cf card issue (v sorry, last resort)

[$4s]

hey everyone, i've been looking through the forums for a few hours for an answer to this but i've had no luck so i thought i'd ask. yesterday a mate gave me a 512mb lexar cf card, he got it when he bought his 404 off ebay, and gave it to me so i don't know what the condition is. So i tried putting it in and formatting it but it just kept flashing the FAT thing for ages, i think i ended up leaving it for 45 minutes or something and when I got back to it, it was still flashing. so i'm trying to figure out if there's a way i can fix it, or do you guys think it's just a dodgy card?

got a feeling it might just be a fucked card that the dude selling the 404 thought he could dump on someone else and make it look like a good deal.
thanks heaps for your help guys, appreciate it.

[kel]

I'd guess it's just the card. I use a lexar 1G card in the 404, works fine. But i've also had reliable cards crap out out of nowhere.

[$4s]

yeah i was starting to think that that might be the case. i read here that heaps of people were using the lexar and it worked fine which made me suspect that it might just be a fucked card. thanks for your help though man