Failed flash media

[Dave Beauvais]

I just wanted to share my pain with you all. :) In the last four days, both my 256 MB SanDisk SD card and my Viking 512 MB CF card (http://www.vikingcomponents.com/pp/CF512M.html) failed. :evil: I now have almost 600 MB of data/movie/MP3/WMA/etc. files that I've grown accustomed to having with me at all times that are completely inaccessible. I had to remove Snails (http://www.snailsgame.com) and another app or two in order to make room in main memory to hold the important stuff, but my music, large database files, and complete Mapopolis (http://www.mapopolis.com) map collection will have to wait until replacement cards arrive, whenever that is.

I've received an RMA for the Viking CF card (which I bought from Amazon back when they offered a $50 rebate to bring the card down to around $140), but SanDisk has not returned two e-mails and one phone call. I am more than a little annoyed at this point. :x

I have no idea if my Pocket PC did something to the cards or what, but they both failed without warning within a day of each other. No errors show up when formatting the cards, but whenever I try to copy data to them (using multiple card reader and even trying on multiple PCs), I get CRC errors, I/O errors, etc.

I've had the SanDisk SD card since about April 2002, so I thought I'd been lucky to have not suffered the fate of so many other SanDisk users. I guess my luck ran out. Fortunately, I had backups of most data on both cards, and can easily download most stuff that wasn't backed. Still, it's maddening that this stuff is so unreliable and nobody does anything to improve it. :?

So there's my story for the week. I'm going to yell at someone at SanDisk on Monday, let me assure you.

--Dave

[Janak Parekh]

Sorry to hear that. :cry:

On the other hand, I've had a Microdrive since about Jan. 2001, and a 128MB SD card since about March 2002, and neither a problem with either. The Microdrive gets used at least twice a day for extended periods of time. *knock wood*

Did you pass through a radiation beam or something? ;)

--janak

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

Strange that two cards gave away within a day of eachother. Even stranger that one was CF and the other was SD. Did you try those cards on any other devices or card readers?

Keep us up to date on your experiences with SanDisk customer support... I haven't heard great things...

[Dave Beauvais]

Strange that two cards gave away within a day of each other. Even stranger that one was CF and the other was SD. Did you try those cards on any other devices or card readers?
It is very strange, which is why I'm wondering if something happened to the Pocket PC. I haven't shocked it with static that I'm aware of, it's in a case except when in the cradle, and I take care of it like it was a baby. :)

I tried the CF card in both a CF-to-PC Card adapter and the CF slot of my Imation FlashGo (http://www.imation.com/en_US/product.jhtml?Id=IM_PRD334) reader. The SD card I tried in the SanDisk Cruzer that it came with as well as the SD slot in the FlashGo reader. Both cards format without any errors in both FAT16 and FAT32, but I get errors when trying to copy files to or read file from them. On the Pocket PC the corrupted files appear as a long list of folders, all named "." (A single period.)

I'll report back in this thread whenever things are resolved with SanDisk.

--Dave

[Pony99CA]

I just wanted to share my pain with you all. :) In the last four days, both my 256 MB SanDisk SD card and my Viking 512 MB CF card (http://www.vikingcomponents.com/pp/CF512M.html) failed. :evil:

...

I've had the SanDisk SD card since about April 2002, so I thought I'd been lucky to have not suffered the fate of so many other SanDisk users. I guess my luck ran out. Fortunately, I had backups of most data on both cards, and can easily download most stuff that wasn't backed. Still, it's maddening that this stuff is so unreliable and nobody does anything to improve it. :?

I have a SanDisk 128 MB SD card and a Viking 512 MB CF card, so I can understand your pain. However, I think that last comment is going a bit far.

I have heard of problems with SanDisk's SD cards, but I haven't heard of problems with Compact Flash cards. If there are problems, I'm pretty sure that the manufacturers would be working to fix them. I doubt they want a bad reputation for quality.

I have had some problems with my SanDisk SD card. Some Flash animations I had stored there disappeared, and some JPEG files had gotten corrupted. I had removed the SD card several times from my iPAQ 3870, so I wondered if that was the problem. I copied most of the files back to my SD card and haven't removed the card since, and all of the files seem to be there and look fine.

Steve

[Pony99CA]

I tried the CF card in both a CF-to-PC Card adapter and the CF slot of my Imation FlashGo (http://www.imation.com/en_US/product.jhtml?Id=IM_PRD334) reader. The SD card I tried in the SanDisk Cruzer that it came with as well as the SD slot in the FlashGo reader. Both cards format without any errors in both FAT16 and FAT32, but I get errors when trying to copy files to or read file from them. On the Pocket PC the corrupted files appear as a long list of folders, all named "." (A single period.)

I'm trying to insert photos in Applian's Picture Perfect. When I go to my Photos folder, I'm also seeing a long list of folders with something like " . " as their names. If I scroll past all of those fake folders, my image files are there, though. Even a soft reset didn't get rid of those directories. :-(

Interesting, both File Explorer and Pocket Explorer display the directory correctly.

I hope this doesn't mean my SD card is about ready to fail....

Steve

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

I have a SanDisk 128 MB SD card and a Viking 512 MB CF card, so I can understand your pain. However, I think that last comment is going a bit far.

I have heard of problems with SanDisk's SD cards, but I haven't heard of problems with Compact Flash cards. If there are problems, I'm pretty sure that the manufacturers would be working to fix them. I doubt they want a bad reputation for quality.
Steve, are you saying that the criticism regarding SD is warranted but the one about CF is not? I'm not sure I follow you here.

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

I hope this doesn't mean my SD card is about ready to fail....
Ugh... I got locked into a huge back-and-forth last time I said this, but I really don't trust SanDisk...

[Pony99CA]

I have a SanDisk 128 MB SD card and a Viking 512 MB CF card, so I can understand your pain. However, I think that last comment is going a bit far.

I have heard of problems with SanDisk's SD cards, but I haven't heard of problems with Compact Flash cards. If there are problems, I'm pretty sure that the manufacturers would be working to fix them. I doubt they want a bad reputation for quality.
Steve, are you saying that the criticism regarding SD is warranted but the one about CF is not? I'm not sure I follow you here.
I'm saying that the general comment about the technology being "so unreliable" and the comment that "nobody does anything to improve it" are probably unwarranted. I realize that Dave was probably speaking out of frustration, and wanted to provide a less emotional response.

I was also acknowledging that SanDisk may well have had some problems, but I haven't heard of (many?) problems with other SD cards.

Steve

[Pony99CA]

I'm trying to insert photos in Applian's Picture Perfect. When I go to my Photos folder, I'm also seeing a long list of folders with something like " . " as their names. If I scroll past all of those fake folders, my image files are there, though. Even a soft reset didn't get rid of those directories. :-(

Interesting, both File Explorer and Pocket Explorer display the directory correctly.

I hope this doesn't mean my SD card is about ready to fail....

As a follow-up to this, I used DEXPlor to view my Photos folder, and it showed one directory with that funky name. Deleting the directory still showed one (probably the next one of the many that were there). I used Windows Explorer to view that directory, and found over 300 :!: folders like that, so I selected them all and deleted them. That seems to have gotten rid of them.

Things still aren't perfect, though. I used Pocket Explorer to view the Adobe Acrobat folder on my SD card. When I tried to browse the Reader folder, Pocket Explorer terminated. :!:

I used the built-in File Explorer and DEXplor, and, after showing hidden files, found a directory called plug_ins and four files (AcroRd32.exe, history, AGM.dll and CoolType.dll).

So either I still have some directory issues, or Pocket Explorer doesn't like something about the Acrobat Reader. :-(

Steve

[Dave Beauvais]

... I realize that Dave was probably speaking out of frustration ...
Yes, I am quite frustrated, and I suppose that does affect my objectivity. I'm dealing with a defective CF modem from Hawking Technologies, a failed CF card, and a failed SD card. SO far only one of the three companies is responding to my requests for help. And of course nobody is open on the weekends, so I have to wait until at least Monday. It's just getting old, is all.

--Dave

[Janak Parekh]

Dave, you must be allergic to expansion cards. I've owned a couple of CF I/O devices, a number of CF and SD cards, and nary a problem with them.

(knocks wood)

--janak

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

I'm saying that the general comment about the technology being "so unreliable" and the comment that "nobody does anything to improve it" are probably unwarranted. I realize that Dave was probably speaking out of frustration, and wanted to provide a less emotional response.

I was also acknowledging that SanDisk may well have had some problems, but I haven't heard of (many?) problems with other SD cards.
Ahhh... now I understand. In that case, I do agree wholeheartedly, outside of SanDisk, most of the major brands appear to be pretty stable. I've heard of some issues with Mr Flash in the past, but I don't consider them a major name brand.

[Pony99CA]

I've heard of some issues with Mr Flash in the past, but I don't consider them a major name brand.

Yeah, I've heard things about Mr. Flash, too, but those were CF cards, I think.

By the way, what were they thinking with that name? Mr. Flash sounds like a pervert in a raincoat. :rofl:

Steve

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

Yeah, I've heard things about Mr. Flash, too, but those were CF cards, I think.

By the way, what were they thinking with that name? Mr. Flash sounds like a pervert in a raincoat. :rofl:
You're right, Mr. Flash was CF. Yeah, I don't know about that name either... I could make a few jokes here, but I'd probably be stepping over the line...

[Kati Compton]

I have a 128MB Mr. Flash in my digital camera, and it's been fine - works inthe Axim too...

[Pony99CA]

I have a 128MB Mr. Flash in my digital camera, and it's been fine - works inthe Axim too...
This just begs for an "exposing" joke, but I won't make it. :twisted:

Steve

[Kati Compton]

I have a 128MB Mr. Flash in my digital camera, and it's been fine - works inthe Axim too...
This just begs for an "exposing" joke, but I won't make it. :twisted:


:D

[Dave Beauvais]

... Keep us up to date on your experiences with SanDisk customer support... I haven't heard great things...
It's been almost three weeks since I first contacted SanDisk about this problem and I still don't even have a damn RMA number to send the card back. :x I called them on Friday to ask about this and they said the RMA department is backed up by about ten days. The gentleman I spoke with said that if I don't receive RMA instructions by this coming Friday -- which will be almost four weeks since "first contact" -- that I should call back so they "can light a fire under someone."

This is total BS. How can it possibly take nearly three weeks to generate a number and tell me where to ship the card to? They already have the case details in their system, so it's not as though someone even needs to type stuff in again.

This will be the last SanDisk product I ever own and I will no longer suggest that other people get them no matter how inexpensive they may be.

--Dave

[Janak Parekh]

This will be the last SanDisk product I ever own and I will no longer suggest that other people get them no matter how inexpensive they may be.
That truly sucks; sorry to hear about that. I think Sandisk is only used to dealing with distribution channels, and not end-users. That's not an excuse, though.

--janak

[Dave Beauvais]

... I think Sandisk is only used to dealing with distribution channels, and not end-users. ...
Since so much of their stuff fails within the first thirty days or so and people return the product to the distributor or store they got it from? :lol:

--Dave

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

My opinion is that SanDisk shoots for volume, putting Customer Service and QA as secondary. It's hard to tell whether that's a smart business approach or not... the trade-off is that they sell their cards the cheapest and have the most visibility in retail and major online stores. The majority of card owners won't have issues so perhaps they're willing to sacrifice a few to sell a lot.

[Dave Beauvais]

As promised, I'm posting here to say that I finally received an RMA number from SanDisk.

Sequence of events:

Monday, January 13, 2003: SanDisk 256 MB SD card fails

Tuesday, January 14, 2003: Contact SanDisk via their Web contact form, since they don't actually give you a support e-mail address. Described the problem and requested an RMA number.

Friday, January 17, 2003: Receive an e-mail from a SanDisk customer service rep asking for more details. I provide them.

Friday, January 24, 2003: (Note: one calendar week has passed since the last contact) :mad: Receive another e-mail early in the morning stating that I will receive an RMA number and shipping instructions within five to ten business days.

Friday, January 31, 2003: Call SanDisk to check the status of my RMA. I speak to a very friendly gentleman named Jack who explains that the RMA department is backed up by about two weeks, mostly due to the recent holiday season. He said that if I didn't receive an e-mail with an RMA number within 5-10 days from the date I entered the queue, to call back so we can, quote, "light a fire under someone." :) I thanked him for his help and resumed waiting.

Friday, February 7, 2003: This is the eleventh day from the date my request entered the so-called RMA queue, and I've received no RMA number. :evil: Note that I consider this the eleventh day because the e-mail received on the 24th was sent early in the morning, giving them pretty much a full business day. So, I called SanDisk and spoke with Jack again. He looked up my case number, gave the info to his supervisor, and let me know that I should expect an e-mail that day or Monday morning. I thanked Jack for his help and told him to have a nice weekend.

From the time I first contacted SanDisk about this failed card, twenty-five calendar (nineteen business) days had passed. That is unacceptable, in my opinion, just to be issued a damned RMA number. As I said in a previous post, their crappy reliability track record among our members and on other sites, combined with their poor customer service, has ensured that I will never purchase a SanDisk product again, no matter how attractive the price may be.

--Dave

[Pony99CA]

Friday, February 14, 2003: This is the eleventh day from the date my request entered the so-called RMA queue, and I've received no RMA number. :evil:

February 14, 2003? What time zone are you in? :-D

Steve

[Dave Beauvais]

February 14, 2003? What time zone are you in? :-D
I don't know, but where I am, we have calendar that skip a week. :oops: As I was looking at the calendar to check my dates, I managed to mentally skip a few days. I corrected my original post. Thanks for pointing out my time travel escapade!

--Dave