Sony Memory Stick Error - help?

I’ve got a Sony Cybershot Digital Camera and am still using the measly 32mb memory stick that came with it. I’ve had them about two years now and suddenly I’m getting ‘memory stick error’ whenever I turn on the camera, which of course serves to prevent me from taking any pictures.

The troubleshooting guide suggets that either my memory stick is incorrectly inserted (it’s not), incorrectly formatted (nope, checked that) or the memory stick is ‘dirty’.

The stick has not left the inside of the camera since I first inserted it. It came correctly formatted and worked fine for two years and upon checking the options it seems I am unable to re-format it in any way. The camera has not been in excessive use, in fact it is probably only used to take 4-5 pictures a month and maybe a few short video shots per year.

I am left to come to the conclusion that the stick must, indeed, be dirty. Though I’m not sure how that could happen from inside the camera - to an extent that would stop the stick working. Plus when I took it out for some serious CSI: Buckler’s Camera episodes, it didn’t even look dusty, let alone dirty (yes I am aware it will probably be mini-dirt that I am hardly able to see).

Does anyone have
a) any ideas about what ELSE could possibly be the problem?
b)if not, any ideas about how I can go about cleaning the wretched thing?

Do I really have to go out an buy a whole new memory stick? [/cheapskate]

Have you pulled it out and looked at it? It could have gotten a little moisture and corroded the connector. WAG.

I had an odd error once (I have a DSC-F717, although my DSC-F828 arrives Tuesday) with a memory stick. I could take pics, but when I tried to download them, the software would not recognize there was a stick in the camera.

My friend has a memory stick port on his lap top. He took a good memory stick and copied what files were there. Then he took the bad memory stick and reformatted it, and copied the good files from the other stick.

That did the trick.

In the future dirty usualy means the contacts are slightly oxidized, like a dull penny. To clean contacts on any eletronic cards, use a clean pencil eraser with gentil pressure only.