Memory-Card Reviews

Didn't work when I first connected to my ~2 year old Dell running WinME. Turns out I had to update several drivers. Dazzle online support did eventually come through for me, but it took several hours over a couple of nights to get it done.

Now it works great and I wouldn't want to be without it. So I recommend it for anyone who is knowledgeable and persistent with Microslop stuff, but I would probably not suggest it for others.

I've had this reader for a couple months now, and it's worked without a hitch (under Win98). It's much much faster than the parallel reader I used to use. It's nothing fancy but it's worked for me really well.

I'm using this handy little device on a Powerspec we bought from Microcenter in '99, running Windows '98. By no means a computer genius, I've had no problems with this at all. It's fast, simple, performs as advertised. I like that in a product.

At first I thought another 8mb would be great for my Handspring Platinum. My Platinum had only 1mb free and I needed more space for my apps, I still needed to loaded Noah Dictionary and Mapopolis which would require another 3 or 4 megs (already had Vindigo and AvantGo and a few fairly large apps). The 8mb Flash module is *only* useful for some individuals.

Here's why I don't recommend it to everyone: 1) You can not edit ANY files on the flash module. Meaning Vindigo will not run from it or edit a picture/doc file from the module. 2) It adds a noticeable amount of weight to your visor especially if you carry it in your pocket. 3) If you have hackmaster (or similar), make sure you disable it when removing and installing the module. I duplicated the resulting crash many times and had to do a HardReset each time. 4) You will go through your batteries a little faster. 5) You cannot HotSync directly to the FlashModule. Meaning you have to install it to your Visor, and then transfer to the module. A big inconvenience if you are running low on space and have to play "musical apps" to get it on the module.

In summary, I love my Platinum, however I feel there are too many shortcomings to make it a truly useful item. Its price is not justified. However, if you don't mind the weight and inability to transfer *everything* to the module and run it this may be right for you. Users with large uneditable PDB files will be thankful for it, that's who I sold mine to!

There are some very informative reviews already written about this product so I won't repeat the details.

I own the Visor Prism and use it daily for a number of tasks. I keep a number of large spreadsheets on one of these modules and when I need them, copy them over to the working ram of my Prism.

I have found this unit to be very reliable.

As I continue to find great programs on my Visor, this module has
allowed me to load them on without worrying about running out of
space. I will probably buy a couple more to add to my collection
of Visor gizmos.

Thank heavens analogue cameras standardised on 35mm. Just imagine you went into a shop and had a choice of 2inch, 30mm, 25mm, 33mm, 35mm etc films, only one of which would fit your camera. Olympus have done a Sony and repackaged the same old memory chips (e.g. SD, MMC, SM, CF, MD) as xD and decided to sell it at twice the price of SD memory. Once you buy one of their (admittedly good) digital cameras the small xD market will force you to buy expensive memory that is incompatible with almost everything else our there. As I already own some cheap standard SD memory that's not usable in most Olympus cameras, I have had to look elsewhere for a camera :o(

I bought this item from the local office supply store. Costco has it cheaper and has a better return policy (and is 5 min. from my house). Buy this where it makes sense.

Several reviewers have indicated xD memory is a commodity. Buyer beware: If you have an Olympus digital camera, and you shoot in the Panorama mode (which I use regularly and really like when snowboarding and backpacking), you HAVE TO HAVE AN OLYMPUS BRANDED xD CARD; non-Olympus cards don't support and won't enter the mode

It would be really great if Amazon and other resellers did a better job outlining which accessories were compatible with which products. This is stated as a CF Type I card yet this does not work with a Nikon Coolpix 4300--another, more expensive Kingston card, must be used.

This Kingston card uses a multi-level-cell (MLC) Flash made by Toshiba and writes much slower than the single-level-cell (SLC) models. I would avoid Kingston if you have a high resolution digital camera or frequently use the burst mode on your camera to take several pictures back to back. For MP3 players or lower resolution cameras, this card may be fine. Just keep in mind that it will also take longer to write MP3s from your computer to this card than it will with others. I would opt for a card made by SimpleTech, which is in the same price category but much faster.

This 512MB card by Kingston is my camera's right hand man. I've used it extensively with a Canon Powershot S50 and haven't had any problems with it to date. A day's shooting on the highest quality JPEG setting fills the card at 200 photos - plenty for a hobbyist like myself. And the wait to download a full card's worth of photos, either through the camera or a card reader, is never more than a couple of minutes. The card is what you'd expect from CF memory - durable (I've accidentally stepped on it once and it's still okay), ultraportable and roomy. Highly recommended for anyone eyeing a 4+ MP camera or any other device with a need for lots of storage.

Having to read some of the reviews of this card, I have some comments to say. Like one reviewer said "it beats the Intel Extreme graphics" was just totally funny. Of course GeForce FX 5200 beats the Intel graphics. Intel graphics are integrated graphics chip which usually comes with cheap computers with no AGP slots. They will hardly play any games other than older based games like Starcraft, Counter Strike, and Dos games and few more. Just note that this card is definitly have if you have a Intel Extreme graphics 1 or 2. Also, one reviewer mentioned to get games that says "This is the way it ment to be played" or something closed to it but that is incorrect. Most ATI cards will beat Nvidia cards in frames per seconds. I like Nvidia cards too, just that ATI cards are just better. If you don't believe me or accept the truth, just read PCgamers magazines or read real online reviews of (not customers) real electronic webistes or something. Still, don't worry if you do have a Nvidia card. Doom 3 and Painkiller supports Nvidia cards. Though Splinter Cell runs better on ATI Radeons. I probably wrote too much not about the card but about other reviewer's review. It probably didn't help much about this card but at least now you know that ATI cards are better.

This card is good for decent games but not games like Battlefield Vietnam or Splinter Cell Pandorra Tomorrow. You should get Geforce TI 4200 or Radeon 9200 for little more price.

This graphics card is only so-so but don't get me wrong. I quite like this card but a bit dissapointed for its' performance. I got this card for only $70 dollars on eBAY and it is pretty good for its price. But the dissapointment came to me when I found that this card was running slower than my older card, GeForce 4 Ti 4800. GeForce FX 5200 card was newer so I thought it would have run better than my GeForce 4 Ti 4800 on games like Unreal Tournament 2003, Battlefield 1942, or Call of Duty but every game looked much better on GeForce 4 Ti 4800 than on GeForce FX 5200. So I was wondering if I got the wrong card. Then I went to the Nvidia website for technical help and I saw the descriptions of the cards and GeForce 4 Ti 4800 happen to be better than GeForce FX 5200. Heck, my Geforce 4 Ti 4800 was even faster than GeForce FX 5500! So I put the GeForce FX 5200 card on my brother's computer since his computer had no video card and I kept my computer unopened with my dated but better performing GeForce 4 Ti 4800. It is a pretty good card for its' price but I recommend you to pay $10 more to buy GeForce 4 Ti 4800 on Ebay. Oh yeah, I can't forget to mention this but it's also kind of noisy but those problems aside, this is a nice card to have.

This is not a *hard-core* gamers card -- look elsewhere, pay more. I had this card for about a year, no hardware problems or conflicts. I'm using a dual boot system: Win2K and WinXP, works fine switching between the two OSes. For the price (under $100), I get decent performance for general purpose applications, including Photoshop 7, PowerPoint, etc.

It provides 2 VGA ports. This is good only if you want to hook up 2 monitors. I would have prefered a VGA, S-Video and DVI ports. (Note: the new model now comes with VGA & S-Video ports.)

I am running WinXP Home. This card reader is not hot-swappable. When trying to do so, the computer locks up and doesn't read anything. The only thing to do is shut off, plug in the reader, reboot, then ensert the cards. Not doing so results in a message that my USB device is malfunctioning. If a card is enserted while rebooting, I get the same message. This reader is NOT a smooth operator. I am now shopping for individual readers instead of a combo.

I've had this for about 4 months now, and overall the performance has been spotty, especially with Non-Sony media. My Lexar 128 stick worked fine with this unit for the first few months, but is now a hit or miss affair-- it only recognizes the stick about 50% of the time. A problem with the stick itself? Perhaps. My sony 128 mb stick works well all the time. In any case, I'm replacing this unit with a sony reader. I dont' need the aggravation!

I had my order the next day! I had no idea that I would get such fast delivery...and everything was in perfect condition! I could not be more saticfied.

A couple of days ago I ordered a 256 MB XD card from Amazon.com and Ritz was the seller. I received an e-mail from Ritz stating that my debit card would be charged 88.95. Amazon quoted me a price of 82.00. The difference was $6.95 in shipping. When I got the item the invoice read that I was charged the $6.95 for shipping. I had already had prior contact with Amazon and they stated that I would not be charged for shipping. I called and spoke with "Johnson" about the matter. Johnson could have cared less that I was billed for shipping and was under the pre-tense that there would be no shipping charge. It was tough luck on my part as far as he was concerned. There are many companies that Amazon sponsors that specifically state that they do not offer free shipping, but Ritz does not state this when they are sponsored seller for Amazon, although they do state on their website that "in order for an order to qualify, it must be at least 100.00. After checking my debit card, I find I was not charged for shipping. Because of Johnson's unconcerned attitude regarding my problem, this will be the last item that I purchase from Ritz and I will see to it that I spread the word about what a caring company Ritz is not. It is bad business to burn bridges over $7.00. Amazon promised I would not be charged shipping and I was not. If looking for memory, use one of Amazon's other sponsered companies. They might care more about the cutomer.
Thank you,
Mark Jones

I bought this card in conjunction with my Fuji S5000 (which I HIGHLY recommend), and for the three months that I've been using them, they have done absolutely EVERYTHING that I could have wanted. I generally take photos at the 2MP (1600x1200) setting, which gives me reasonable photo size/clarity without taking huge amounts of space--each photo is between 550kb and 650kb, which allows me to take 410 at 2MP. I can get 550 on 1 MP, 325 on 3MP, and 173 on 6MP. On RAW 6MP, I can only get 37 though... this is what makes me consider getting a 512 card, or waiting for the upcoming 1GB card Fuji is developing. I've taken thousands of photos in the few months that I've owned this card, and none have been less than perfect as far as the card's impact on them.

The entire line of xD technology is revolutionary and is REALLY great. It has low battery-drain, it's REAL fast, and it's very versatile. Not to mention small--I'm able to have a rather small camera bag (6"h, 5"w, 3"d) partly because I don't have overly large, bulky cards and cases taking up more space than necessary.

Beyond its obvious application of excellent use in digital photos, I've actually used it like a removable mini-drive, similar to my pen-drive. However, as this card is larger than my 128MB jumpdrive, i was able to bring what i needed even when my jumpdrive was full. this is more useful than imaginable. i'm getting a Fujifilm DPC-UD1 xD USB Drive Reader and a second xD card, either 256 or 512MB to use it just like my jumpdrive. Again, this is EXCELLENT technology, and the BEST OPTION for new digitals.

FYI, it takes just over 10 minutes to download 256 MBs worth of pictures. Works just fine.

The device works fine with my XP and W2000 machines. It does not work at all with W98SE. The tech help was useless via email. And you cannot contact them live in Parsippany. W98SE just cannot find the drivers that are supposedly installed during the setup program. Oh well, 2 out of 3 is fine I guess...

Remember that famous quote from Bill Gates? It's nice to know you can be wrong on occasion and still end up the richest man in the world. In any case, at roughly 200x his original prediction, these little devices are certain to replace floppy disks as the new method of portable storage.

This was an impulse purchase at a retail outlet, but even on sale Amazon beat the price. I'm not familiar enough with these things to compare one brand with the next, but I can tell you what I did and didn't like about this particular product.

The good:
Detection was painless using Windows XP. Just plug it in, wait a minute for it to install itself and voila! Instantly you have a new 128MB drive on your computer.

Transfer rates are nice and quick, especially if you have USB 2.0, but even USB 1.1 is fine.

The plastic case is sturdy enough to protect it from normal damage such as an accidental scrape or dropping it on the floor. Sit on it, though, and it's toast.

The bad:
It's a little large to be considered portable in my opinion. They designed it as if it would be something you would carry on your keychain. Too bulky for that, plus the hole on the cap is too small to fit on the majority of keyrings. Finally, I understand the reason for keeping the cap on the keyring so you can easily remove the device, but the cap doesn't hold it securely enough for me to feel safe carrying it this way.

Reliability is suspect according to the other reviewers here. I would have kept this item if it weren't for the bad reviews, but will probably return it in favor of something more portable.

The attache 128 MB USB 2.0 drive offered by PNY is a useful tool for those who work on more than one computer.

If you have Windows XP, setup is a snap - just plug it in and you will be able to treat it like it is any other disk drive.

The drive is small yet sturdy and can take some bumps. The device also has a lock feature (a la the old 1.44 MB diskettes) so that it would become write-protected.

Remember one thing though - the Attache is not really designed to be rewritten repeatedly. If the user repeatedly erases and rewrites the Attache drive, eventually parts or all of the drive will become unreadable. Therefore, one should only erase and rewrite when absolutely necessary. Also, one should always backup his or her files in a location other than the Attache.

Tried this in a Dell Inspiron 4000 and it would not work. Dell states PC133 will not work in the Insprion 4000. PNY tech support states this memory is NOT BACKWORD COMPATIBLE, despite the claims made by other reviewers.

I used the PNY 256MB PC133 SODIMM in my old IBM ThinkPad i1400 series laptop which said only took PC66 memory, but it was obviously backwards compatable and so now my laptop has 512MB in it. The PNY memory was easy to install and works great.

what i was looking for was a PC100 256mb memory upgrade ... Thankfully my laptop accepted this PC133 sodimm and has been performing beautifully ever since. i now intend to add another 256mb.

I have used CompactFlash cards before, having great success with usage and loading to computer. BUT, I recently purchased the 1GB SanDisk card from Amazon, and am disappointed to report that it was defective. I lost over 150 photographs. It would not load my photos onto my computer, and in the camera's LCD there were digital streaks/bands across the images.

I exchanged this item for a new one, which had EXACTLY the same troubles. I am not sure if this was a bad batch, or if 1GB disks are not sophisticated enough yet. Again, I have used other type I/II cards without any problems whatsoever.

I planned on using this in my PDA for music. Its slowness led to skipping and the more files I added the slower it got until it was unusable. I guess that's why they don't tell you the transfer rate.

It's kinda pointless to review a CompactFlash card - They work or they don't work - They're all poured into the same envelope -Of course THE prime expectation is that they will work in your equipment - I suppose you could count the transfers in milliseconds, but that's often beyond the domain of a memory card anyway and more to do with the electronics of the digicam - I'm using it with an E20 and have had no problems in field use - but the Oly is a relatively slow writer but that's not a chip problem - Now what would really merit 5 stars and my undying praise would be a breathtaking plunge beneath the $ barrier -- THAT'S exciting. SanDisk 1gb does the job with no problems -- THAT'S satisfying.