SanDisk Extreme III SD card incompatibility?

[ppc_md2b]

Hi All,

Long time, no write. Been in the middle of a rough rotation at med school, and exams are still ongoing.

Just writing to ask if anyone has experienced problems using a SanDisk Extreme III SD card in their high-end PPC. I bought one of these "super high performance cards" hoping for really fast reading from the card, as that is where I store all my stuff.

It worked great for a month, then stopped working suddenly. My Loox 720 failed to "see" it on the menu. Furthermore, my card reader in my laptop couldn't see it either, so I assumed that the card was toast. All other cards I own worked great.

I had a terrible time convincing SanDisk the problem was with the card. They stalled and stalled, and insisted the fault was with the PDA, and finally agreed (after I nearly threatened legal action for warranty violation) to replace the card, but suggested that the card is "too high-performance" for my PDA and that I should not use this type of card again. To me this sounded fishy, as I used the card daily with no problems before.

Any similar experiences out there?

Cheers,

Jonathan

[jickbahtech]

I don't think there is such a thing as "too high-performance". Either it works or it doesn't. What I have noticed, with the few cards I've had my hands on, is that there really isn't a significant advantage in using a High Speed card on a PPC. I don't think the Loox bus can really take advantage of high speed card.
If it were being swapped between a camera and a PPC, then maybe I'd spring, but any card that's just for my iPaq, I've been saving money and getting regular cards.

[ppc_md2b]

Hey there,

I too found it odd that if a card reader from a laptop also can't see the card (whereas both my PPC and my laptop can see every other card I own), then the card is toasted. Sure, a card may not operate at its maximum speed, but that doesn't explain why it just stopped working. I could tell the tech guy wasn't taking me seriously. He asked me, on several separate occasions, to reformat the card, even after I repeatedly told him that my PDA and computer can't see the damn thing, so just how am I supposed to reformat it? What really annoyed was after that he told me (1) to go to my "local electronics store" to reformat the card, and (2) that because my PDA was not on the SanDisk list of "compatible PPCs" that explains why I had the problem. Again, I told him that if it worked perfectly everyday, there is no reason to suspect the PDA, and also that their current "list" of compatible PPCs (woefully small - ONLY Axim X3/5/30, iPaq 3955/1945/2215/5555/rx3715, Toshiba e355, no other PPC brands or manufacturers listed) is composed of PPCs of lesser capabilities than my own.

Anyway, Just to quote SanDisk:

Since this card has read/write speed of 20MB per second, the card is intended for devices capable of high speed devices such as high-end digital cameras. In short, your PDA isn't capable of handling such a high speed card due to the PDA's limitations. We suggest that you don't use the Extreme III card in the PDA since the PDA can't handle the memory card's fast transfer speed. Please be advised that, if you use a replaced Extreme III SD card 1 GB in the same PDA, odds are HIGHLY likely you will get error messages after a short time. Therefore, we suggest you trying using an Ultra II SD card in your PDA; this card is more in line with your device's specifications.