with two insert cycles with the protection tab still set to OFF. Ugh. Any ideas anyone?

[VenezuelanD]

I'm not really sure what is wrong with your computer, but I too own a 15" PB that I use for P2 media and I would never ever insert a p2 card with the write protect off.

It sounds like your PCMCIA slot is starting to give up the ghost. I would say your only option at this point is a full OS re-install. Hopefully that fixes you up, otherwise the card slot will probably need to be replaced.

[shorelinedigital]

Ok, this is getting more irritating and strange. I just read a 5 year old post about putting the card in with the write protect off. Lately I've been keeping that on to protect the data. Works fine in the 17" PowerBook. But my 15" PB is still being dumb. Wouldnt read the card with the protection 'ON'. so I ejected card, switched protection 'OFF' and then it mounted on Desktop correctly. So I Fired up FCP 6.0.2 and opened the Log and Transfer window. Nothing there, then it started to mount the card and then it crashed and FCP died. Tried to re-open FCP and would not. Ejected P2 card. and then re-inserted card and it won't read it with two insert cycles with the protection tab still set to OFF. Ugh. Any ideas anyone?

Hey RJ, Do you have the ability to see if there is footage on the card using a camera?

Typically you keep write-protect ON because the Mac's Spotlight likes to index every new drive that's inserted. This has been known to corrupt data on cards fro time to time.

Also might want to try repairing permissions, zapping PRAM, etc.

Good luck,

Tom

[rjcam]

Hi all,
I sincerely appreciate your help and suggestions. i did repair all permissions before and that did not fix it. However, cautious good news is that I downloaded the latest driver from Panasonic, installed that, and all of a sudden I am 5 of 5 test insertions of the card into the mac slot and it is recognizing it. And even more FCP recognizes it now (like it used to) in the Log and Transfer window without crashing. I can see the video clips there. Could be a fluke, but otherwise perhaps the new driver worked. If this happens again I am calling Panny directly to fix this for me b/c I own two of their cams and own FCP 6.0 licensed so I should not have to put up with this. I am running 10.4.11 on a PowerPC with an upgraded FCP 6.0.2 app and not sure if the driver I had was too recent and was not playing nice or what, but at least for now it's working again. I have a 7 day intense shoot that starts midweek and I should know for sure if the problem is solved or not as I need this laptop for P2 dumping.
Thanks again all.

[rjcam]

Nope, sorry, the Mac is back on the fritz, and the slot is refusing the cards again as 'unrecognizable'. super irritating.

[Tom 4]

Nope, sorry, the Mac is back on the fritz, and the slot is refusing the cards again as 'unrecognizable'. super irritating.
Hi rjcam,

Sounds to me like you should retire that Mac, you wrote earlier you've had it pulled apart , well simply, it's had it's day, if your a serious shooter you need "serious gear" that woks 100% of the time, not "make do gear" that will give you grief.
Retire it and don't look back, if you only use it for P2 transfers get a Windows lappy...
or get a new MBP and soon you can invest in the Sonnet Qio, that promises to set a new standard in card readers.

Cheers
Tom K
olinevideo.com.au (http://www.olinevideo.com.au/)

[docrock]

"So you're telling me nobody turns off Dashboard, Spaces, Time Machine and Spotlight on Loader and Edit Macbook/MacPro machines anymore?
And I do mean "write defaults" style.."

I excersise caution with write-protect on transfer...but ya never know, could just slip:) I do my P2 dumping on the same computer as the OP...15"PB 1.5g/1.5g and it's been bulletproof. *DjDecay...How do I shut off DB, Spaces,TM and Spotlight "Write Defaults" style? I'm pretty efficient on a Mac...does this still allow Safari access (occassional updates is all I need on the Transfer/Dump box:))

Also, does this eliminate the "Card Corruption" possibility?

Thanks!

[rjcam]

Still a pain in the #ss.
April 2010 and the Panasonic problem persists. My Laptop works fine. My slot driver works. But the cards always say they cannot be read and do I want to "Initialize" "Eject" or "ignore". I called Panasonic pro support and the guy was nice but totally useless. He could not even attempt to explain where the Pana driver installs what it installs so I could manually remove it all and re-install the 2007 CD driver that came with my HVX camera. I just did that all now, and was finally able to re-install the original driver that used to work (after putting in the latest P2 driver from Panasonic's website more than a few times - none of which worked), and the cards still are handled the same as above with the error. I have (2) 16GB cards which both do this, which DO NOT behave this way on a 17" laptop with the PCMCIA slot of my friends, both card's data is still always read-able in camera. What the hell? Should I try to update the firmware to the camera? But why would the 17" work fine, and my 15" laptop still not work? It also behaves like this whether I shoot on my newer HPX170 or the HVX200 camera - makes no difference. (I think a camera firmware upgrade will be useless then) I see there has been over 1000 views of this posting so I can only guess that some others might be experiencing the same problem? Otherwise my Mac works fine, running last version of Tiger 10.4.11. I wanted to keep this so I have maximum upload speed and reliability (as opposed to all the bad things I read about the duel card readers for new setups), but this has me wondering. Anyone experience this kind of bad laptop behavior using the stock PCMCIA slot??
PowerBook G4 15" PPC
Tiger 10.4.11
PCMCIA SLOT info:
TXN,PCIXXXX-00:
Name: cardbus
Type: cardbus
Bus: PCI
Slot: PC Card
Vendor ID: 0x104c
Device ID: 0xac56
Revision ID: 0x0000

[wgzn]

its an old machine. my first guess would be that the slot is dying...