2GB MiniSD Card issues [Archive]

andrewwardlaw

18-11-2006, 03:31 PM

Hi, I recently bought a 2GB MiniSD card for my Treo750v. When I put it into the system it worked fine, I installed some programs and put some music on. Then I left the phone alone for a while and the automatic keylock came on. When I returned to the phone and activated it from keylock the sound that is played when removing the card was heard and it reported that there was no card installed when there clearly was. To return the card to working order i had to remove and re-insert it. After that it was fine until keylock came back on and the same thing happened again!

Anyone got any ideas on why this is doing what it is doing!

Point to note, the card works perfectly in an HP device running WM5 and my Digital Camera!

Jim Ill

18-11-2006, 04:48 PM

I am starting to think this is a "problem" with the Treo because mine does the same with a 512mb card. Sometimes it wont be "seen" by the PDA but not a problem when put in my other pda.......

Jim

magxs

19-11-2006, 01:05 PM

I get the same thing, also with a 2 gig card. But it happens only every other day or so. Still very annoying. Have no clue why this is happening.

durian

19-11-2006, 06:25 PM

I had the same trouble, too. But the trouble has already disappeared by replacement of 2GB mini SD to 1GB mini SD.
Remainning problem is that Spb pocket plus still cannot get application icons on storage card.

magxs

19-11-2006, 11:57 PM

Went to a Vodafone store today and told them about the issue. They said it is a known issue and was a problem on a couple devices. They said if I would bring the box and invoice, they would exchange the device. Will do that in the next few days. Hope that solves it.

terryrocks

20-11-2006, 12:48 AM

I have the same problem with my 512mb card and my 2Gig card. But I am in the U.S. and cant bring it in to Vodafone. Does anyone know what else can be done?

jonolim

20-11-2006, 01:03 AM

I should've did some homework and checked this forum before jumping on my 2GB which I bought 3 days ago. 'doh... I have the same issue here... except in the midst of playing with it, inserting and removing etc... all the data got corrupted. I have to figure out how to reformat the whole card.

Hopefully, there's a software fix later.

andrewwardlaw

21-11-2006, 11:08 PM

Thanks guys n gals for ur help!

magxs I might have to do the same!!!

Oh bum, silly silly smartphones! I just want something that works!

fredkf

22-11-2006, 11:34 AM

I've also been having problems with my Treo 750v and the miniSD card (2GB SanDisk Ultra II).

When I insert the card, the Treo sees it and can run programs that are installed on it. When I return the Treo after it has been off for a while the card is no longer recognised and the memory manager claims that no storage card is installed. At this point all I can do is either take the card out and reinsert it, or otherwise to a soft reset. The time it takes for the Treo to loose its connection to the card varies; sometimes I can turn it on after a few minutes and the card is gone, sometimes it still works after a couple of hours.

When I came across this discussion yesterday, I phoned up Vodafone and reported my issue. According to the customer service rep, this is not on their list of known issues but he agreed to an exchange anyway. I'll get the new device today. I hope that'll fix it, but by now have my doubts.

Someone else suggested formatting the SD card, citing issues with FAT16 vs FAT32. I might try that if the new Treo still suffers the same issue.

In another thread on this topic, someone reported that such an issue was observed on some other PPC device and was fixed by a ROM upgrade. I emailed Palm about it. Palm eventually got back to me today saying:

This may occur only with cards that are not Palm branded. If possible please try to use a Palm card to test it.

Either that's a lame excuse, or they're trying to force people into buying their overpriced own branded accessories by making their hardware incompatible with the industry standard. Unless SanDisk don't know how to make miniSD cards...

I guess my next step - after the reformatting - will be to throw £60 at a Palm branded storage card; I don't expect that would work any better than my current card, but at least then Palm can't argue that I'm using "unsupported hardware".

magxs

22-11-2006, 04:58 PM

I exchanged my Treo yesterday at a different Vodafone store. The people there didn't know anything about SD card issues either, but they exchanged it anyway. Have been running the new device for about 24 hrs now and no issues, yet. But even on the first device, the problems only started later and even then it wasn't an everyday occurrence. So, I will need to watch it a bit longer.

yannick

23-11-2006, 11:54 PM

Have you tried loading the Cingular ROM (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=280500) and see if it fixes this problem?

magxs

24-11-2006, 01:01 PM

After two full days with my new Treo, the SD card was lost again over night. So, it doesn't seem to be an issue that just a few devices were affected by. Too bad....

I didn't try any other ROMs yet.

bsuccess1

25-11-2006, 12:52 AM

I have the Cingular ROM, and have the same exact problem.

promexx

25-11-2006, 11:53 PM

hi,

i am new to this board and hope you dont mind my bad english. i am from germany and proud owner of a treo 750v :)

and i tell you what: i am so glad i am not alone with the storage card problem.

it was nearly making me mad.

now i know that there are a lot of other people with the same problem. that may not solve it but gives me a better feeling an hope for an update which solves that.

PS: i use a 1gb sandisk

andrewwardlaw

10-12-2006, 01:56 PM

:) I bought another MiniSD card the other day, a 512Mb Kingston one, and so far so good, it works well (about 5 days now) and has not been "lost" so far! Not sure if it's the size of card or the make or what but I will keep investigating this!

Hope you resolve your issues!!

A

magxs

10-12-2006, 10:14 PM

What kind of card did you have issues with?

I get the feeling the this might be related to specific cards. To find out: please everybody state which card you are using and if you have problems.

I'm using Sandisk Ultra II 2GB and it's dropping out.

Thanks

promexx

10-12-2006, 10:45 PM

andrewwardlaw

10-12-2006, 11:44 PM

Mine was a generic 2GB card bought on EBAY :p but the one that is working now is a Kingston 512MB card. The Generic 2GB works perfectly in my Digital camera. There are no Identifying marks on the 2GB card sadly so Cannot say for sure who makes it!

fredkf

11-12-2006, 10:53 AM

I'm also using a SanDisk Ultra II 2GB, and it's getting dropped regularly.

magxs

11-12-2006, 01:09 PM

Sounds like SanDisk is the one to blame.

But would be good to have more reports before we all go out buying new cards. Keep em coming...

andrewwardlaw

11-12-2006, 01:55 PM

Sounds like SanDisk is the one to blame.

But would be good to have more reports before we all go out buying new cards. Keep em coming...
Indeed ur right magxs, I have a feeling that most generic cards are actually made by SanDisk but I might be wrong (someone correct me if I am). I have e-mail the palm support people but as of now I am still awaiting a reply :(

mikechadwick

11-12-2006, 01:56 PM

Sounds like SanDisk is the one to blame.

But would be good to have more reports before we all go out buying new cards. Keep em coming...

i've got a generic 2gb card - same problems. i've mailed palm support - waiting for an answer.

Rutra87

11-12-2006, 02:45 PM

I have a Patriot 2gb card, and i have the same issue.

It only happens after the treo goes to sleep. I had windows media player repeating a playlist for 8 hours on speakerphone and all those songs are on the card. It seems like a power saving feature gone wrong.

mackangus

11-12-2006, 05:16 PM

Hi all,

Got my 750 a week ago, with a SanDisk (ordinary) 1Gb ~ no issue so far.

Just to cause confusion though, I was having exactly this problem with the same card in my Wizard (branded an O2 XDA Mini S, but currently the ROM tells me its a QTEK 9100). Belated thanks to machinagod et al for that little trick!

fredkf

11-12-2006, 05:53 PM

I emailed Palm Support on this issue a few weeks ago. They responded with the question whether I'd be able to try a Palm branded card in my Treo to see if that would resolve the issue.

As I don't have access to one, I didn't do this; but now I'm wondering whether it could in fact be an issue with specific SD cards and whether I should part with my money on Palm card - after all, they are about 40% more expensive...

[cynic mode on]
Could this be an attempt by Palm to force customers into buying branded accessories?
[cynic mode off]

andrewwardlaw

11-12-2006, 06:01 PM

andrewwardlaw

11-12-2006, 06:03 PM

mackangus

12-12-2006, 08:53 PM

andrewwardlaw

13-12-2006, 01:43 PM

Andrew,

If this is a Palm issue, how can it affect the HTC Wizard? If you look at the various device threads (I have a Wizard and a Tornado) both have been known to suffer from the same problem.

This isn't Palm, its buddy Bill G over at MS...

Cheers

Angus
I was only saying that the Palm phone drones were told to tell us to buy the palm branded cards, not that it was exaclty a "Palm" specific issue. It is obviously a software thing but under whos remit does the fixes and patches come?>?????

Rutra87

13-12-2006, 02:16 PM

I doubt its a windows mobile issue. A friend of mine has the Samsung i730 and his card never dissapears. Of course he has an SD, but will Mini SD really confuse the OS that much? Also the fact that another HTC product has the same problem only leads me to further believe that Palm is at fault here.

mikechadwick

13-12-2006, 04:12 PM

here's a reply from Palm technical support:
"Thank you for contacting Palm Technical Support.
It´s an isolated problem."
so apparently this is not a common issue???

fredkf

13-12-2006, 04:46 PM

"Thank you for contacting Palm Technical Support.
It´s an isolated problem."

:eek:

I'm paraphrasing: "Yup, you got a problem, but you're the only one so stuff you."

Is that it? That's their entire response? A bit on the terse side, I'd have thought. I'd expect at least a suggestion to resolve the issue.

mikechadwick

14-12-2006, 07:23 AM

:eek:

I'm paraphrasing: "Yup, you got a problem, but you're the only one so stuff you."

Is that it? That's their entire response? A bit on the terse side, I'd have thought. I'd expect at least a suggestion to resolve the issue.

that was the whole response (by email) - oh, and a reminder to register the 750V.

fredkf

14-12-2006, 11:08 AM

Well, I decided to take the plunge and follow Palm's advice to get one of their own SD cards. Fingers crossed...

At least, if that one fails too they can't shift the blame to someone else. Well, they probably can, but I'd like to stay optimistic.

patmannyc

14-12-2006, 03:16 PM

Definitely a WM issue. You cannot have ANYTHING trying to access the card when the phone is asleep. NOTHING. This is why I recommend leaving IE cache on the device, ringtones, EMAIL ATTACHMENTS (very important IMO), today plugins, etc. And if Media player is running when the phone goes to sleep, playing songs off the card, you will get these issues also. Set the phone's power settings to turn backlight off, but NOT power off at all. Then change it when you are done.

That being said, I am very surprised that you cannot format the card. Doesn't make sense

Rutra87

14-12-2006, 11:25 PM

Pat, thats just the thing. While playing music when the phone sleeps the music keeps playing just fine. I've been playing music on my treo everynight for hours at a time and never had an issue. When i turn windows media player off, and the phone sleeps then the issue appears again.

patmannyc

15-12-2006, 06:54 AM

It may be because since Media Player is running, your phone really isn't SLEEPING, the screen is just off. So the connection between card and phone is never lost. When your phone does sleep, you're losing your card and something is looking for it, freezing the device. I have no idea what that is, obviously I do not know whats on your device, but try and figure out what it could be.

CRP

16-12-2006, 11:04 AM

I have tried two different cards on the Treo 750v. A noname 2GB I bought on eBay has the unmounting problem, i.e. it unmounts itself whenever Treo goes to sleep and needs to be reinserted to remount. I then tried an AData 1GB card, and tried to insert, put to sleep and reawaken the treo a few times, and it seems to work flawlessly.
So either WM has problems with the unbranded card, or it has problems with 2GB cards.
I know this doesn't help much, but hopefully it is a piece of info which might help solving this damn problem ;)

georgedorn

16-12-2006, 01:41 PM

I have tried two different cards on the Treo 750v.
So either WM has problems with the unbranded card, or it has problems with 2GB cards.

same here: a 1gb card works fine, a 2gb card is not recognized anymore, sometimes after a few minutes, sometimes after hours. it' s a 2gb card issue. i' ll try an original palm 2gb card next week. if the palm card works fine it is an 2gb unbranded card issue :-)

CRP

17-12-2006, 09:19 AM

I forgot to add that I tried those same 1GB and 2GB cards on one of those square-screen HP phones, and both worked flawlessly...

Rutra87

19-12-2006, 11:27 PM

Any updates?

georgedorn

20-12-2006, 12:24 PM

Yesterday I got my 2GB miniSD card original from Palm. This card is working fine! No issues as with unbranded 2GB cards.
The card is available at the Palm webstore. If you register your Treo online you get a welcome email with a 30% discount to your first order at the webstore. So you can buy it to an affordable price. Nevertheless it's a shame that SanDisk 2GB cards are not working fine on the Treo. Don' t know why, seems that Palm wants to force their own 2 GB cards.

etriess

21-12-2006, 09:37 AM

I have a 1gb IO-data card, been using it for 3 weeks haven't had an issue yet, sounds like a 2gb problem.

terryrocks

21-12-2006, 09:48 AM

I have a 512mb Ritek card and a 2GB no named brand (got it off of ebay) and both are experiencing the same problem. I went ahead and ordered the 1GB palm card. I hope that resolves the issue - though if it does it will piss me off that i had to go through three cards to get it to work

terryrocks

22-12-2006, 01:30 PM

I went ahead and bought a 1GB card from Palm and so far it's working with no problems. However, I don't think this issue is related to the capacity of the card but that it's related to the card itself

terryrocks

22-12-2006, 01:58 PM

omg it looks like i spoke to soon.
I just tried my PDA and the storage card programs are gone again until i take teh card out and put it back in.

terryrocks

22-12-2006, 02:01 PM

Fredk, what email address at Palm did you email for support?

Rutra87

27-12-2006, 04:11 AM

Terry, thanks for that bit of news..I hope Palm can give another answer now that we have tried their card.

CRP

27-12-2006, 06:04 PM

Does anyone know if there is some sort of mount utility like the omonimous command in unix? It might be interesting to know if the "disappeared" sd card can be remounted via software instead of opening lid, extracting card, reinserting, closing lid, which can be annoying and in the long therm damage the lid

l44wsn

27-12-2006, 07:43 PM

mikechadwick

28-12-2006, 08:24 AM

I have the same problem as everybody else which is that the SD Card socket seems to go to sleep if it is not used for a prolonged period of time..

The way I have got around this is by using Resko Explorer and opening a folder on the card, This will keep the Treo's connection to the card alive and stop the unit rom letting the card socket go to sleep..

this is interesting - i've just noticed that i've had my 2mb card with TomTom installed since saturday and I haven't lost the connection when the phone's gone to sleep - over 5 days. Looks like l44wsn is on to something except you don't need Resco Explorer.

CRP

28-12-2006, 10:41 AM

This does not work here. Here's what I did:

- make sure card is mounted and accessible
- open resco explorer
- enter a folder on the storage card
- switch to today screen, resco explorer is still open in background in the storage card folder
- push red button to send treo to sleep

when i turn it on again, after a few seconds i hear the card unmounting sound. if i now go to resco explorer, i can still see the storage card folder, but only for a few seconds. then the application freezes for a few instants and the storage card folder disappears...

CRP

28-12-2006, 11:00 AM

i made some further experiments, entering applications that access the storage card, letting the treo go to sleep and then see what happens to the card upon reactivating the unit.

Resco: 6 tries, card was lost 6 times
TomTom6: 3 tries, card was lost 2 times

so much...

mikechadwick

30-12-2006, 08:07 AM

here's a very helpful reply from palm Technical Support:

Thank you for contacting Palm Technical Support.

Your case number is x-xxxxxxxx.

Please not that it´s not any SD card that is 100% compactible with our devices. I think the cards you have are not co problemfrei compactible. Please visit our website and get those placed there. They are guaranteed to function with your unit.

mikechadwick

30-12-2006, 08:16 AM

this is interesting - i've just noticed that i've had my 2mb card with TomTom installed since saturday and I haven't lost the connection when the phone's gone to sleep - over 5 days. Looks like l44wsn is on to something except you don't need Resco Explorer.

2 days later and still haven't needed to reset the phone - using a straight forward generic 1mb card (just realised - it's a 1mb card not 2mb!!).

cjmedina

09-01-2007, 12:34 AM

i dont have any of those problems using my trancend 2 gig card

fredkf

10-01-2007, 11:50 AM

bnycastro

10-01-2007, 12:47 PM

I just fried my Kingston 2Gb miniSD card this morning whilst I was on my way to the airport! Grrr! I'm out of the country ATM and have no way of returning the card. I tried inserting it into my notebook's card reader with no luck. I tried reformatting it with my DSC and I get a memory card error. I got the card yesterday and had just finished re-installing my apps and syncing my music... :mad: I've reverted back to my 128 miniSD. What is the highest capacity card that works well with the 750v??? I love the phone but if it'll fry my memory cards and the data within them I may have to sell it... argh I was hoping to keep the 750v and sell my TyTN and get a Excalibur but I guess the TyTN will have to stay for a bit longer until I get this memory card problem sorted or sell my 750v.

georgedorn

10-01-2007, 07:45 PM

Following the advice from Palm I purchased one of their branded 2GB miniSD cards. I had been using a SanDisk Ultra II miniSD card (also 2GB), and hoped that this might resolve the problems I've been having with the card reader "going to sleep" and reporting wrongly that no card was installed.
No such luck. The problem persists.So where does this leave us (i.e. myself and everyone else who's got this problem)?

So that must be a firmware issue. What' s your firmware version? I have 1.12 and had the same problems as you with the 2GB Sandisk. After changing the card to a Palm branded 2GB card I never had these issues again. I would ask your provider if there is a newer firmware available.

Razor1973

11-01-2007, 07:46 PM

1GB Kingston card -- Same exact problem. As soon as (and every time) the device comes out of standby (whether it got there by itself or me locking it manually), I hear Alarm 1 and the storage card is gone.

I tried formatting the card directly on the phone (using Pocket Mechanic, FAT32) and still get the same condition.

I also tried this on another Treo 750 with the same results.

From reading this thread, I see this is a pretty common problem, which doesn't seem to be either device nor card specific. Firmware, maybe? I am running

Software Version: TREO750-1.13-CNG
Hardware Version: A
Firmware Version: 1.17.20.00

How about everybody else? Please specify whether you get the problem too or not.

Thanks.

fredkf

12-01-2007, 02:25 PM

georgedorn, I'm running firmware 1.12 also (firmware: 1.12.0a.00; software: TREO750-1.12-VFU; hardware: A). I haven't heard or read anywhere about new firmware being available in the UK so I don't think any updates are out yet.

Razor1973 - it seems to me that you're running a slightly different firmware (for Cingular instead of UK Vodafone) - but are suffering from the same problem.

What we know so far
The problem affects only some people
The problem occurs with 2GB as well as smaller cards
The problem occurs with Palm branded cards as well as cards from other manufacturers.
The problem occurs on 1.12 (VFU) and 1.17 (CNG) firmware.
Reformatting the card doesn't solve the problem

I'm still in contact with Palm Support (don't have as much time as I'd like to spend on this in the evenings so it's a bit of a slow process); the latest suggestion is to try a hard reset [which I know won't solve anything, but hey], before the CA will escalate to his manager. I'll keep you posted on any results.

Razor1973

12-01-2007, 02:46 PM

fredkf, please keep us posted on what Palm tells you.

By the way, I just switched to my 512MB SanDisk card and no problems so far. I know it's only been one day, but when I had my Kingston, the problem could be reproduced by locking the phone manually without fail.

luminus

15-01-2007, 03:05 PM

Did anyone tryed to format the SD card into FAT16 instead of FAT32. Maybe it could solve the problem. On many other devices FAT16 could solve a lot of issues about SD card or memory cards in general.

mikechadwick

16-01-2007, 08:42 AM

i formatted a 2gb card yesterday using total commander - this morning the card was still showing as connected even though the phone had been in sleep mode.
maybe.........
day 2 - still there

bnycastro

16-01-2007, 08:55 AM

Did anyone tryed to format the SD card into FAT16 instead of FAT32. Maybe it could solve the problem. On many other devices FAT16 could solve a lot of issues about SD card or memory cards in general.hi luminus do you have a link to the article/discussion about FAT16 vs FAT32, would like to read up more on this. Thanks in advance. By the way I exchange my 2Gb Kingston miniSD with a Transcend 2Gb card nothing fishy yet but it's still on my 2nd day with the card. Fingers and Toes are crossed :D
--
My unit shows...
Software version:
TREO750-1.15-VFE
Firmware version:
1.12.0a.00

CRP

17-01-2007, 09:37 AM

I can confirm that Transcend 2GB cards work. I used to have a no-name card bought on EBay which gave me problems (see my previous posts). I then got myself a Transcend card (again on ebay for less than the noname card!!) and this one works beautifully!

luminus

17-01-2007, 02:39 PM

hi luminus do you have a link to the article/discussion about FAT16 vs FAT32, would like to read up more on this. Thanks in advance. By the way I exchange my 2Gb Kingston miniSD with a Transcend 2Gb card nothing fishy yet but it's still on my 2nd day with the card. Fingers and Toes are crossed :D
--
My unit shows...

I don't know the links anymore where they talked about issues with SD cards and how they could solve the problems.
I will inform and post links if i can find some links to it.

bnycastro

17-01-2007, 02:54 PM

it's cool... so far the Transcend card I got is doing ok. I formatted it in XP @ FAT32

miloszz

02-05-2007, 07:58 AM

Are Transcend cards doing well?

I have 2GB Kingston and it's pi$$ing me off!

Now I'm thinking about buying Transcend 2GB 80X mini Secure Digital Card. Is it good idea?

Btw, I have Treo like bnycastro.

GURUGTS

02-05-2007, 10:22 AM

I have a 2GB Kingston MiniSD and the Treo will not read it every once in a while. I have to pull the card out and insert it into a memory card reader, copy the files off the card to a folder, format the card then copy the files back and put it back into the treo. There is a utility called WM5storage that allows you to turn your device into a memory card, just plug in the Treo via USB and XP will think it's a memcard. When it's in Memcard mode, the treo can't see the storage card but the PC will see it as a folder. I hope this toggle will work. I'll know shortly if this can be a workaround. Hopefully there will be a firmware update to fix this issue or I'll have to contact Kingston for them to make their card more compatible.

miloszz

02-05-2007, 05:48 PM

I know these feelings. I have to format my card about two times a week. More often I'm loosing all my data or part of it. It's pretty annoying - I have to keep directory with backup of a card on my pc. But when I'm losing data being out... Grrhhhhh!!

That's why I'm asking about Transcend cards. I think we won't get update soon :(

GURUGTS

04-05-2007, 09:09 AM

Palm assumes that their media card will be installed in the Treo and possibly never formatted from an outside source. The best thing to do is find out how the Palm MiniSD card is formatted so we can then format the after market cards the same way. My Kingston 2GB card kept getting undetected by my TREO until I formatted it as FAT. Pop it into a memory card reader and right click then format as FAT and not FAT32. The difference is that FAT32 can hold more data per cluster vs FAT16 but since a memory card is Linear you may still be able to get all the memory available on the card. I didn't see a noticeable loss of space when I formatted FAT16 (FAT). When it was in FAT32 mode I would hear the eject sound play after the Treo sat for a while, it hasn't done it yet after the FAT format.

miloszz

04-05-2007, 11:56 AM

Damn! It looks that it works. I'm testing at the moment. I also wanted to format in FAT16, but i ws waiting for dataloss ;) I didn't want to format almost full card and restoring it.

miloszz

04-05-2007, 02:20 PM

Maybe it's better, but still card is sometimes "unattached" after using :(

GURUGTS

06-05-2007, 07:37 AM

Well I think the FAT16 format did the trick. The Treo will sometimes lose the card but the card will still be recognized once it's re inserted. I haven't had the card lose detection unless I was doing a lot of movement and having the thing bounce around in my pockets. I'm sure it's in the best working order and is finally usable without the fear of data loss like before.

miloszz

06-05-2007, 09:20 AM

FAT16 isn't cure for me :( Tomorrow I'm buying Transcend card...

miloszz

07-05-2007, 04:14 PM

I've bought Trascend 2GB. Works like a charm so far :D

GURUGTS

15-05-2007, 11:24 AM

Link below or you can read it here:
http://kb.palm.com/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBCGI.EXE/,/?St=96,E=0000000000604557526,K=20,Sxi=9,Case=Obj(1 0716)

Looks like PALM formats their card in FAT12. I'm looking for a way to do it. If anyone finds out sooner please let us know.

File systems used by SD and MMC expansion cards
Solution ID : 10716

Secure Digital cards (SD) use a different file system than MultiMediaCard (MMC) cards. SD cards use FAT12. MMC cards use FAT16.

In general, SD cards will appear to have more free space than MMC cards with the same raw capacity. This is because the SD specification requires a particular formatting method, which contrasts with what Microsoft (originator of the FAT file system) suggests the formats should be. MMC, on the other hand, generally follows the suggested Microsoft formatting structures, which tend to use more space. Data card devices differentiate between the two types of cards, and format them according to their specifications mandate.

The cluster size of each formatting technique is different. Cluster size is the smallest amount of space that can ever be allocated. Thus, the cluster size determines how efficiently the space available can be used. SD uses a larger cluster size (16 kilobytes for most cards) while MMC tends to use smaller cluster sizes (1 or 2 kilobytes). If you have a number of small files, they will occupy more space on an SD card.

For example, if you had an 18KB file for on an SD card with 16KB clusters, it would take two clusters for a total of 32KB. On the other hand, these same files stored on an MMC card with 2KB clusters would take up only 18KB. In this example, the SD cards uses an additional 40 percent of memory to store the same file.

Helpful links
Visit the SD Card Association website or the MultiMediaCard Association website to learn more about these two expansion card specifications.

miloszz

15-05-2007, 08:55 PM

You can format card into FAT12 using Pocket Mechanic on your Treo. Or using partition manager on pc/reader.

I'm having too many things on my card (Transcend) and I'm feeling sick, so I won't try it with my kingston now.

But if it works, I got $30 in the back :/

BTW,
my Transcend is FAT16 (as it was in the box - I haven't formated it).

Parallax20

16-05-2007, 02:43 PM

I bought a cheapo card from Currys which was made by Dane-Elec that also exhibits this disconnection problem (They listed item as Unbranded on their website). I've searched the net for a solution to the disappearing SD card and so far there doesn't appear to be a definitive fix for it. So I've decided to return the Dane-Elec card and purchase the Transcend one instead based on members opinions. They worked out to be the same price at the end of the day.

But one thing I should have done before purchasing any sd card was to check compatibility from the manufacturers website. Both the Sandisk and Transcend list the Treo 750 as compatible devices, whist Dane-Elec didn't even support Treo handsets in their device list. A lesson to be learnt for future buying is always check compatibilty beforehand. I normally don't check because I just assume it should just work base on industry standards, unfortunately not every manufacturer follows standards.

My transcend card should arrive in a couple of days time, so fingers cross it works without problems as confirmed by other members.

Cheers guys,

Parallax.

flashgordonv

17-05-2007, 04:11 AM

You can format card into FAT12 using Pocket Mechanic on your Treo. Or using partition manager on pc/reader.

Nah, Pocket Mechanic says it supports FAT12 but it will NOT do it. I tried with two different cards and it defaults to FAT32. I did some research on the net and apparently FAT12 was the format used on floppy disks and only supports a 16 Mb disk, so it woudl be a fat lot of good on a 2GB memory card I suspect........

miloszz

17-05-2007, 05:12 AM

Yea', FAT16 is for disks up to 2GB, so FAT12....

flashgordonv

19-05-2007, 02:32 AM

Yea', FAT16 is for disks up to 2GB, so FAT12....

Wow, that was deep and meaningful and added to the store of knowledge in this thread.....

Rutra87

31-08-2007, 03:44 AM

Upgrading to WM6 has solved this issue for me. I can finally just open up my media player instead of taking the card out and putting it back in each time.

calgary_hero

31-08-2007, 05:40 AM

Upgrading to WM6 has solved this issue for me. I can finally just open up my media player instead of taking the card out and putting it back in each time.

Same for me, I have a generic 2GB miniSD that simply didn't work with wm5, then after the upgrade it worked perfect.

** I did a reformat to fat32 prior to upgrading

GaryN5PHT

06-10-2007, 12:52 AM

Hi,

Ok, I posted something like this on another forum and then realized this forum had lots of input on the subject. Anything definitive from Treo? Sounds like most are saying that a 1 gig card will solve the issue?

If that is true I can live with 1 gig but I have about 200 meg on my 2 gig card. I have all important programs I installed on a folder on my desktop pc. However, if I go to a 1 gig card is is easy to just copy and past everything on my 2 gig card onto my 1 gig card? Sorry, but I am new to MW5 and all this stuff. My step by step: (correct?)

1- sync with pc
2- find my storage card and copy all
3- paste onto my pc (desktop or whatever)
4- disconnect Treo 750 from PC
5- replace 2 gig card with 1 gig card
6- sync again
7- copy/paste from pc destop to new card

Or, do I just have to reinstall the programs again?

Also, if WM6 cures this problem that would be good too. Other than this being a nuisance is there any problem just doing a soft re-set when this happens? ((I had assembled a group for a picture the other day and it was the first time it happened and I had the camera pics to store on the storage card and got the not enough memory error and by the time I figured out the problem some of the people had left!!)) Oh well, a learning curve...

Thanks for any help with the above questions.

Gary

GaryN5PHT

06-10-2007, 01:22 AM

Also, I forgot to mention that I am currently using a microSD with the miniadapter. Would that add anything to the problem? I may go ahead and try the 1gig but like to hear from some others.

Thanks again,

Gary
:)

GaryN5PHT

06-10-2007, 05:15 AM

Greetings,

Well, I did go ahead and put in a 1 Gig SD card. I used copy/paste and a card reader and it went fast and perfect. Will try this for a few days.

Gary

Seeeee

26-11-2007, 06:25 PM

Maybe this is a speed issue. (is FAT16 faster than FAT32?)

From:
http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsmobile/archive/2007/01/12/everything-you-want-to-know-about-sd.aspx

Why do things on SD stop working after a suspend/resume?

When a PocketPC suspends, it powers off most of the hardware in the system, including the part of the SD slot that tells whether or not a card is there. While the system is suspended, you could potentially eject the card and stick a different one in. If you did that, any apps that have files open on the card would get very confused. This almost never happens, but it's something we need to guard against. So, when we power the system back on, we check to see if there's a card there. If it is, we check with it to see if it's the same one as was there before. If it doesn't respond, or responds differently than we expect, we unload it and close any files that were open before.

The trouble is, we can't wait forever for the card to respond to us. There are programs trying to communicate with that card, and we're stalling them. So we've set an amount of time that we'll wait for the card before unloading it (we call it the "PnPUnloadDelay"). Importantly, some phones can power on their SD system quickly and some take more time. Because of this, the OEM chooses the correct PnPUnloadDelay for his hardware, and we rely on his setting. If something happens that makes the SD card not respond in the time specified by the PnPUnloadDelay, we assume it's a new card.

A lot of things could cause this to happen. The card you have might be a lot slower than the OEM expected you to use. This is a place where buying a faster card can help. Or some application might be running out of control and causing the system to run slower than normal, making everything take longer. Or, maybe, the OEM made a mistake and set a delay that's just too low.

The PnPUnloadDelay is shown in the registry, but unfortunately changing the registry doesn't affect the value. Only the OEM can change the value.

Note that Smartphones don't ever suspend, so they don't have these sorts of issues.

d0lphin

28-11-2007, 03:52 AM

Here is my luck break. I have WM5 AT&T. Corrupt publisher file screwed everything up. Deleted every last file on PC related to activesync. Deleted eveything on SD with card reader. Formatted to Fat32. No mail attachments set to go to SD card. No disappearing card. I don't have to open the door 64 times a day. Keeping my fingers crossed. Not once since the reset. I would go on PC and use the search to find any files with "activesync" associated