Do SD card readers not work with 10.3?

Question

Level 3

610 points

Do SD card readers not work with 10.3?

I have an old G4 Power mac, and my kids have iMac G5s. We all run 10.3.9, and have SD card readers, and none of them work at all. Does Apple acknowledge that SD cards do not work with Macs, and/or was this fixed in 10.4? We are looking to replace our computers, and this is a deal breaker.

Quicksilver G4 867, Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Posted on Aug 30, 2007 4:04 PM

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Answer 1

eww

Level 9

53,052 points

Aug 30, 2007 6:14 PM in response to Urban Shocker

Does Apple acknowledge that SD cards do not work with Macs...?

No. Many Mac users can read SD cards just fine, including my daughter, who has a Powerbook G4 running OS 10.3.9. Using her card reader, my own Powerbook running 10.3.9 has no trouble reading her cards either.

What device(s) are your cards used in, and what sort(s) of files do you need to read from them? Have you tried reformatting a card in any of those devices and then trying to read it? Does Apple System Profiler or Disk Utility "see" the cards in the readers when they are connected? Are the readers all the same model, or different? How about the cards? How have you been dealing with your inability to read the cards up to now?

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Answer 2

Aug 30, 2007 8:45 PM in response to Urban Shocker

Are these USB card readers? I have one that is looks like a flash drive, but it has a slot for the SD card. It works with my 10.3 Mac (a Pismo PowerBook). I also have a USB printer that has an SD card slot, and that works too.

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Answer 3

Aug 31, 2007 8:30 AM in response to Urban Shocker

Hi, I think it all depends on the manufacturer of the card reader. What device are you using? Have you checked the manufacturer site for drivers? Although most USB-based devices are plug-and-play, not all of them are this way.

HTH,
--fifthwheel

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Answer 4

Aug 31, 2007 5:07 PM in response to Urban Shocker

Hi Mr Shocker

Your card reader should work ok, I use one on this iMac G3 without any problem.

It's a cheapo Taiwanese unit of unknown parentage.

Cheers Donna

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Answer 5

cornelius

Level 6

17,826 points

Aug 31, 2007 8:04 PM in response to Urban Shocker

Both Panther and Tiger would read Secure Digital cards, as well as other media. And all it takes is a cheap USB device. (Mine was so cheap it was free after rebate; and it still works.) My daughter used hers on her Panther installation.

Did your ever work on any of the computers in your family? I suspect that it has nothing to do with either Panther or Tiger that the cards are not being read. So I would search elsewhere for the problem.

Good luck.

cornelius

Message was edited by: cornelius

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Answer 6

Allan Jones

Level 9

78,296 points

Aug 31, 2007 9:39 PM in response to Urban Shocker

I'm assuming you're talking about USB card readers. Are all the cards the same make?

Are the card readers attached directly to the computers' logic board USB ports or to some form of hub. I found my MDD would not "see" a thumb drive attached to the spare USB port on an Apple keyboard, but would work if:

• Attached to the USB 1.1 port on the back of the computer
• Attached to the USB 2.0 PCI card I installed
• Attached to a wall-powered hub IF the hub didn't have too many devices attached.

"Mobile" USB hubs (usually sold for portable computers) draw their power from the computer's USB port and that port may not put out enough power to support all devices that can attached to the hub. Test by unloading USB peripherals to see if the reader "wakes up."

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Answer 7

Urban Shocker Author

Level 3

610 points

Sep 1, 2007 11:41 AM in response to Urban Shocker

Okay, I did a little more research, and here's what I have found.

(Yes, I'm talking about a USB card reader.)

On my ancient G4 Mac, the 2GB card never mounts. I can see it with Disk Utility, but Disk Utility usually offers to format it. When I do this, it attempts to format it as a 1GB card, and fails.

However, I found an old 16MB card, and it mounts every time.

My kids both have a reader and a 2GB card for their iMacs. They usually mount okay, but not always. Sometimes it takes a restart.

The 2GB cards are all a funky off-brand, "Adata." The 16MB card is a Canon.

Now I am wondering if it's the cheap cards, or the capacity of the cards. I remember reading at one time that some Macs don't want to see removable drives over 1GB. This may be the problem with my computer. I just ordered a 1GB PQI card, we'll see how that does when it arrives.

My mac has both USB 1.1 and 2.0 slots. Same results on either bus.

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Answer 8

sedaray

Level 1

8 points

Oct 1, 2007 5:50 PM in response to Urban Shocker

I have a cheap USB multi-card reader. It reads the 8M and 32M Smart Cards (SM or SmartMedia) fine.

The 64M cards (I have 3) are recognized by the computer, OS X (Panther) offers to initialize them, opens Disk Utility, but give me error -20 when I try to erase or partition in any format. I reformatted the cards in my Korg TrinityLE and my Zoom MRS-4B, they worked fine out of the package and work fine when reformatted, but won't mount in OS X. Neither of these two items as a direct USB conection, I must use a card reader.

So it's not 1G limit, there's something else. This is really holding me up as I can't transfer info from the 64M cards.

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Answer 9

Oct 2, 2007 12:08 PM in response to sedaray

I've never needed to reformat my thumb drives. R. Mickey, I think what happened to you is that the KORG has formatted them in a format that OS X can't completely read, or possibly the cards themselves are dying. Do you have to use those particular 64 Mb cards? I'd buy a new one by a brand-name manufacturer and try those.

HTH,
~FifthWheel

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Answer 10

Oct 8, 2007 5:22 PM in response to Urban Shocker

I have 3 relatively recent Macs. All 3 do not work correctly with my 2GB SD cards (one Lexar, the other SanDisk).

Both cards are 2GB. I format them in my camera (a new Canon PowerShot G9). When empty, they will mount. The OS gives their capacity as 1.8 GB. If I take pictures, and use less than 1 GB, the cards will mount properly, and I can transfer files just fine. But, if there are more than 1 GB of picture files, the card will not mount. In disk utilities, it recognizes the card, but will not mount it. Also, in disk utilities, the card's capacity is listed as 900+ MB, not the usual 1.8 (i.e. 2) GB

I use a Lexar card reader. I have also connected the camera to the Macs with the same poor result.

The cards work just fine on Windows XP.

As I have 2 cards from different manufacturers which exhibit the same problem on 3 machines, but work fine on Windows, I suspect that it a Mac OS problem (both 10.3 and 10.4).

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Answer 11

Oct 9, 2007 7:43 AM in response to Karl Ritch

Karl, which Lexar card reader do you use? I ask because I have a Lexar card reader which I had to install drivers for it to be recognized by the machine. It's a older device, a purple USB-1 CF reader. Anyhow, I bring that up to ask if you've checked out the Lexar site and installed their drivers.

I don't think that 10.3 wouldn't recognize SD cards specifically as they would appear to the OS as just another USB volume. However, what you said about the Disk Utility sticks out. Your machine can see only 900 Mb of the card; is this an internal restriction of Panther? I don't know, but my experience with flash drives and disk readers suggests that it's a card reader issue, so I'd look there first.

HTH,
~FifthWheel

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Answer 12

Oct 9, 2007 2:35 PM in response to FifthWheelAt80MPH

Thanks for the reply, FifthWheel.

Just to cover all my bases, I bought a new card reader (some off brand at WalMart - "Digital Concepts"). Now the 2 GB SD cards work fine on the Mac. I have used my previous Lexar card reader with xD and CF card on my Macs without any problem. (And the Lexar card reader works with Windows, even with the SD cards.)

My Lexar card reader is blue and silver, and is labeled "USB 2.0 Multi-Card Reader" (Part number: RW018 Rev D)

Anyway, a new $12 card reader seems to have fixed my problem. Now, how come my new camera doesn't take more artistically pleasing pictures than my previous camera? It couldn't be the guy behind the lens, could it?!?

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Answer 13

Oct 15, 2007 6:14 AM in response to Urban Shocker

Hehe. I'm glad to see things are working for ya, Karl.

Best,
~FifthWheel

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Answer 14

Nov 7, 2007 5:30 PM in response to Urban Shocker

Lexar admits most SD card readers, even their own, won't read larger capacity SD cards. See Lexar support page at: http://www.lexar.com/2gbsd/index.html I have a Lexarmedia USB 2.0 Multi-Card Reader, # RW018, and it won't work. Problem is not with Mac OS (any version), or your computer.

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