Dynex™ - External USB 2.0 Multiformat Memory Card Reader - Multi

The device works great, it is fast and it has transferred all my photos quickly and they are all coming out beautifully. My one problem with this card reader is that it feels like I need to force the card into the slot. It sounds and feels like it is scraping the card as I jam it in there. I wish the card fit into the card reader more like the card fits into my camera. I'll repeat though, the card reader works great and I haven't had a single problem. The design worries me, although I am sure its all in my head.

I'm terribly sorry, but there is absolutely NO REASON for the packaging of this product. It's encased in one of those plastic clamshells and appears to have an "easy open" window on the back (the kind you simply press in and open). The easy open window perforation does not work at all (except perhaps to provide a guide for where to cut with your scissors). I cut myself twice on this packaging trying to open it. There's a second clamshell plastic layer beyond the first and a third layer which holds the USB cable. By the time I got it open I was too exhausted to try it out. The next day, I realized I like the fact that it comes with a separate cable which is not attached to the device. Even though you can lose it pretty easily, it's at least an industry standard mini USB to regular USB. It's not always easy to figure out which hole to plug which cards into. There is a transparent warning label with red printing plastered over one side of the holes which is completely unreadable until you remove it and put it against a silver background. The warning label claims that cards should be inserted with the gold pins "face up" - but there's no indication of what "up" is. In fact, you'd think the side that says "Dynex" on the top is up, but SD cards need to be inserted with the gold pins "down" then. Despite the fact that the warning label says you should check the instruction sheet included in the package (if you haven't ripped the heck out of it slicing open the package), there is no indication of how to put the cards into the holes: only a diagram that shows the card types that go into the particular holes. Under Vista, I was presented with three new drives for the device and no indication of which drive is which type of card. There is also no way to know the card is being read properly once you plug the card in. Once it's working though, the product is nice. At first I didn't use the CD enclosed because frankly any hardware device like this that gives me a CD frightens me. The CD is one of those 3 inch buggers (easy to break while you are twisting and tearing at the packaging, bleeding from both hands, and swearing under your breath). There's a label on it that says "connect device before installing drivers" which is good - cause that is usually how I operate. Vista has no problems accessing this device even though I had not opened the disk. The disk has three manuals in PDF form (French, Spanish and English); Adobe reader 9.10, a directory called "Windows Driver" with a lonely setup.exe file in it, and the root directory has a "Run.exe" program. No readme or any other directions. If you Run the "run.exe" program, it gives you a pleasant menu to install a windows driver, view user manual, install adobe reader or exit. For fun, I installed the driver which popped up an installshield dialog. After pressing next, despite the fact that the reader was plugged in, the setup program asked that I "please plug in the reader..." I clicked "OK" and several new files were copied up and while the drivers for amrd.inf were updated via "devcon.exe" through the windows command line, the setup program appeared to simply hang. Once the command line window finally disappears, the installshield parent window appears to hang. I installed the driver cause I was curious as to whether or not the driver would install better icons or handling for the drives that were created in my computer folder. I, in fact, saw no marked improvement or effect from installing the driver at all except that it insisted on rebooting my computer. In short, I wouldn't buy this or recommend buying it unless you have your friendly geek squad member help you open the packaging.

I was going to return this thing immediately or run over it with my car. It would not work at all in Vista or OS X, it simply would not recognize an inserted card. Then I did something against all the instructions and warning stickers on the device, I inserted the card gold contacts down and everything worked fine. The paper instructions and a sticker on the device all say to insert SD cards gold contacts up, which I did, figuring that up was the side with the logo and the indicator lights. But oh no, apparently up is the side that seems like its the bottom. Whatever. It's a good device with a fast setup and quick downloading, once you figure out the right "up" that the robot or person built the thing with. I got a 2gb movie off the card in under 3 min.

This card reader works GREAT with Windows7 and my SmartMedia card from my Olympus Camera. If you have Windows7 and an older Olympus camera this is the reader to get. Don't waste time and money with the Olympus Reader it won't work with Windows7.

Recognized immediately on my Vista Ultimate x64. I highly recommend installing the drivers that come with the disk (not required) but it will update the icons with the drive letters and identify the type of card(s) each drive supports. No more guessing which of the 4 is for which type of card. I initially had purchased a 16GB memory stick pro duo from Amazon which failed to work with this reader, however after trying another reader and it failing I found out I was the victim of a fake 16GB Sony memory stick pro duo so be aware. Amazon sent me a new one which worked flawlessly with this reader. I sent a request to the company Dynex asking whether the 16GB stick was supported and received a good response within a day.

I have a nine year old Olympus camera that only uses Smart Media cards. There are also not that many card readers out there that run under Windows 7. I really had to look high and low before I found this reader. Most either read smartmedia cards, but don't run under Windows 7 or run under Wimdows 7, but don't read smartmedia cards.

I purchased this card reader after losing another similar product. This card reader was a piece of cake to start up, upload the drivers and has been a breeze to work with. I have had no issues whatsoever with it and would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a multi-port card reader. It's value-priced and taked up no space in my laptop bag. The only downside I see, is that the USB cord is only 2 feet long. You have to keep the reader close to your PC or laptop. Other than that, I love it!!!

I always wonder before I buy something like this if it will work with my computer. Well I have a new HP laptop with 64 bit Windows Vista, and this item worked right out of the box. Vista found the item, and had it set up in seconds. I have only used it for compact flash cards but so far so good.