Memory-Card Reviews

I bought this item from a seller on amazon and my credit card was charged. I received a notice from the seller saying amazon had informed him not to ship becasue of a credit card issue. At the time I thought nothing of it. I then contacted amazon who told me to solve the problem with the seller. The seller said he would refund a partial payment. I thought this is better than nothing, so I agreed. I waited and waited, but nothing. Amazon then said it was past the a-z guarantee date so they will not assist in the refund. Moral: Amazon allows rip-offs!
This is the guy's email moses0510@hotmail.com He won't answer mine, but please try for yourself. If you can help let me know skinow@skinow.net

I have the same problem as a previous reviewer. The tab on the battery (secures the battery to the case) is flimsy and plastic. And yes the blasted thing broke off without any assistance from me after only 4 or 5 months of carrying it around.

I don't have an issue with the cover, and I like the features that permit adding memory or pcmcia devices. It is a bit bulky, making the IPAQ PDA 2 and a half times as bulky. Which still leaves it smaller than a paperback book.

A thoroughly average product, in some respects. Making a more secure battery and making the cover removeable would be big improvements.

I went through three of the old-style PC Card sleeves before getting the Plus style (one bad battery, one bad PC slot, sold 3rd once I got the Plus). Basically, I got it because it had the plastic cover on it.
Two problems: Detachable battery is not secured well enough and card-eject button should be recessed more to avoid accidentally arming it.
I don't think Compaq does enough durability testing on these things. I keep my iPaq in my pocket with a disposable camera and a cell phone. The plastic cover has begun to come off, and now the battery clip has broken, so the battery falls off. I've only used it for a few months, and now I'm already going to have to get a replacement.
Advantages of having it: I can take my 802.11b wireless card with me where-ever I take my iPaq. I've been amazed at the number of times when I've desperately needed to use the internet to quickly check on something while at some location, pulled out my iPaq w/PC Plus sleeve and 802.11b PC card, turned it on to discover I had a connection to an access point, and saved the day.

I bought this to fit a few more songs on my mp3 player. You cannot use all of the space on the card! This worthless card does not let you use about 3 to 4MB of memory. Save your cash and buy Kingston memory instead.

The Memory Card was delivered promptly, in excellent condition and works well. The package was addressed to "bibby varghese" instead of "Harvey Westfall", but the street address was correct. The mailer was "Dvds123.com, 1750 Weir Drive, Woodbury, MN 552125". All's well that ends well.

This is a great memory card. I use it for my digital camera and it hs fast access/write speeds. I use it with a Dazzle Zio! SD Card reader and it works seamlessly. The only problem is it's price. A little too steep for 64 MB.

This product claims to be supported on win98se. I installed the provided drivers, and still, nothing worked. I downloaded the most recent drivers from the iogear website, tried those, and still, didn't work. Meanwhile, these drivers screwed up my computer to the point where the display was wacky, and in general, it hasn't been the same since. I will be re-installing win98se from scratch this weekend to try to "undo" the damage done by this product/drivers.
Also, the instructions in the manual apparently did not pertain to the cd of drivers they sent me. :-(

Finally, I have to note that the box I received had obviously been opened and returned by someone else- I probably should have seen this as a sign of things to come!

So, if you have win98, look elsewhere. I bought the SanDisk ImageMate; it installed seamlessly, and works perfectly, and costs less than the IOGEAR solution, too.

The packaging is cute, the thing is supposed to be fast, etc., but hey -- I couldn't plug it in! The power adapter they shipped simply didn't fit -- it was about 2 sizes too big!

Tech support: "Hmm. Sorry about that."

It's on its way back first thing tomorrow.

Overview:
.....I think this is a great product, especially with the rebate. It supports Compact Flash Type I & II cards. It uses USB 2.0/2.1 but is backward compatible to USB 1.1. Unlike many other CF readers with low limits on CF card capacity, this reader supports up to 1024 MB (a.k.a. 1 GB) memory cards. This product is definitely an investment because it is up to date on memory card technology. It's also Mass Storage Compliant, meaning it is automatically detected in Windows 2000, ME, and XP. You will have to install drivers with Windows 98.
.....I admit the instructions in the manual for installing the drivers were awful because they did not match the directories on the included CD. I tried choosing the drivers in the GFR201 directory like you would expect, but they didn't work. I emailed tech support for help and they sent me the drivers I needed. It looks the same as the drivers they list under the ION 2.5 / ION 98 directory on the CD so you might not have to email them. In the end it's worth the trouble.
.....Mac lovers will appreciate this product is supported for OS 8.6 and above. My fiance has a Mac so it's nice I can use the reader on a Mac and PC at the same time. It's not that mobile though, because it's a bit larger than pocket size and it has the power adapter. You have to admit it looks cool, and therefore more expensive than many of the other CF readers. The construction is pretty durable. It would have been nice to have a cover for the CF slot. 6' cable is definitely long enough to put the reader where you want it.
.....As for the power adapter, I think it's great. I don't know why others would have problems with it. Rather than coming down over outlets below it, it is made of a slimline design that comes out on the side. The adapter seems like a pain, but it ensures quality performance when transferring your data across the USB cable.

Pros:
.....USB 2.1 (480 Mbps transfer!)
.....Compact Flash Type I & II up to 1024 MB (1 GB)
.....Mass Storage Compliant
.....Win 98, 98SE, 2000, ME, XP and MAC OS 8.6 or greater
.....Innovative design and solid construction
.....6' USB cable
.....3 year warranty
.....Affordable

Cons:
.....Could use cover for slot
.....Not as portable as some other devices
.....Win 98 driver installation could be easier

Rebate:
.....Save[...]! You can find details on the IOGEAR website. [...]

I purchased the PQS USB 2.0 6-IN ONE thru J&R, because it looked good and had a good price. It worked for 3 months (i.e. about 8 times only), reading a SONY memory stick 128MB. Suddenly it stopped working, and I can't access the memory stick thru the USB connector. But when I hook up my camera to the computer's USB slot, it works. So the memory stick is ok, just the PQS USB 6-in one doesn't work.

I was excited to receive my new PQI 6-in-1 reader in the mail. It promised to provide access to all my flash media from any computer without special drivers. The device is about the size of a cassette tape and reads Smart Media, Compact Flash, MultiMedia and SD cards, Memory Stick, as well as MicroDrives. It has a short, integrated USB cable (about 3 inches) that tucks neatly inside when not in use. It comes with an extention USB cable for systems that do not provide a USB port in the front, and a nice little protective pouch.

I was disappointed when I found out that the reader would not read Memory Sticks which were formatted via my Sony DSC-P50 camera on my system running Windows XP Home Edition with SP-1. Contacting support was useless. I was simply provided instructions on how to connect and use the device (in very broken English). When I persisted, the technician indicated that he also had a Sony camera and did not have trouble using the device. After extensive investigation (and trial and error) I found a workaround to my problem. I was only able to get the reader to work (for the memory stick) after first formatting the medium in the camera with the built-in hardware format option and then reformatting the stick under Windows XP with the camera attached as an external drive via the USB cable. Once this was done I was able to use the stick interchangably (until it was reformatted in any other device or in the camera without subsequently reformatting it in the camera under XP). If you'd like a complete explaination of how I arrived at this solution.

The device is fast (for a USB 1.1 device). It seems to work flawlessly for all other media formats (didn't test Microdrive or SM). It also worked fine under Win2K for memory sticks.

Overall, the concept is great and it's nice compact little package. The price is right. I believe the product is functionally fine, but may have compatibility problems with some devices. My problem may have been the fault of the generic USB card reader drivers supplied with Windows XP, or perhaps a hardware compatibility issue with my system. During my testing though I stripped all but the most essential hardware from my system and reinstalled a fresh copy of XP on a newly formatted partition, and still had problems.

Give it a try. If it works for you it's handy. If it doesn't, you're not out much.

Works fine under Windows 2000. Reads media well.

The Asante 6 in 1 memory card reader is the so called "Gini"
which made 75 of my pictures disappear from a 128 meg compact flash card.

This device working on Windows XP is incapable of reading more than 1 memory card insertion at a session - in other words if you have more than 1 card of the same type you cannot read the second card without first removing the "Gini" drive and then
restarting it via its USB plug.

Worse, if you use the same card with differant information on it, re-inserting it in the drive will completely screw the file structure of the card, requiring that the card be reformatted.
You know what that means.

No doubt the design is attractive, but the unit is cheaply made,
the SD slot had a bend in the interior metal probably making that slot unuseable.

If you are using 2 types of memory cards try to keep it simple and use a reader specifically designed for those two.

My husband wanted a card reader that worked on PC and Mac. I got thim this and he is exstatic. He tested it and uses it with mulitple cards and XP on his PC and os X on his mac. The previous reviewer must have gotten a bad unit because mine works great with the SD cards we have, no bend in the slot at all.
I have put in up to 3 different types of media at the same time under XP and copied pictures between the cards. When I use different cards of the same type, as long as I eject them (as the manual states) I have never had a directory issue with XP.
I have used this as a fast way to transfer pictures from my camera to the PC w/o having to deal with the slow camera cable!
Both my husband and I enjoy using it. This thanksgiving it was a lifesaver! Kept taking too many pictures!
It looks great, built well, is small and compatct! Everyone should have one of these who has a digital camera.

Folks, don't buy this. Just go to the Dazzle web site and check out the Dazzle support forum for a string of complaints about not working with WindowsXP.
This product is having serious issues with Windows XP which is likely infant mortality. Perhaps the regular ZIO (non high speed) is OK, but this puppy is a product that was clearly pushed out the door too early.

I've used my Dazzle USB 2.0 ZIO! on XP, Win 2000, Win 98 & MacOS 9.0 w/ no problems at all. The design makes it extremely portable & the transfer rates are just fine.

This drive is supposed to work with Windows 98SE. I have spent at least an hour loading, unloading, and searching the WWW for a driver that will work. It doesn't work on my Dell laptop with Win 98SE. I tried contacting the "Tech Support" 3 times and never received a response. If you are buying to work on a Win 98 system, be careful. I can say that it does work on my WinXP system, but it appears to be very slow taking 29 minutes+ to copy 450 MB. Equal time to delete.

I 've used this with Mac OS 10.2.8 and WinXP Pro - No problems. Notas solid as it could be but no less so than others.

Although the CF card reader worked well the first time i plugged it into my Powerbook, that was the last time it functioned correctly. I had to return it within 7 days of its first use.

I would squirt a couple of drops of WD-40 on the pins, no harm's done as WD-40 is electrically-friendly and reduces friction a lot. This will reduce undue stress on the pins from constant pull 'n push and make the reader last longer.

In my case, the USB connection on my Nikon CoolPix 5K is more robust than most USB connectors on digital cameras. So I use it and leave the CF card inside the camera all the time unless I really need to swap out the 256 or 512 mb cards when it's full (which is seldom). Or to show off the card to prospective digital camera buyers.

I wanted to get a Compact Flash card reader for my Mac and I wanted it to be firewire, for those who have not used firewire, or doubt its worth, you must see it to believe it. The firewire connection is ridiculously fast for loading pictures onto my computer. (Google "firewire vs usb" for a comparison)

I have an older G4 desktop mac and the plugs are in behind the tower, other Macs have more readily accessible firewire outlets. Having to move the computer is a minor annoyance, but nothing big.

Once correctly connected the card reader pops up on the desktop as a small disk icon, open it and there is a folder with all of the pictures taken with my camera. Copying the pictures takes a few seconds max, compared to many minutes for a similar USB device.

One small complaint I have is the plug-n-play aspect of this device, sometimes after connecting, it will not appear on the desktop, a quick un-plug and re-connect solves this problem.

Also, you have to be very very careful inserting the cards, as other reviewers have noted the small metal connectors are delicate, but if you treat it nicely it will work just fine.

Pros: Quick for transferring files, makes USB look like a snail. Works seamlessly with my CF cards full of digi-cam pics.

Cons: awkward plug-n-play, sometimes have to re-connect.

I bought this card and returned it in a matter of hours. It is very slow on any read operation, and I had several problems trying to write to the card using a reader that worked well on every other CF card I own. Save yourself trouble and get a Sandisk.

This is my second attempt at writing a review on this card. Let's just say that after getting a piece that actually recognized in my system (all very high end components) that I was NOT impressed with the speed compared to others I have tried. Good luck.

I read a couple of negative reviews about Memorex CompactFlash memory cards and was worried that one wouldn't work as well as a SanDisk card had been working in my Minolta Dimage S304 digital camera. There is no discernable difference. The Memorex 128 MB card is cheaper than the SanDisk (plus right now Memorex has a great rebate going). And the Memorex card comes in a neat little hard plastic case. I am under the impression that memory cards perform differently in various pieces of equipment; for my needs the Memorex product is perfectly fine.

I made trying to use this thing to get my pictures from my camera to the computer. I hate it. Not because it's inconvenient, which it is, but because it's incredibly unreliable. It rarely works, and when it does, it's only because I've babied it into working. it's an incredible hassle.

I thought this disk would be perfect for traveling and using in internet cafes accross Asia. Unfortunately, one requires an installation program on every PC you use it on, which is a bit of a pain, especially where most cafes won't allow this to be installed.
The disk is a great idea, but this "little" detail certainly isn't advertised clearly.

This is a simple way to get pictures from the camera to a PC. Next time I take my camera on vacation I don't plan on bringing my laptop to offload pictures. Carry this and software can be installed at friends, relatives, etc. to copy pictures. Saves battery life of camera as well. It's a simple easy solution. I am getting a second one for my grandson to use.