owbist, I agree about saving the camera batteries and that is another reason I have never connected any of my cameras to the computer for downloading photos. Besides the chance of a low battery durning transfer can cause big problems! The advise I have always gone by is to have fresh (or recharged) batteries when deleting or formatting cards in the camera. I have never had a problem with it eating to much power from the batteries doing it this way. I do understand that the memory card is basically a storage device, but the way each camera deletes/formats can be unique in the way it performs this procedure and therefore should be done in the camera which took the photos. Here is a little quote I found at one of the photography forums: "The "rules" are Only format your card in the camera that will use the card. Only delete your pics in the camera. Remember to observe the handling protocol with regard to static and your card and never touch the contacts. Some folk will tell you that they do not follow these "rules" and have not had any problems. Some folk drink and drive and have not been caught, YET." Just some food for thought from some who takes 600-800 photos per week as a track photographer ;o)

If your situation is that you have one particular kind of card you use a lot -- and want uploaded to your computer a lot -- strongly advise spending $20.00 for dedicated reader for that type of card with USB2 connection. I suspect you may find it much more convenient and probably a lot faster reading/writing also. Most mfg use these multi-reader things as a marketing ploy to make people think they're getting lots of extra value by buying their box. In fact, they slapped the cheapest, slowest pieces of dung they could find into those boxes that still allowed them to advertise "multi-media reading kiosk built-in!" They're typically very slow and very troublesome. HP is especially famous for this, but they all do it. I have little doubt that's what you've got.

A separate card reader that plugs into USB would be a good test actually. You can get them for cheap on Amazon, Newegg, and Ebay. [ If you're really thinking about buying another computer, I was going to say you might want to wait for Windows 10, as it will no doubt be an improvement over the confusing interface of Win 8. (The version name of Windows 9 is going to be skipped) But that is reportedly not going to be released until late 2015 . So I'd make sure I was at least getting a free upgrade to Win 10 when it arrives. ]

With all the after Thanksgiving sales going on in the states (if that's where you are)I would check your local fliers for better deals. Keep the specs for that one and see if you can find another (Toshiba, HP, Acer) with same or better specs for less money