yes i mean empty but for the FAT. if you put a fresh new card( or the same card with everything having been deleted using the card reader and laptop) in the device and try to write the image to it over USB what happens?
I should make this clear- i have no knowledge of linux or linux OSs AT ALL
i have enough understanding of the language to be able to follow some conversations. for instance I assume when you wrote "dd" earlier that you meant drag and drop but you might have meant something else.
Im not so concerned over the whole card image thing (how often would someone do that really. I would have put the card in the laptop to do something like that out of habit) as I am about the other on device items not working. did you try with items in the internal memory or only in the SD? can you move a file from device to SD and back?
what if you format the card with the device?
do you have a different card to try?