Lei (lowrance) Card Reader And Windows Xp Problems

[aflineman]

I have a LEI (Lowrance) card reader (The new USB2 one) and I can't get

Mapcreate 6.3 to work with it. Windows keeps recognizing it as a

generic card reader. I have reinstalled the program (and drivers) many

times. The support line is closed for the Thanksgiving holiday and I

would like to get this thing working before Monday. I have an iFinder

H2O, that seems to work good, I just need to get this software/reader

to talk so I can download some detail maps.

 

Thanks in advance.

[+Airmapper]

I looked at the users online, looks like I'm the resident Lowrance guy this time of night.

 

Have you tried to send a map to the card yet? If it is recognizing the reader, (Maybe calling it E: drive) It might work anyway.

 

I'm not familiar with the new USB to 1, so I'm not going to be of much help. But hang in there, it's a real bother when your anxious to get your GPS going and can't get it to work. And I hate to say it but Lowrance is going to be closed for a while. (Been there; done that. )

 

Good luck, and just think of us here in the forums as your stand in Lowrance tech support.

[+PDOP's]

There's some discussion of this at the bottom of thread. You might try emailing Hoary if your in a hurry.

[aflineman]

Thanks all. I will try and call Lowrance on Monday. Hopefully I can get the time to call. If not, Tuesday should be free. I hate gettin' a new toy and not being able to use all of the functions. Oh well, outprocessing and moving is keeping me busy for now.

[+Airmapper]

It's worse than giving a kid something and forgetting the batteries. (You do have batteries for it?)

 

Good luck

[moishe]

I have the same problem except the reader I have is defective apparently. It worked once so far in a month. Everytime I plug it in Windows (XP) says it's a malfunctioning device. Of course, LEI gives us the crappiest reader in existance and forces us to use their branded reader. Pretty frustrating.

[+user13371]

I'm pretty sure I've posted some or all of this information before, but here it is again...

 

1) FIXING MOST PROBLEMS WITH THE CARD READER ON WIN 2000 AND XP:

 

When you install the drivers for Lowrance's card reader, the installer may put an extra and unnecessary drive on your system. Go to your system's "Add/Remove Programs" control panel and check for this item:

 

GENERIC USB MASS STORAGE DEVICE

 

Unless you are running some flavor of Windows 98, you DO NOT NEED this driver. Remove it from your system, and in most cases any problems you were having with the card reader will go away. Just make sure you KEEP the "USB 2.0 MMC/SD CARD READER" driver - on older versions it might just say "USB ..." instead of USB 2.0".

 

2) YOU DO NOT HAVE TO USE THE LEI CARD READER:

 

Well, yes you do, at least for a little while. When you first set up MapCreate, you do need the LEI card reader to REGISTER your SD cards. But once you register the cards, you can put the LEI card reader away and use ANY card reader you want.

 

I know a few other tricks and as soon as I get them written in a concise form I'll post. Since some of these tricks might be considered of hacking to violate the software license agreement, I'll have to be selective about what I post.

 

-LDR

Edited November 28, 2005 by lee_rimar

[moishe]

Thanks Lee, I'd be interested in finding out how to use other SD readers.

The problem I encountered with mine is that mapcreate always says my other SD reader is write protected, even when it's not.

[+user13371]

...problem I encountered with mine is that mapcreate always says my other SD reader is write protected, ...

- Did you check which drivers got loaded, as I mentioned before?

 

- In an earlier post you said XP says the card reader is defective as soon as you plug it in. That's not quite the same as MapCreate saying it's write protected. What are the EXACT error messages you're getting, at what step in the process?

[PCFrog]

Might be same prob I had at one time. Here what I posted before.

-----------------------------------------

I finally got through to tech support at Lowrace and found out the card reader while working was not working 100% correctly. here is a basic run down for those who might want to know.

 

In my computer the card reader showed up as a removable drive. The card reader also showed up in Mapcreate as well.

 

Here the catch -- while looking at the drive in my computer it should say "SD" and drive letter -- not removable drive.

 

How was this fixed -- the driver was removed from the system and then reinstalled. Removed the drive from USB port then reinserted it. Problem fixed

------------------------------------------

 

If you have not worked it out by now I hope this helps

[moishe]

here's the deal.

 

LEI reader says it's malfunctioned when I plug it in. I can't even install the drivers that came with it because it says the hardware is not a match. It did work once when I first got it. I was able to register the card at that time and transfer 2 maps.

 

Sandisk reader works perfectly as a regular reader.

When I try to save a map to the sandisk reader, MapCreate says it's write protected and never even gets to the point of extracting the map.

 

I called lowrance, they're sending another reader. I hope it works because I am absolutely fed up.

 

I've read lee rimar's other post and done everything there to try to make with work to no avail.

[+user13371]

here's the deal.

 

LEI reader says it's malfunctioned when I plug it in. I can't even install the drivers that came with it because it says the hardware is not a match. It did work once when I first got it. I was able to register the card at that time and transfer 2 maps.

 

Sandisk reader works perfectly as a regular reader.

When I try to save a map to the sandisk reader, MapCreate says it's write protected and never even gets to the point of extracting the map.

 

I called lowrance, they're sending another reader. I hope it works because I am absolutely fed up.

 

I've read lee rimar's other post and done everything there to try to make with work to no avail.

Okay, let's go back to square one. You can try this either with the card reader you have or the new one when you get it.

 

Without the card reader physically plugged in:

 

- Go to Add/Remove programs control panel and remove both the "Generic USB Mass Storage Driver" and the "USB MMC/SD Card Reader."

 

- Re-run the card reader's driver installation that's on the MapCreate CD.

 

- Go bck to your Add/Remove programs group and remove the "Generic Mass Storage" driver that the installer will incorrectly install. Leave the "USB Card Reader" driver though.

 

That little dance was to make sure you had a fresh/clean install of the correct drivers.

 

AFTER that, plug the card reader in and give the machine a moment to recognize it.

 

Good luck

[moishe]

already had tried that a couple of times... the LEI reader is so weird... it's flaky and I think it's broken. But since MapCreate let me register the sd card with the sandisk reader... I don't care. I hope the new LEI reader works as a backup.