I have two SD cards with my Minolta G500 digital camera -- a Fuji 256MB card and the Toshiba 16MB card that came with the camera.

Last weekend, I was nearing capacity on the 256MB card. Delete some pictures, right? When I was in playback mode, suddenly the camera started losing track of the numbering on the files and couldn't display any pictures (there were more than 300 in 3 megapixel mode). Then I lost playback altogether.

If I start the camera in REC mode (opening the face), it gives the error message "DON'T FORMAT" as in, don't format the SD card.

If I start in PLAY mode or switch to PLAY mode, it gives error message "01046 03837" over a blue background and shuts down.

Now, when I attempt to use another SD card (the Toshiba) I get the same error. Something has corrupted the firmware of the camera and how it handles SD cards, I suppose.

If I operate the camera without any card at all (using internal memory) it works fine.

The customer service agent at Konica Minolta USA (Doug) was not entirely familiar with this message, but was right that resetting factory settings does not reset the camera.

What I want to know is, is there a way to force a total reset of the camera by disconnecting the internal (secondary) power supply? And is that advisable? I can't believe I might have caused a repair issue simply by taking too many pictures.

I don't really care that much about the content of the SD cards (either one). Assuming neither is corrupted, I can always dump the contents to CD at the local drugstore. But I'm reluctant to format the card with the camera since it is explictly telling me not to, and miffed that Konica Minolta can't diagnose an error that's in their firmware but not in the manual.

Thanks in advance for any help!

I wouldn't think the firmware was corrupted; it seems unlikely.

I'd try yanking power, removing any button batteries if there are some, turning camera on, and leave it that way for several hours. Turn it off and back on several times. The idea is to completely drain power from the camera so it will reset the saved settings like date/time. Maybe leave it overnight.

I would guess a weird CMOS setting was the most likely culprit.

Yeah, that sounds like the ticket (completely resetting the camera) to avoid a trip to the repair shop...however there are no immediately apparent/user-servicable button batteries -- just a bunch of really tiny microscrews holding the case together.

I suppose it is possible to completely drain the rechargable battery by setting the camera to never close up/power off automatically and just leave it sitting open, but there is no guarantee that will drain the internal battery that keeps date/time and the firmware.

If I did take it to the repair shop, my guess is they'd flash new firmware onto the camera and that would be that. I was just wondering if I could do that myself or force the camera to reset without popping the case off.

Becktrader is right, there are no button batteries on a G400 or G500. I think the camera gets ALL its power from the rechargeable battery. The CMOS settings, date/time, and user settings are all held in an internal flash memory along with the firmware and any pictures you might have saved to internal memory. You can NEVER bankrupt this memory without access to the firmware, which is why Minolta wants you to send it to the repair shop.

If you connect the camera via USB to your PC WITHOUT an SD card in, do you have access to the firmware?

That is interesting that you said that...I just tried exactly that, connected the camera via USB without any SD card inserted. The camera connects to my Mac and I can "see" the contents of the memory -- the two photos I had stored in internal memory and a UNIX executable file that I assume is the firmware (it is a locked file). When I plugged up the camera, I was encouraged that it forced me to reset the time and date immediately.

However, as soon as I inserted an SD card and rebooted the camera, it still shows "DON'T FORMAT" in REC mode and "01046 03837" in PLAY mode. Still virtually useless.

Any other ideas before I throw in the towel and get it repaired??

If it's under warranty, get it repaired. If it's out of warranty, consider replacing it instead of paying to get it fixed - it might be money better spent than paying the repair fees.

You've already been without your camera now for 2-3 days at least; if you'd sent it in to K-M to get it repaired they'd already have it in their hands and you'd get it back 2-3 days sooner than you will now.

The camera is just over a year old...it's a $400 camera, I really didn't expect it to crap out over basically nothing like a Kodak EasyShare. I also would expect that an error like "DON'T FORMAT" that incapacitates the unit would be explained in the manual or at the very least on the K-M website.

The whole get-it-fixed-first and ask-questions-later mentality is crap. I want to know what happened to cause this error, if it is a defect in the K-M firmware itself, so that it doesn't happen again.

Thanks for attempting to help anyway...

It could be a firmware problem; a chip could have crapped out on the logic board, or a trace could be cracked. Who knows? Even if you send it to K-M they'll say something like "replaced main board". Did you buy the camera new? I.e., was it under the K-M warranty for the first year? If so, depending on how you bought it, you may have extra protection. I know that the American Express card doubles manufacturer's warranty up to a year, so in the second year, you pay for the repair and then AmEx reimburses the expense (which may be its own headache; you'd want to check with them before trying to invoke this). I think some Visa/Mastercards also work the same way. Just a thought.

>> The whole get-it-fixed-first and ask-questions-later mentality is crap. <<

Well, my guess is the failure has nothing to do with anything you did; it's something weird in the camera.

Basically, you have to find out the cost to repair and compare that to the cost of replacement. If the camera's under warranty that's a no-brainer. Otherwise I'd wonder. I'm sure K-M can give you a rough estimate (at least a minimum and maximum) on the phone.

Do check on the extended warranty that might come from a Gold or Platinum credit card. I try very hard to not pay cash on anything these days because of this, and tend to sort my purchases by whether or not I care about a warranty extension.

I just had this same error occur on my G400, but it only happened with one card. Doing exactly what the message says not to do fixed it.

I went to the camera setup menu, selected the SD card, and formatted the sucker...

Works fine now.

-Barrey

It sounds like you just had a corrupted FAT if formatting fixed it.

But, for future reference, these cameras have a hidden service menu that can be used for resets. I don't know if a reset would correct the errors these guys were getting or not (if it's a hardware issue, it probably won't help anything).

Make sure to try this at your own risk.

There are two different reset menu choices there. One clears everything (even the shutter actuations, date camera first used, etc.), and it probably clears out anything from EEPROM that is not supposed to be there.

Press and hold menu button (standard menu will appear in the display)

Press and hold shutter button

(at this point, both the menu button and shutter button are still held down)

Then (while continuing to hold the menu button and shutter button down throughout the sequence below):
2xTELE (press right zoom button twice)
1xWIDE (press left zoom button once)
(a blue information screen appears here)
TRASH (press trashcan icon button once)
PLAY (press upper left button on back of camera)
2xTELE (press right zoom button twice)
1xWIDE (press left zoom button once)

The developer menu will appear (you can release the shutter button and menu button now).

If you scroll through the choices, you'll find the reset choices. But, be careful that you DO NOT go into any of the AF calibration menus. One of them will start a calibration of the AF with no further warning. If you don't have a test target setup at the correct distance to the camera, it will mess up your AF very badly.

So, I'd suggest avoiding most of the menus there (even though they look tempting).

Hi,

I had the same problem with my SD-card on my DiMage 500: it didn't show any pictures anymore. I formatted my SD in my PC and copied DCIM from another card to the broken one. I still receveid the 'Don't format" error on my G500. I didn't want to loose 512 MB and after a while I found your information on the Net and everything works fine now.

Thanks a lot!

Bruno

i was gettin this error code i also did the opposite of what the camers said not to do and it works great again,,thanks for the info,,,

???

No, I got this:

Answer is : Thank you for your questions. After th information that was provided, unfortunatly I have to suggest that you call Konica Minolta Digital Support for this issue, (877) 462.4464.

do you have a uk number?

bump

I got the same message with my Dimage 400. I could not access my SD card anymore (neither in the camera, nor on my PC). I searched the net for possible solutions and this is how I found this forum.

I believe that if you don't have any photos to save from the card, then formatting it (even though I was also getting the message "Don't format") would make it work.
However, I had some photos that I wanted to save, so what finally worked for me was a free image recovery program I found on the net (Art Plus Digital Photo recovery 3.0, http://www.artplus.hr/adapps/eng/dpr.htm).
It recovered the photos.

After that I formatted the SD card in the camera and it worked fine after that.
I don't know if this program could recover the photos even after you format the card.

I hope this helps anyone in the same situation.
All the best.