....
I have a 128M CF card which has recently started playing up in my
digicam
(Nikon Coolpix 3100 fwiw). After taking a lot of pictures the camera
suddenly reports that the card is not formatted. I can recover the
pictures
from the card (using various commercial utilities, or dd-ing to an image
and
pulling out chunks starting with the jpeg header from the image file).
When
I do this usually some of the later images are corrupt: typically they
will
display OK in a thumbnail view but attempting to view at full size the
whole
image is momentarily displayed at reduced resolution but then a portion
of
the image (starting at the left side) is replaced by blank or garbage as
the
veiwer attempts to display it at full resolution. (I guess this is
related
to the format of jpeg images?)

Sound like the internal memory addressing are faulty. Most likely a
loose pin between the controller and flash chips. You would have to
open it up and check for loose solder joins.


Anyway I can reformat the card and it works OK, but the problem recurs.
Sometimes when recovering images I find I still have images from earlier
shoots 'further down' the card, suggesting that the card isn't failing
at
some particular memory location but more-or-less randomly.

Very much like memory addressing problem. If formating works, then
connection to the controller is fine. I would beg there is a loose
pin inside.

I bought it from ebuyer in February, and they'd be my first choice* if I
were to buy a new one so I'm checking that they sort this out to see if I
want to go on using them anyway. (I've a scanner and other stuff on my
wishlist.)

Definitely check with the seller first. If they won't fix it, we can
fix it for a small fee. Contact us at http://ide-cf.info-for.us . Do
not email us, all email are DOA (dropped on arrival).


* I know others have had bad experiences with them but my own experience is
that when the 16M CF card that came with my camera packed up they just sent
out a 32M card with no quibble. Hoping this one goes as smoothly.