SD card problems

[PJM3]

I am having trouble with my sandisk 128mb card. For no apparent reason I suddenly get three storage cards showing up when I only have one. I cleared it before by using storage tools. It has now again anyone got any ideas? 3970. Socket bluetooth. Op sys 2.10

[DavidW]

Does a soft reset cure the problem? It sounds like the SD memory driver has somehow got itself in a knot.



If a soft reset doesn't help, then it's time to think again. There are some bad batches of Sandisk cards out there, but I didn't think that problem affected 128MB cards. Likewise, Sandisk cards can be slower than other brands, but that shouldn't cause this problem.







David

[Dave]

I've seen this on a PC before, but not a Pocket PC. Usually it's a driver issue.

[PJM3]

What driver? The card?

[DavidW]

I think Dave is suggesting that when problems like this are seen on a desktop PC, it's down to problems with the drivers for the card reader.



On your Pocket PC, the drivers for the SD card slot are in ROM. My suggestion to soft reset is equivalent to rebooting your Pocket PC and I'd try that before anything else.





On a 3900 series, you soft reset by poking the hole on the bottom of your iPAQ to the right of the sync port with your stylus. You'll see a red and white splash screen and hear a 'ding dong' noise as it restarts.



If a soft reset doesn't get you back in business, post again and it's then a case of looking at other possibilities.







David

[PJM3]

I have tried that. It did clear the 'phantom' cards. I tried to delete the map and reload. Although explore shows the card to be empty it still has 79mb of data on it. I am waiting for my authorisation code for 'Storage tools' and I will try formatting and start again.

[DavidW]

You describe FAT corruption - hence a need to reformat the card.



If this happens again, it sounds as if you may have a faulty SD card, in which case I'd contact Sandisk for a replacement. I had only heard of the bad Sandisk card issue affecting mainly 256MB cards and some 64MB card, but that doesn't mean there can't be a bad 128MB card.



However, interrupting a write operation, for example, by ejecting a card, a soft reset, stopping a StorageTools defragmentation without pressing the Stop button and waiting until it cancels, or by an application on your Pocket PC crashing can also cause FAT corruption.









David

[PJM3]

Thanks. I suspect it must be the card. I will contact Sandisk.

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