Perhaps vfat filesystem support in linux (whatever kernel version you have, you didn't mention it) isn't quite up to prime time?
Unlikely, FAT is an incredibly simple FS, you could probably teach it to your mom. I've had similar problems when an FS needed to have fsck run. If the system knows it needs to be checked, but it can't figure how to check it, it will make it read-only until it's been checked.
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