My Evening With Lexar

[Joseph Tainter]

Along with the starkistdee I bought a Lexar 1 GB 40X compact card, which 
comes with its own USB reader. Therein lies a tale.

A slip in the box says to install Image Rescue from the included cd. No 
cd in the box. The web site says to install the driver from the cd. 
Again, no driver cd. Count 1 against Lexar.

I called technical support, but was told to leave a message and they 
would call me back. For me, call-back support is no support. I am hard 
to reach by telephone, and if they could reach me I would not be at my 
home computer. I would rather wait on line. Count 2 against Lexar.

The recorded message said to try online live support. Naturally it 
doesn't work. Count 3 against Lexar.

Rummaging online I found the driver and downloaded it. The instructions 
on how to do this were incomplete. Count 4 against Lexar.

This morning I got an e-mail from "Prasanth" at Lexar. He wrote 
"Herewith I am giving weblink from where you can download the image 
rescue software." Support is now in India. (I learned from B&H that 
Image Rescue is on the card, not on a cd.) Count 5 against Lexar.

Prasanth answered only one of my questions. Count 6 against Lexar.

I use Windows 98SE, and have had to come up with some work-arounds to 
read USB drives (like the Memorex Thumbdrive). Despite all this, I got 
my first image from the Lexar CF into the computer last night.

Even for a computer company, Lexar's performance is pretty bad. They are 
clearly pushing product out the door with no quality control. After 
dropping $300 on this card, I can only hope that their manufacturing is 
okay.

Joe