Database Users

Tytn freezes because of micro SD card, help!!

My device switches on by itself and then crashs with the screen on, it is not possible to access any thing and the only thing it responds to is to do a soft reset.
The only difference between now and when it was working fine is the usuage of a micro SD card. My device works perfectly when there is no SD card installed, if I install a SD card the device starts to show the stange behaviour straight away.
The SD card which I am using is a 1 GB Sandisk card. What do you think? Do you think it is a device hardware problem or what?
Thanks in advance for any offered help!
W.

eldali said:
My device switches on by itself and then crashs with the screen on, it is not possible to access any thing and the only thing it responds to is to do a soft reset.
The only difference between now and when it was working fine is the usuage of a micro SD card. My device works perfectly when there is no SD card installed, if I install a SD card the device starts to show the stange behaviour straight away.
The SD card which I am using is a 1 GB Sandisk card. What do you think? Do you think it is a device hardware problem or what?
Thanks in advance for any offered help!
W.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried reformatting the card in a PC card reader? FAT32, allocation size of 512. and make sure contacts on card are clean.
Mike

I did that already but with no improvement. What I don't understandis, why my device switchs on by itself, as if it detects a new SD card inserted while it is off!!
I don't want to be fast concluding it is a hardware problem, it is still under warranty, but I would like to send it only when I am sure it is hardware problem!

eldali said:
I did that already but with no improvement. What I don't understandis, why my device switchs on by itself, as if it detects a new SD card inserted while it is off!!
I don't want to be fast concluding it is a hardware problem, it is still under warranty, but I would like to send it only when I am sure it is hardware problem!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Need to establish if it's the card or device. Don't suppose you can access another card?
Mike

I have only one card, it seems I will have to buy another one, just to do the test! I will do that today in the evening, unless someone has better ideas.
thx
W.

There's a bit discussion going on already... see this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=294324

Well, I had some similar problems. Now I make sure that EVERY application & service running is on the main device memory (RAM). eMail attachments, browser cache, all today add-ons and all applications that run with a schedule (like Backup etc.) - Only documents, Tomtom Maps and Games are left on the SD card. Reduced freezes to one in a week.
Well, and I just ordered a Kingston card and will compare it to SanDisk. Both 2GB.

I tried another 512 Mbyte card, it seems better so far (only since 1 day). I didn't have any freezes, but the device wakes up by itself from time to time, although the option to wake up when a key is pressed is disabled. I can't understand this!!

Kingston 2GB card working perfect so far. Running WM6 (check my signature).

[Q] SD Card for newbies

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.

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.

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

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.

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 !!!

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.

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?

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.

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?

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.

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?

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?

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?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.

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

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

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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.

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

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?

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?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.

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

So the AT&T Focus come with no card?

Does the Focus come with a memory card?

No, but it comes with a micro SD Slot.
However, there are no officially certified cards that work with the focus. You can look at the sticky of this forum to see a lit of cards that have been tested by the members.

KonAitor said:
No, but it comes with a micro SD Slot.
However, there are no officially certified cards that work with the focus. You can look at the sticky of this forum to see a lit of cards that have been tested by the members.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I gave the sticky a good looking and saw it works with the Samsung 16GB C4 card. Good enough for me. Just needed to know if there was a card in it when I get mine so that I can install one before accumulating data and stuff.

Popular formatting method?
Is there a preferred method of formatting the cards, or will WinXP formatting tool be sufficient?
Thanks

MartyLK said:
Is there a preferred method of formatting the cards, or will WinXP formatting tool be sufficient?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All you'll need to do is put the card into the phone, and then do what's called the three-finger-salute. You'll need to hold down the power, volume-down, and camera buttons until it asks to do a hard reset/format.

MartyLK said:
Is there a preferred method of formatting the cards, or will WinXP formatting tool be sufficient?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need format it inside the phone together with the phone storage, e.g. hard reset/format the entire phone with the card inserted.
Also, if for some reason the card gives you issue with the phone and you decide not to use it anymore. You need to re-format the phone again. And your card will be useless unless you have a Nokia phone running Symbian OS. That's the only device that can re-format the card that is pulled out of WP7 phones like Focus.

Using a Sandisk 16GB C4 card. Formatted in WinXP, inserted it into phone and did the "Volume" + "Camera" + "Power" button combo to format in phone and initialize it.
A little off topic...I haven't had time to use the Focus yet. I had to make a quick run to a local mall to have the Ghost Armor put on the highly scratchable "Gorilla-Glass" screen. Been reading horror stories about how scratchable the Focus' screen is.

I don't know if it's a problem or just how the Focus is with 7004 firmware but, sometimes it acts funky about loading the main screen...where the tiles are. Sometimes, generally after running an app, when I go to the main screen, the tiles are slow about loading or showing. One time I had to reboot and then they all loaded right. Other times it take a few seconds to stabilize.

IIRC, slow loading home screen is a typical symton that the SD card is not working out well. Even after NoDo update, it will be the same. Microsoft did very little to fix the SD card issues. That hints it is the Samsung problem.

Since I've got the nodo update, all in all the phone is more stable, but I have been having the same problem with the main screen taking a few seconds to load, however its only when using the xda app and nothing else. Using a Kingston 16gb c4 sd card as well
Sent from my Focus using XDA Windows Phone 7 App

aksmurf said:
Since I've got the nodo update, all in all the phone is more stable, but I have been having the same problem with the main screen taking a few seconds to load, however its only when using the xda app and nothing else. Using a Kingston 16gb c4 sd card as well
Sent from my Focus using XDA Windows Phone 7 App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I notice the slow main screen loading issue when the phone is tasked with other stuff, like installing apps or updating email or news and such as that. My HD7 did the same thing from time to time. But my concern is with the installed card. It's a class 4 card and the experts are saying it isn't about speed or throughput but the ability to keep up with WP7. The class 2 cards may have slower read/writes times but they seem to be more capable of keeping up with WP7.
One thing is sure, I won't buy one of those highly over-priced certified models. I'll wait till the larger cards get certified and buy the common version...the one without the expensive WP7 logo.

[Q] HD2 WM7 Memory Issues

Hi all,
Have recently installed without issues WM7 on my HD2. Blows away the 6.5 junk that was on before.
I am getting memory issues though. I installed with the 2gb card that came with it - at first I could not even use to just send a text message so I swapped for another 2gb I had lying around and general use is now OK.
When trying to install any apps though from marketplace (I got code from MS) I hit memory issues straight away. I don't know how much of the 2gb is used for the build but I would have assumed the 2gb was fine.
Do I need a bigger card, is there a formatting I should do to the existing card, will all my settings be reset if I change cards?
Thanks all.
DP

dspuk said:
Hi all,
Have recently installed without issues WM7 on my HD2. Blows away the 6.5 junk that was on before.
I am getting memory issues though. I installed with the 2gb card that came with it - at first I could not even use to just send a text message so I swapped for another 2gb I had lying around and general use is now OK.
When trying to install any apps though from marketplace (I got code from MS) I hit memory issues straight away. I don't know how much of the 2gb is used for the build but I would have assumed the 2gb was fine.
Do I need a bigger card, is there a formatting I should do to the existing card, will all my settings be reset if I change cards?
Thanks all.
DP
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WP7 Formats the SDCard at the very first Boot (turn on) so if you just swapped the SDCard without resetting (Settings>About>Reset Phone) the phone to defaults then it isn't formatted properly and isn't recognized
And if you did then check in the About Screen to see how much space you have left

indeed, many many SD cards have a nasty habbit of not working, so if you do a reset with the SD card in and WP still doesnt see more than 150~MB of free space then the card is a dud (for WP) although some folk have suggested limited success with formatting it with a digital camera before hand.

[Q] I just cant get this to work!! Please Help!!

I am using the DFT WM7 11.11.11 HD2O© v1.23b1 WP7 BUILD 7720, with the stock sd card that came with my US T-mobile HD2, however some main issues I really cant figure out.
-Will not wake up from stand-by mode! (Have to remove battery to reboot!)
-Constant freezing when switching between apps
-Phone restarts when trying to load text messages (0 messages in folder)
-Gives the loading... screen when going to freeze.
Im stuck... how can I fix this please!

try removing the sd card and then see if the phone works. it could be your sd card isnt compatible with wp7 and is causing the issues

as above, its most likely your SD card, it may work but that doesnt mean its compatible, same goes for any of us, it may be fine right up to the point you fill xx% of the card then bam, lock ups etc

Thanks! Will do a lil bit more research on the sd card and find a more compatible one.

there isnt any "compatible" ones, its very much luck, (except some PNY cards that are now being sold and WP7 compatible) we may have the same card but one might not be any good.
However, you can increase your chances
stick to a class 2 or 4 card
build quality (branded) does not mean its going to work
the PNY cards (its not all of them, you need to check their website an find the model numbers) would be your safest bet but they do cost more than your average card, of course, it will cost less if you happen to get 3 dud cards in a row....
Mine is 90% compatible, the odd freeze here an there, if i fill the card with 200MB of music i can over come some of this, its almost like it has bad sectors that WP has a fit over, filling those sectors seems to fix my issues, until i hit the next set of bad sectors
however there isnt any actual bad sectors, a lengthy check told me they were all perfect so its more likely that some parts are quicker than others and perhaps that is why i have these issues.
hope that helps!