Is Sandisk Japanese for headache? (Sandisk Imagemate sddr31)

Member Name: Blunderpants

Product:	Sandisk Imagemate sddr31
Date:	08/10/03 (454 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Extra storage capacity, no moving parts!

Disadvantages: when you have problems they are usually big ones

It's supposed to be a compact flash card reader, particularly useful in conjunction with a digital camera.

I wish I had never got one.

In theory the idea was fine, digital cameras mostly use a removeable storage media either a memory stick or a flash card.
You take a picture, the image is written to the card. You then take the card out of the camera, plug it in to your card reader, and start viewing and editing your images on your PC. OK you can link the camera direct to the PC and read the images from there but, I was told, "you don't want to do that ...it will take masses of battery power that will"!!!.

Why choose Sandisk. I didn't really it was bundled with the camera, and the camera was too good an offer to turn down. To look at it is not really much. It is smaller than your average PC mouse (but it is a rat of a device), with a short cable finished with a USB connector. This was supposed to be an advantage; connecting via USB would be a lot faster and trouble free compared to a serial connection.

With the reader you get a CD rom with the software for both Mac and PC, and an instruction book. If you have a wonky table in your house you can use the instruction book to pack under the offending leg, or if you are feeling energetic, get up and throw it straight in the bin. Information about the product, how it works, hints and tips, specifcations etc, none of these are in the booklet. You get told how to connect it and that's it. It really is not much use at all.
The only information that is valid is the fact that you need to install the software before you plug the device into your PC. Eight languages and 75 pages to tell you something they could have printed on the front of the CD.

I installed the software, easy enough, then plugged the device into the USB port, windows located it, checked for drivers, software etc., and that was it, installed (or was it?).

I plugged a card in
to the reader with some test images on it, expecting a nice window to open up or image program to open. Nothing. A little icon appears in your systray (next to the clock). You can select a couple of options, none of them allows you to see whats on the card. One of them very nicely formats the card for you i.e., bye-bye images.

It took me a good while to figure out that the device is installed on your computer as a removable drive.
I didn't know that, the book didn't tell you that.
If you are on of the lucky ones, then after following the above steps your imagemate will work like a dream, and you will transfer files from your camera card to PC, effortlessly…..

Unlike me,
So I click on the drive icon (installed as drive F on my machine) and the hourglass comes...... but does not go away - dead. Eventually I get the blue screen of 'computer about to crash'.

However many times I tried, I could not read the card.
A two page technical support document I got emailed from Sandisk did not solve the problem - they finally said it was a power problem with the computer, but offered no solution for this.

I have spent hours and hours trawling message boards and help groups, finding and trying alternative fixes for the problem - without really knowing what the problem actually was.
I actually found out that the device does not work at all with certain PC's, there are some that will just not be able to operate with it plugged in!!.

The solution I eventually found was to buy a self powered USB hub. The PC alone only has enough USB power to mount the card reader on the PC, but no more power to read the contents of the card.
The hub plugs into a USB port and has 4 USB ports that you can then plug in to, but it has its own 6 volt power source so no power shortages. Another plus of using the hub is that you can plug it into your PC USB port, and then sit the hub on the desk where it’s
handy, saving you continually getting behind the machine to plug the card reader in the back.

I have read many reports on the web from people ecstatic with their Imagemate, and as many from equally disgruntled and frustrated people.

My advice, buy a Jessops own brand dual reader, cheaper, better, they provide more help and your hair will stay on your head.

BP

Summary: