Sandisk 12 in 1 Card Reader

I looked for reviews on this reader and found some dated back in 2005. Many
gave it 5 stars, so it appeared to be an excellent product. But for some
reason, the specifications for the current product SDDR-89-A15 have never
been updated by many vendors that carry it, so the fact that it now supports
SDHC cards was a surprise when I found it on a peg at Best Buy. SDHC
compatibility was the "acid test" for a reader that is reasonably
up-to-date, so I bought it. Installation was very simple on my Windows ME
machine (I know, time to catch up with the world) and it works perfectly. I
have a set of photos, about 88MB, that it read into memory in 6.75 seconds,
for 13.04MB/sec transfer rate from a 2GB CF card. Not bad.

Now this reader has a pushbutton. There's a CDROM furnished with the reader
that contains what they call "Button Application" software. One might expect
that the pushbutton does something good and that this is necessary for it to
work correctly. Wrong. The software is a reasonably useful image management
program (I presume - - I never actually used it), and provides two
functions,"Transfer All Files" and "Use Photo Tools". Installation puts an
Icon on the desktop - - so much for needing the pushbutton. Also,
transferring any files to the computer automatically starts the software - -
sorry, pushbutton, you lose again. Okay, there's nothing wrong with all
that - - time marches on, and the pushbutton just got displaced in the
eagerness of the software programmer. Nothing lost, nothing gained - - wrong
again. After installing the software on my admittedly ancient machine, I ran
into a rash of hard lockups - - suddenly, although the cursor seems still
alive, it doesn't do anything when I click on stuff. Can't even ctl-alt-del
out of the condition. I uninstalled the pushbutton software and the computer
came back to its old, dependable self. Too bad - - I had hopes for that
programmer.

But the reader is still really terrific! You can hot plug and unplug the USB
connection (unplugging will get you a complaint message that you didn't use
the "eject" icon, but as long as all the slots were empty, who cares? A
yellow light says the reader is connected. Inserting media lights a green
light (one of four), and it stays lit even after executing the "eject"
procedure, but if the green isn't flashing, you can pull the media out
anyway - - it's safe - - the drive has been deleted. If you want to go back
with more pictures then, there's a problem since the drive letter for that
slot is gone. Here's where the USB hot unplug followed by hot plug feature
comes in. Unfortunately you get another bawling out message, but no matter.
Everything's fine and all four drive letters are again present and the new
shots can be transferred. To make all this easy, a short USB extension cable
for conveniently located hot plugging helps a lot. Have fun!

Chuck

On Sun, 24 Jun 2007 15:50:38 -0700, "Chuck Olson"
<chuckolson01@REMOVETHIScomcast.net> wrote:
: I looked for reviews on this reader and found some dated back in 2005. Many
: gave it 5 stars, so it appeared to be an excellent product. But for some
: reason, the specifications for the current product SDDR-89-A15 have never
: been updated by many vendors that carry it, so the fact that it now supports
: SDHC cards was a surprise when I found it on a peg at Best Buy. SDHC
: compatibility was the "acid test" for a reader that is reasonably
: up-to-date, so I bought it. Installation was very simple on my Windows ME
: machine (I know, time to catch up with the world) and it works perfectly. I
: have a set of photos, about 88MB, that it read into memory in 6.75 seconds,
: for 13.04MB/sec transfer rate from a 2GB CF card. Not bad.
:
: Now this reader has a pushbutton. There's a CDROM furnished with the reader
: that contains what they call "Button Application" software. One might expect
: that the pushbutton does something good and that this is necessary for it to
: work correctly. Wrong. The software is a reasonably useful image management
: program (I presume - - I never actually used it), and provides two
: functions,"Transfer All Files" and "Use Photo Tools". Installation puts an
: Icon on the desktop - - so much for needing the pushbutton. Also,
: transferring any files to the computer automatically starts the software - -
: sorry, pushbutton, you lose again. Okay, there's nothing wrong with all
: that - - time marches on, and the pushbutton just got displaced in the
: eagerness of the software programmer. Nothing lost, nothing gained - - wrong
: again. After installing the software on my admittedly ancient machine, I ran
: into a rash of hard lockups - - suddenly, although the cursor seems still
: alive, it doesn't do anything when I click on stuff. Can't even ctl-alt-del
: out of the condition. I uninstalled the pushbutton software and the computer
: came back to its old, dependable self. Too bad - - I had hopes for that
: programmer.

Possibly the function of the pushbutton is to clear the lockup caused by the
pushbutton software.

Bob

I had two of these.
The compact flash slot was defective in one of them.
The replacement just did not work.
You were lucky.

"Chuck Olson" <chuckolson01@REMOVETHIScomcast.net> wrote in message
news:9bGdnQX5YYz9aOPbnZ2dnUVZ_sapnZ2d@comcast.com. ..
>I looked for reviews on this reader and found some dated back in 2005. Many
> gave it 5 stars, so it appeared to be an excellent product. But for some
> reason, the specifications for the current product SDDR-89-A15 have never
> been updated by many vendors that carry it, so the fact that it now
> supports
> SDHC cards was a surprise when I found it on a peg at Best Buy. SDHC
> compatibility was the "acid test" for a reader that is reasonably
> up-to-date, so I bought it. Installation was very simple on my Windows ME
> machine (I know, time to catch up with the world) and it works perfectly.
> I
> have a set of photos, about 88MB, that it read into memory in 6.75
> seconds,
> for 13.04MB/sec transfer rate from a 2GB CF card. Not bad.
>
> Now this reader has a pushbutton. There's a CDROM furnished with the
> reader
> that contains what they call "Button Application" software. One might
> expect
> that the pushbutton does something good and that this is necessary for it
> to
> work correctly. Wrong. The software is a reasonably useful image
> management
> program (I presume - - I never actually used it), and provides two
> functions,"Transfer All Files" and "Use Photo Tools". Installation puts an
> Icon on the desktop - - so much for needing the pushbutton. Also,
> transferring any files to the computer automatically starts the
> software - -
> sorry, pushbutton, you lose again. Okay, there's nothing wrong with all
> that - - time marches on, and the pushbutton just got displaced in the
> eagerness of the software programmer. Nothing lost, nothing gained - -
> wrong
> again. After installing the software on my admittedly ancient machine, I
> ran
> into a rash of hard lockups - - suddenly, although the cursor seems still
> alive, it doesn't do anything when I click on stuff. Can't even
> ctl-alt-del
> out of the condition. I uninstalled the pushbutton software and the
> computer
> came back to its old, dependable self. Too bad - - I had hopes for that
> programmer.
>
> But the reader is still really terrific! You can hot plug and unplug the
> USB
> connection (unplugging will get you a complaint message that you didn't
> use
> the "eject" icon, but as long as all the slots were empty, who cares? A
> yellow light says the reader is connected. Inserting media lights a green
> light (one of four), and it stays lit even after executing the "eject"
> procedure, but if the green isn't flashing, you can pull the media out
> anyway - - it's safe - - the drive has been deleted. If you want to go
> back
> with more pictures then, there's a problem since the drive letter for that
> slot is gone. Here's where the USB hot unplug followed by hot plug feature
> comes in. Unfortunately you get another bawling out message, but no
> matter.
> Everything's fine and all four drive letters are again present and the new
> shots can be transferred. To make all this easy, a short USB extension
> cable
> for conveniently located hot plugging helps a lot. Have fun!
>
> Chuck
>
I have also got one of them, but have never bothered to install the
software, or used the button, and must say I have never found any need for
either of them.

It works just fine straight out of the box.

Roy G

"babaloo" <fac187@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:nkHfi.22090$C96.15005@newssvr23.news.prodigy. net...
>I had two of these.
> The compact flash slot was defective in one of them.
> The replacement just did not work.
> You were lucky.

My story is not quite the same but I'm on my second one. The first one had
a bad xD slot, the system would lock up anytime an xD card was put in. The
replacement unit has been working flawlessly.