[Q] SD Card for newbies

Erchino · Jan 20, 2011

Hi, I recently purchased a Dell Venue Pro and I am going to get it some time this weekend. The main concern I have with this phone is the small amount of storage. 8gb is simply not enough for me. Perhaps I missed something, but I've been reading through this forum and haven't found a very good explanation for newbies on how to replace the SD Card. I have actually seen some posts that say that they managed to exchange their 8gb SD Card for a Sandisk 32GB micro SD card Class 2. However, I would like to have some guidance and instruction from someone experienced doing this; I wouldn't want a bricked Dell Venue Pro.

Therefore, could anyone please instruct me with a step by step guide on how to replace my SD card without crashing my system and which sd cards are compatible? Thank you.

whizack · Jan 20, 2011

Believe me when I tell you this will not work. What you will end up with is a bricked phone that needs to be replaced.

If you have a device that was shipped between December and now you don't have an engineering sample, those are the only devices that can actually format the sd card to the proper filesystem and lock the card down in way you'd expect it to.

If you'd like to test that theory, simply replace the card while it's off. Perform a hard reset on the device (the CAM + VOL DN combination does not work), shut it down and put the card back in an SD reader. It won't be formatted and won't be locked down.

You might be able to format the card on a Windows CE machine with storage manager, but the most I've been able to do is get the SD card test to show a 114 not ok instead of a 115 not ok.

After that, if you're lucky, you'll be able to simply throw the old card back in the device and proceed with enjoying your phone with the original SD card. If you're unlucky your phone will not boot.

Food for thought:
In the diagnostics application there is a button for "Service Center" which displays two boxes: Zune and Composite.

When you press the CAM key during boot this puts the device into a "restore" mode that Zune is supposed to work with at some point in the future.

I'm guessing if we can figure out a way to flip the mode to Composite (currently requires a password) that the "test/debug" bootloader will allow us to format the cards properly.

It's also entirely possible that the reason the engineering samples work and the retail devices don't is that the eng samples are in this mode already.

Erchino · Jan 20, 2011

Wow thanks a lot for the very thorough answer. Do you think we will see memory expansion as a possibility in the near future?

alodar1 · Jan 21, 2011

Ok, without trying to insult anyone, 'm gonna call Bullshxt. I now have 3 VP's in my possession. Ok....1 I dropped and it doesn't start any more. But that still leaves 2. On both of them I have removed the SD card, replaced hte card with bigger and smaller SD cards and have even left the SD card slot empty. I have NEVER bricked my phone.

Let's leave performance behind first...and not consider it. Lets just talk about changing cards.

The key to changing cards is process. Take the card out and restart your device, it won't boot. there is no external keys for hard reset. Place that same card back in your device, it will start.

To change out a card, do this:

1. Hard reset your device
2. On the reboot portion, remove the battery and then remove the card
3. Put the battery back in and let the device start up
4. Walk through startup and your phone is ready to use.

Keep this same process each time. You cannot remove a card, without first going through the hard reset process. You cannot add a card with out first going through the hard reset process. The hard reset process initializes the card to the device.

I've done this at least a dozen times, with cards ranging from 2,4, 8 and 16g. I've done it with cards pulled out of Google phones and an HD2. I've done it with cards that have never been used before. Its 1, 2, 3, 4. No matter what combination of removal and add....1,2, 3, 4. Remove a card, its 1,2 ,3, 4. Add a card, 1,2,3,4. Simple.

Now...if you want to talk about Performance....thats another conversation....

Again....no insult intended with the BS call.

alodar1 · Jan 21, 2011

Sorry...forgot to add 1 thing.....this has been described on this forum several weeks ago...so...what I'm saying is not a huge discovery from me...but rather from the guy that posted this around christmas.....I just repeated it is all !!!

Erchino · Jan 21, 2011

Oh OK, sweet thanks for the thorough step by step guide! This is exactly what I needed.

A few questions though.

On step 2. you mention a reboot portion. What does that mean? After hard resetting what is my "queue" to remomving my battery and SD Card

Also, you never state in the 4 step process when exactly I put my alternative SD Card in. Would I put it in step 3 when I put my battery in?

Finally, you say Performance is a different story. Are you saying that replacing SD Cards will make the phone slower or more prone to crashing or working less stably?

Thank you.

JetWarrior · Jan 21, 2011

I think once the phone is ready to use again, you then start the process over again at Step 1, except instead of removing the SD card in Step 2, you put the new one in.

What I want to know is, if taking out the provided SD card voids the warranty, how do you get a new phone without paying for it? Or does the warranty not cover that specification?

whizack · Jan 21, 2011

none taken, but your claim about the device not booting if you remove the card is false.

It will boot, sans card, with ~15mb of free storage space with no customizations. It's also likely though that if your device does boot into this state, you will never be able to get another SD card to work in it ever again.

Even if it boots into the "no storage" state it's still possible to put in the old card (in most cases) and have it work. I'm just saying that has not been the case for everyone.

Erchino · Jan 21, 2011

Looks like I've found quite a good amount of posts from people stating that they have swapped SD cards succcessfully so might try this if I feel like I require more storage. Would anyone happen to know if there are certain types of SD Cards I should use to make this work? Also, alodar1, you have stated something about performance being another story? Would I be sacrificing performance by swapping cards? What kinds of issues would I be having?

DeekoVB5 · Jan 21, 2011

1) Open settings-> about menu in phone
2) Press "reset"
3) Press "yes" twice. The phone will start to reboot.
4) Wait until the phone shuts down and begins to reboot, and take the battery out. NOTE: If you take out the battery too early, it will not work correctly. I waited until I first saw the Dell logo pop up and then pulled the battery, and that worked.
5) Remove the old SD card (I used a very small eyeglass screwdriver to gently pry it out since it isn't spring loaded)
6) Put in new card, replace battery, restart phone
7) Go through the setup process

That should do it. My phone hasn't crashed since I replaced the card on Sunday, so its been a success for me. I have not had any performance issues with my new card - but I suppose that really depends on your card. Granted, I actually downgraded - I went to a Sandisk Class 4 8GB card. Soon enough I'll be getting a 32GB card and trying that one out.

Erchino · Jan 21, 2011

Ah things are much clearer now thank you very much, will try this. I'll pray my phone doesn't go bad... gulp.

Also, are you saying you were a victim of the crashes and replacing the SD Card fixed it?

Erchino · Jan 22, 2011

OK so I'm going to buy an SD Card, a 16gb, so should I go for a class 2 or class 4? What's the difference between the two and is any one of those two incompatible with the venue pro?

DeekoVB5 · Jan 24, 2011

Erchino said:
Ah things are much clearer now thank you very much, will try this. I'll pray my phone doesn't go bad... gulp.

Also, are you saying you were a victim of the crashes and replacing the SD Card fixed it?

Yes - my phone crashed very frequently with the 16GB card. Many times a day. I've now gone a full week without a crash with the new card.

Erchino said:
OK so I'm going to buy an SD Card, a 16gb, so should I go for a class 2 or class 4? What's the difference between the two and is any one of those two incompatible with the venue pro?

Mine is class 4. The problem here is that there is no official specification. The class rating refers to data transfer speed - but the requirement for Windows Phone 7 is random access speed, which the card manufacturers don't advertise. Early reports actually showed that higher class (6+ cards) actually perform worse in WP7.

NeverSummer07 · Feb 2, 2011

I don't have the DVP yet. Will the warranty be void when the SD card is replaced/removed? Thanks.

DeekoVB5 · Feb 4, 2011

NeverSummer07 said:
I don't have the DVP yet. Will the warranty be void when the SD card is replaced/removed? Thanks.

Yes, the black tape shows "VOID" after you remove it. A prior warning would be nice, since the tape doesn't say that on the outside.

RSN5774912 · Feb 4, 2011

DeekoVB5 said:
Yes, the black tape shows "VOID" after you remove it. A prior warning would be nice, since the tape doesn't say that on the outside.

Does it really say "VOID"? I removed the tape but I can't discern any letters left on the device. However, I can see an "O" on the tape.

bbowman · Feb 4, 2011

yep, it says VOID and the black VOID letters are left behind when you remove the sticker.

efjay · Feb 10, 2011

So for those who have replaced their cards, how is the phone holding up? Able to use wifi and the marketplace and IE with no crashes?

alodar1 · Feb 11, 2011

Erchino said:
Looks like I've found quite a good amount of posts from people stating that they have swapped SD cards succcessfully so might try this if I feel like I require more storage. Would anyone happen to know if there are certain types of SD Cards I should use to make this work? Also, alodar1, you have stated something about performance being another story? Would I be sacrificing performance by swapping cards? What kinds of issues would I be having?

sorry for the delay in replying. No, not necessarily. Personally I believe there is an issue with the specific cards Dell used. But what do I know for sure. I swapped to another 16g card...nothing fancy...just directly out of the HD2.....it worked and performance was better. A couple of friends of mine did a similar swap, looking at specific R/W speeds, class types, etc. They had mixed results. So, my guess is, there is something else that is a trigger that no one has hit on yet. I know my 16g performance is not as good as the 8g performance....in smoothness of card access. If I swap down to an 8g card...or even a 4g card....I can see the difference.....the performance is smoother.

Now, this doesn't say that those people with the 32g cards are NOT seeing that smoothness. I'm saying that I tried this as a test because I had cards laying around....and noticed a difference. The difference strongly indicates the shipped 16g cards are not what they should be. But, this does not mean the 32g cards on the market right now are the answer.

dede0380 · Feb 11, 2011

HELP !!!

I tried changing my 8GB SD card to a 16GB SD card. it booted up fine everything seemed ok, but when I restart the phone it loses all settings. So I put the original card back in, followed the same steps. Now my phone only sees 16 MEGABYTES of storage, I've tried multiple factory resets, after a reset it doesnt even go through the normal setup process. All it does is go back to the homescreen with only the normal tiles accept all the newsroom, tmobile family room and stuff isn't there either. If I pin an app to the start screen then restart the phone the pinned app is gone from the start up screen can someone PLEASE help, I'd be happy just to get it back to normal, with the original SD card in it

[Q] SD Card for newbies

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