When I turn on my hp 850 after a few minutes powerdown, I frequently get the message "card is unreadable". If I switch off/on after this message most of the time the camera start normal. Already formatted the SD card and reinserted it.
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I haven't seen this problem with my 850 (yet), but my best guess would be dirt or skin oils on the SD card contacts. I'm sure you've got more than one SD card (can't survive on that piddly little 16MB card that comes with the camera...) Have you seen the problem on more than one card? If so, there might be dirt or a flaky contact in the camera. I wouldn't stick anything in there, other than the SD cards or some compressed AIR (don't spray any kind of cleaners in there...)
I also noticed that there is a firmware update available at
The camera is brand new, I got it Dec 4. Today I received a 128 Mb SD Card and get the same problems. Tomorrow I'm going to call HP in The Netherlands where I live. I will keep you informed.
I have exactly the same problem. I have updated the cameras firmware to the latest version, bought a new SD card and cleaned the contacts. Still same problem. For some reason, the problem seems to be avoided when holding down the shutter butten when turning on the camera. What else should I do to solve this problem??
I am an HP engineer working at the Vancouver, WA site designing Inkjet Printers.
I bought a Photosmart 850 digital camera for Christmas. So did the engineer that sits right next to me.
When we went back to work after New Years, the engineer that sits right next to me told me he experienced the same problem with his 850. The camera would say "The Card is Locked" even though the card wasn't locked. He could not figure out how to get rid of the error message. He's gone through 2 cameras and is still having the problem.
I teased him about his problems until today, I experienced the same exact problem with my 850. After fooling around with the camera for a while, I finally got the error message to go away. I did it by taking the SD card out of the camera, setting the SD card intentionally to LOCK, putting the card back into the camera, getting the error message "Card is Locked" again, taking out the SD card, setting the SD card to UNLOCK, and putting the card back into the camera.
Hopefully if enough of us complain about the problem, they will find a permanent solution for it.
I don't have the problem anymore. I returned my camera on december 13 to my dealer. Still waiting for my money.
Due to the bad support of HP overhere in the Netherlands I decided to never buy a HP camera again.
I'm thinking of buying a Olympus C-730 Ultra Zoom or a Fuji FinePix S602 Zoom.
no it isn't, I have the same problem, only seems to work when the original card is in place, but wqhen I have any one of 3 other cards in, I get card unreadable 3 out of 4 times. It could be the power, but surely thats a camera fault if it only works with fully charged rechargable batteries ?
you could possibly try out the following steps on you HP 850 digital camera to resolve this issue. This is normally used to resolve such issues on the camera's. Even after this if your camera shows up with the same problem you could try out with the "firmware update" which will be available in the HP site or some other sites.
These steps are to be followed only if the camera has been running on battery power. otherwise you will have to opt for firmware update.The steps are mentioned below.
Steps
1) Turn off the digital Camera
2) Remove the Compact flash card or the Secure Digital card if it has been inserted.
3) Turn on the digital camera and switch the live LCD at the back of the camera "ON".
4) open the battery door and remove the batteries while the camera is turned on.
5) Reinsert the batteries after 5-10 minutes.
6) The camera should prompt you for a date and time. if it does then the quick reset has been done successfully. otherwise please try out the following steps.
1) Remove any of the cards that is inserted in the camera
2) Remove the batteries and leave the camera in this state for 24 hours.
3) Reinsert the batteries after 24 hours.
4) The camera should prompt you for the date and time.
After all this steps have been followed you could try out with the normal procedures on your camera.
NOTE : Please do not depress the "SHUTTER" button during the entire process.
I guess I'm late to the party here but I just had this problem appear after owning the camera for 1.5 years.
Here are the actions I've taken: 1) Downloaded the latest firmware 2) Used the camera while plugged into my AC adapter 3) Turned the camera on while holding down the shutter button 4) Taken out the batteries - left them out - then reinstalled them with the memory card out
I STILL get the "card is locked" message. I have three memory cards: one has never locked, one sometimes works and sometimes locks, one is now always locked.
Any more recent suggestions to fix this problem yet?
Hi,I have just bought a 850. The first SD-card inserted responded fine, until the second pic was taken. Then the card was reported "unreadable".Another card (Kingston 256MB) works fine.To switch the cam on, I had to turn it on, instantly turn it off and on again, then it would start and work fine. Fortunately, the dealer replaced it immedeately.Anyhow, this camera takes good pictures, I hope not to have more trouble with it.Does anyone know about problems related to the size of the memory-cards? The instruction booklet was printed (or edited) in 2002 and says "128MB", this was state of the art then, but today you can get them up to 1 Giga.
Apparently, there is a quality issue with many cards (smaller than 256 MB) that are manufactured in China or Taiwan. This unfortunately goes across many different brands.
This being said, there is typically better quality controls on cards 256 and larger manufactured in these countries.
Exception: Cards manufactured in Japan are usually flawless. The code on the back of the card is indicative of the batch.
nn9nn999999 and 9999nn9999n are typically Japanese made and work well in many different devices. Of course, no retailer will let you rummage through their stock to find the right code so the best practice is to look at cards 256 MB or larger or stick to brands like Panasonic, Toshiba, and SimpleTech which are typically manufactured in Japan.
I have owned an HP 850 since November of 2002. The card unreadable error has pagued me since day one. HP replaced the camera within the first 30 days and the replacement trurned out to be worse than the original!
Perhpas the previous post has about memory card size has some validity to it, but it's quite frustrating getting the card unreadable error.
I have also kept the camera updated with the latest firmware.
It's now my wife's camera. Between the shutter delay and the card unreadble errors, it was too much for me to bear. I have bought an Canon EOS Rebel digital and given the HP 850 to my wife.
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