[Leica] M8 problems

[Howard Ritter]

When I turn my M8 on, the first thing I see is the message: “SD-Card full”. But it isn’t, not nearly. When I push the PLAY button, it tells me: “No valid image to play”. But there are images. (The card is read normally, and its images displayed, by the M240.) When I press the M8’s MENU button, the menu is displayed normally. But when I select Format SD-Card, it will not reformat the card—it doesn’t progress beyond the “Do you want to format the SD-Card?” screen when I push the Yes button. All that happens is the red light flashes rapidly. I have to remove the battery to get out.

Reformatting the same card in the M240 proceeds normally, but the situation is the same when it’s put back into the M8, and the M8 gives the same notices when I try the M240’s SD card in it.

When I try to install the current firmware update that’s been downloaded onto the SD card, again the M8 reports “SD-Card full”.

(By the way, all you M8 users: Contrary to Leica’s online instructions, the M8 firmware update file is NOT a .zip file, and does not need to be decompressed into a .upd file that gets put onto your SD card. It’s already a .upd file and only needs to be downloaded and transferred in its native state to your SD card. (Sorry if this is common knowledge that’s already been shared, but I haven’t updated my M8 in years.) The instructions for the M240 are different, and the update file for it is a .fw file that likewise isn’t a compressed file, or at least not one that needs decompressing by the user.)

Any solution short of sending it on a trip to NJ?

—howard