[Guide] Picking the right microSD card - HD2 Windows Phone 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting an

We have a thread for SD cards. Why are you posting this??
There seems to be a lot of confusion and FUD over in the "Confirmed Working SD Card" thread, so I thought I would share my knowledge about WP7 and my findings.
All SD cards are not created equal
There are 2 main measurements that differentiate SD card performance in terms of what we care about in WP7 phones:
Random Read IOPS
Random Write IOPS
IOPS ARE THE #1 FACTOR that determines if your card will work fluidly with WP7!!
I won't tell you exactly how I know this, but let's just say that I have discussed this at length with the people at Microsoft who built WP7.
Sequential Read/Write are a nice figure to look at, but doesn't mean much in terms of phones. Think about how phones behave. Most of the data and work they do is fleeting, and involves a lot of very very small transactions. IOPS are what we care about.
That's nice. How is this a guide, exactly?
Ok, smarty pants. This guide will show you a quick way of determining if your SD card will r0xx0r or suxx0r when you load WP7.
The steps
Go and get yourself a copy of CrystalDiskMark (it's free!)
Throw your microSD card into a USB or SD card adapter
Plug that bad boy into your computer
Launch CrystalDiskMark
Select your microSD in the drop-down list of disks
Run ALL tests for a couple of the data sizes (I like to do 50MB, 1000MB, and 4000MB). You can pick 1 pass or 5 passes. I like 5 because it eliminates the possibility of a spike or dip giving you false results.
Pay attention to the output.
Here are some samples:
Wintec 16GB Class 10
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1 x64 (C) 2007-2010 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]
Sequential Read : 18.736 MB/s
Sequential Write : 16.732 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 18.896 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 2.912 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 3.776 MB/s [ 921.8 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 0.028 MB/s [ 6.9 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 4.478 MB/s [ 1093.3 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 0.036 MB/s [ 8.7 IOPS]
Test : 50 MB [E: 0.0% (0.0/15.4 GB)] (x5)
Date : 2011/07/15 11:15:48
OS : Windows 7 SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SanDisk 8GB Class 2
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1 x64 (C) 2007-2010 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]
Sequential Read : 13.499 MB/s
Sequential Write : 5.885 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 12.898 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 3.427 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 0.932 MB/s [ 227.6 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 0.264 MB/s [ 64.5 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 0.635 MB/s [ 155.0 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 0.282 MB/s [ 68.9 IOPS]
Test : 50 MB [E: 0.0% (0.1/7077.3 MB)] (x5)
Date : 2011/07/15 13:46:27
OS : Windows 7 SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SanDisk 8GB Class 4
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1 x64 (C) 2007-2010 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]
Sequential Read : 18.787 MB/s
Sequential Write : 5.797 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 18.743 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 1.544 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 2.643 MB/s [ 645.2 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 0.497 MB/s [ 121.2 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 3.010 MB/s [ 734.9 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 0.497 MB/s [ 121.4 IOPS]
Test : 50 MB [E: 36.7% (2782.2/7572.0 MB)] (x5)
Date : 2011/07/15 16:05:38
OS : Windows 7 SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Transcend 8GB Class 4
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1 x64 (C) 2007-2010 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]
Sequential Read : 15.797 MB/s
Sequential Write : 10.916 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 15.751 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 2.230 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 4.832 MB/s [ 1179.7 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 0.025 MB/s [ 6.2 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 4.886 MB/s [ 1192.8 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 0.038 MB/s [ 9.3 IOPS]
Test : 50 MB [E: 0.0% (0.0/7771.0 MB)] (x5)
Date : 2011/07/16 8:14:19
OS : Windows 7 SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How to choose
As you can see from the examples above, the Class rating of the card means diddly squat.
What you'll want for a smooth-as-butter WP7 experience is the highest IOPS ratings you can get (on average) for both Random Read and Random Write. In the case of the examples above, that means using the SanDisk 8GB Class 4 card.
It's IOPS measurements mean that it will likely perform very smoothly in nearly every situation. Sure, a couple of the other cards beat it in Random Read IOPS, but remember that your phone will be reading and writing to the SD card constantly, since the nature of WP7 is to create a synthetic RAID across the internal storage and your SD card.
Comments, questions, and feedback
Hopefully this guide is helpful. If you find anything to be glaringly in error, or if you know better from your personal experience, please PM me and I'll make an update once I verify your correction.
Thanks and enjoy!

haha, i wish you had posted this a few hours earlier, i just wrote exactly the same thing
To add to what you have here ive copied some of what i was going to post
i dont think thats the full picture and after looking at 3 different cards, 2 of which dont work, 1 does, it does give a bit of a mixed bag of results
The first card listed below is slower in random reads, but just as quick in random writes as the working card, and yet it doesnt work
The last two cards are identical in reads but the working card is almost twice the speed in writes, what complicates things is the random write speeds on the working card is the same as the first card below, meaning it can not be just down to random writes, it must be a combo of read and writes or something else we're not seeing, anyone else confirm this?
Now there is only around 400KB difference in terms of random read speed between the first Dud card and the working card, or 100 IOPS
So from My tests we need to have a min of around +600 IOPS read and +10 IOPS for write on 4 k sectors
Also something else i noticed, if i changed the sector size to 4K it actually performed worse, ive not tried other sector sizes as it takes ages to completely format an 8GB SD card and im still using the working one so that would have to wait until i re flash it.
I think we need to be very very clear for this thead, this is not a thread for telling people what card does and doesnt work (please correct me if that is not the case?), its about trying to work out why cards do not work and if there is anything that can help with increasing the odds of getting a working card. Currently there is no way of knowing if a card will or will not work other than trying it!
Ive attached the file for testing the cards, but please visit the site as they deserve all the credit for this program
http://crystalmark.info/
8gb class 2 SD Dud
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1 (C) 2007-2010 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]
Sequential Read : 7.055 MB/s
Sequential Write : 3.808 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 7.063 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 2.420 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 2.047 MB/s [ 499.8 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 0.052 MB/s [ 12.6 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 2.277 MB/s [ 556.0 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 0.056 MB/s [ 13.8 IOPS]
Test : 100 MB [F: 46.3% (896.4/7938.1 MB)] (x5)
Date : 2011/07/16 16:01:49
OS : Windows 7 Ultimate Edition SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
8gb class 4 PNY dud
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1 (C) 2007-2010 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]
Sequential Read : 10.368 MB/s
Sequential Write : 5.773 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 10.343 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 1.796 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 2.510 MB/s [ 612.8 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 0.018 MB/s [ 4.4 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 2.503 MB/s [ 611.2 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 0.031 MB/s [ 7.5 IOPS]
Test : 100 MB [F: 0.9% (64.9/7592.0 MB)] (x5)
Date : 2011/07/16 16:08:00
OS : Windows 7 Ultimate Edition SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
8gb class 4 SD working
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1 (C) 2007-2010 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]
Sequential Read : 10.339 MB/s
Sequential Write : 4.299 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 10.355 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 2.471 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 2.510 MB/s [ 612.8 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 0.041 MB/s [ 10.1 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 2.505 MB/s [ 611.6 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 0.052 MB/s [ 12.7 IOPS]
Test : 100 MB [F: 0.0% (0.0/199.9 MB)] (x5)
Date : 2011/07/16 15:55:29
OS : Windows 7 Ultimate Edition SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

You're absolutely right!
This thread is about how to PICK the right SD card, not about exactly which one is the right one.
And from my list above, I used the SanDisk 8GB Class 4 because it had such high IOPS in all 4 tests that CrystalDiskMark runs: 600+ IOPS in both 4k Random Read tests and 100+ in both 4k Random Write tests.
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 2.643 MB/s [ 645.2 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 0.497 MB/s [ 121.2 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 3.010 MB/s [ 734.9 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 0.497 MB/s [ 121.4 IOPS]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's working quite well, and actually if you were to go to AT&T and buy an approved WP7 upgrade microSD (they do sell them, because on the Samsung Focus it is replaceable), you'd likely find that it will test the same -- higher IOPS in these 4 test scenarios.

maxawesome said:
You're absolutely right!
This thread is about how to PICK the right SD card, not about exactly which one is the right one.
And from my list above, I used the SanDisk 8GB Class 4 because it had such high IOPS in all 4 tests that CrystalDiskMark runs: 600+ IOPS in both 4k Random Read tests and 100+ in both 4k Random Write tests.
It's working quite well, and actually if you were to go to AT&T and buy an approved WP7 upgrade microSD (they do sell them, because on the Samsung Focus it is replaceable), you'd likely find that it will test the same -- higher IOPS in these 4 test scenarios.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thats a huge increase in write speeds, 10x mine, this is going to be completely subjective but i dont notice any lagging at all, perhaps a tad slow when buying something from the marketplace but otherwise its always very very quick, do you notice anything like that?.
what should be pointed out to anyone reading this is both the OP and myself have the same card, and yet there is a significant difference in write speeds, this is why you cant say one brand/model is compatible, its all to do with batch numbers
aye, the AT&T cards, ive heard about them, but being from the other side of the pond ive never seen one, couldnt see anything on ebay either. Im gussing they are quite expencive?
it would be quite intresting for others to drop a list of their cards speed and to note if its fully working, slightly laggy, random restarts or wont install. may be able to work out a base line for the min spec needed.
oh what would you think about standardising the way its tested?, i dont have a card reader so i did it via the phone, perhaps that makes a difference, USB speed and HUB also, file size needs to be 100MB too or it wouldnt work on a card thats already in use for WP (only 200MB visible), tomorrow i shall mess about with sector sizes to see what happens, i dont think it will make a big difference as WP formats the card anyway and im assuming it would set its own sector sizes.

Hello, id just like to write about my experience with my Sandisk 16 GB Class 2
At first, it worked perfectly, no lag and everything was fluent.
Then i started installing apps and it slowed right down. Bad response times, locking up and not loading the 'Phone and People' section at the top once scrolling back up for about 4 seconds.
So I heard it might be a good idea to dump a load of music on it to allow for the use of a different sku (bit technical for me) But now its slower than every, freezing, apps not loading, the pics that correspond to the apps not loading in time when i scroll.... everything.
I dont have any means of connecting my microSD to the computer just yet, so i ran WP BENCH app on my phone.
Here are the results;
50x 2MB
Internal Memory 11.27 MB/s External 0.21 MB/s
50x 0.2MB/s
Internal Memory 9.4MB/s External 0.12 MB/s
Cant help but notice that the external is extremely slow in comparison to the internal, you can see that as the size gets smaller (requires higher random access) the speed decreases.
It would be interesting to see what crystal mark does for my card. Will just have to wait till my adapter arrives.
My question is, what are the typical speeds for your 'perfect' card, that i should be seeeing here?'
Thanks

stevemilw said:
Hello, id just like to write about my experience with my Sandisk 16 GB Class 2
At first, it worked perfectly, no lag and everything was fluent.
Then i started installing apps and it slowed right down. Bad response times, locking up and not loading the 'Phone and People' section at the top once scrolling back up for about 4 seconds.
......
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i think thats what we're looking for, or at least a minimum speed to provide the best experience
you dont need an adaptor, this can be used for WP7 or a normal SD card, you can swap out the cards if you want without creating issues on yuor WP7, if you use a card thats not used for WP7 then you will see the full size of the SD card in windows, if it is used by WP7 it will only show you 200MB
Turn off phone,
Plug in to computer and turn on, hold down the power button (call end button on the right) and go in to MAGLDR,
Then using the VOL UP/DOWN keys go down to USB mass storage, push the left call button to run it, you might need to unplug the phone then plug it back in again
Windows will detect the 200MB SD card
Then using the program above, select the correct drive letter, change the test size to 100, test attempts to 5
when you are ready hit the green "ALL" button, it takes a while to run
once done hit edit, copy the paste your results here with the SD card name and size and if the card works.
to try other SD cards out just turn off the phone, swap out the cards and try it again, when you go back to windows phone you will need to set the correct time and date, ideally before you get any text messages

Thanks, i connected it as you said, but apparently 200mb is insufficient space and it wont allow me to perform any tests even at one sweep at 50mb
Ive also notice that WP Bench, has actually changed its results to about 1.63 MB/s, after ive left the phone for a while and not loaded any apps, it seems to work fine, accessing texts etc seems fluent.
But then when i open a few apps and try and do stuff it all freezes and its slow.
Seems very un-reliable.

stevemilw said:
Thanks, i connected it as you said, but apparently 200mb is insufficient space and it wont allow me to perform any tests even at one sweep at 50mb
Ive also notice that WP Bench, has actually changed its results to about 1.63 MB/s, after ive left the phone for a while and not loaded any apps, it seems to work fine, accessing texts etc seems fluent.
But then when i open a few apps and try and do stuff it all freezes and its slow.
Seems very un-reliable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it should work just fine, after you get that message try again, ive had that message before when the phone for some reason stops communicating with the computer,, pulled the battery, go in to magldr usb storage, then connect up again, if you want to check its connected propperly see if you can access it via My computer, it is only 200MB so you cant do a lot with it but even try copying a text file to it and delete it again, make sure you close the test program and re open it.
it should work just fine as long as you can access it via My computer as well.

I guess it is bad? (SanDisk 2GB)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1 (C) 2007-2010 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]
Sequential Read : 8.884 MB/s
Sequential Write : 7.091 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 8.901 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 1.160 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 2.886 MB/s [ 704.6 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 0.009 MB/s [ 2.3 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 3.073 MB/s [ 750.2 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 0.010 MB/s [ 2.5 IOPS]
Test : 1000 MB [F: 0.0% (0.0/1883.8 MB)] (x5)
Date : 2011/07/18 0:30:03
OS : Windows 7 Ultimate Edition SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x86)

jinge said:
I guess it is bad? (SanDisk 2GB)
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 2.886 MB/s [ 704.6 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 0.009 MB/s [ 2.3 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 3.073 MB/s [ 750.2 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 0.010 MB/s [ 2.5 IOPS]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you guess correctly, i have another 2GB sandisk class 2 that performs much the same except with 8 IOPS write and its a bit flaky but does boot, i wonder if 10 IOPS is the lower limit for writes?

Is there a way to test a card which is used by WP7? Or does it have to be fat/ntfs formated?

jinge said:
Is there a way to test a card which is used by WP7? Or does it have to be fat/ntfs formated?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yup, follow the directions below
you dont need an adaptor, this can be used for WP7 SD card or a normal SD card, you can swap out the cards if you want without creating issues on your WP7, if you use a card thats not used for WP7 then you will see the full size of the SD card in windows, if it is used by WP7 it will only show you 200MB
•Turn off phone,
•Plug in to computer and turn on, hold down the power button (call end button on the right) and go in to MAGLDR,
•Then using the VOL UP/DOWN keys go down to USB mass storage, push the left call button to run it, you might need to unplug the phone then plug it back in again
•Windows will detect the 200MB SD card
•Then using the program above, select the correct drive letter, change the test size to 100, test attempts to 5
•when you are ready hit the green "ALL" button, it takes a while to run
•once done hit edit, copy the paste your results here with the SD card name and size and if the card works.
•to try other SD cards out just turn off the phone, swap out the cards and try it again, when you go back to windows phone you will need to set the correct time and date, ideally before you get any text messages
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

it should work just fine, after you get that message try again, ive had that message before when the phone for some reason stops communicating with the computer,, pulled the battery, go in to magldr usb storage, then connect up again, if you want to check its connected propperly see if you can access it via My computer, it is only 200MB so you cant do a lot with it but even try copying a text file to it and delete it again, make sure you close the test program and re open it.
it should work just fine as long as you can access it via My computer as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ive tried it several times now, at first i have access to it in my computer, can copy etc, but then i run the test and it comes up with a 'write error' after waiting 2 miniutes. Then i cannot copy anything to it in my computer or view any of the files in it.
Strange.. im am using w7 64bit, not think it makes any difference though.

dazza9075 said:
yup, follow the directions below
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thx! Still wondering why WP7 is sooooooooooo long to turn off.. It takes more than 1 minute! (with this SD)
Little bit better (WP7 is running well, but have some slow times (like changing menu, but sometimes only), the most often when going back to the tiles menu
Anyway, kingston 8GB Class 4
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Random Read 512KB : 18.099 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 1.882 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 3.932 MB/s [ 960.0 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 0.043 MB/s [ 10.6 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 4.262 MB/s [ 1040.6 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 0.069 MB/s [ 17.0 IOPS]
---
That confirms my thoughts, I guess I can find one better... Will go for a sandisk 8 or 16gb.

16GB Sandisk class 2. Card is questionably slow on regular read and write speeds.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1 x64 (C) 2007-2010 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]
Sequential Read : 4.997 MB/s
Sequential Write : 3.473 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 4.959 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 0.989 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 2.368 MB/s [ 578.2 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 0.779 MB/s [ 190.1 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 2.166 MB/s [ 528.7 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 0.580 MB/s [ 141.5 IOPS]
Test : 100 MB [F: 0.0% (0.0/199.9 MB)] (x5)
Date : 2011/07/21 22:33:28
OS : Windows 7 Ultimate Edition SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)

stevemilw said:
16GB Sandisk class 2. Card is questionably slow on regular read and write speeds.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1 x64 (C) 2007-2010 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]
Sequential Read : 4.997 MB/s
Sequential Write : 3.473 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 4.959 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 0.989 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 2.368 MB/s [ 578.2 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 0.779 MB/s [ 190.1 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 2.166 MB/s [ 528.7 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 0.580 MB/s [ 141.5 IOPS]
Test : 100 MB [F: 0.0% (0.0/199.9 MB)] (x5)
Date : 2011/07/21 22:33:28
OS : Windows 7 Ultimate Edition SP1 [6.1 Build 7601] (x64)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope thats fine for a class 2, the class 2 cards say it should have a minimum write speed of 2MBps, you meet that an then some, my question to you is, do you find that WP7 works without issues and super quick?
thats some impressive random speeds which suggests it should be amazing?

I would say no!!
It works quick going through menus etc, loading up texts, but only if you havent tried to open any applications.
As soon as you start to install applications, and close them, then open another etc, it starts getting slow. Custom icons on downloaded apps dont load in time when scrolling.
I find the phone is at its smoothest when its been left for a while after installing applications. When you first start it it takes about 2-5 seconds before the menus are scrolable without jerkyness.
Sometimes the phone loads and displays a 'card not compatible' error, after installing appilcations.
Also, sometimes after opening and closing a few apps, opening a new one will freeze and crash back to the menu.
Other than that, everything is nice and smooth.;
I have no basis of comparison since i havent used any other wp7 device but making calls can sometimes be annoying when you press end and a takes a little while to end the call.
Also takes AGES to switch off, about a miniute, but i think thats a common problem.
****
Just to iterate, if i dont install any applications, then everything is running as smooth as butter! If i start opening loads of apps in quick seccession then we may encounter slight lag. If i open an app for a second time then i almost everytime, cant open it (crashes back to the menu)
Seeing as mine is the higher end IOPS cards, i think this is the best were going to get!

Does android run of the SD or WP7?
Im guessing that one would run slower.

Ive never ran android on my phone. Just installed MAGLDR 1.3 and then WP7
Before that i had energy rom, so i still get this logo when i start the phone.

Here are two new SanDisk Cards:
Sandisk 16GB Class 2 [Edit] I tried it, works great!! Just had 1 reboot, but because I had no more battery!
Sequential Read : 8.716 MB/s
Sequential Write : 5.714 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 8.629 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 1.256 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 2.480 MB/s [ 605.5 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 0.509 MB/s [ 124.2 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 2.431 MB/s [ 593.4 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 0.461 MB/s [ 112.6 IOPS]
Sandisk 8GB Class 2
Sequential Read : 8.778 MB/s
Sequential Write : 6.300 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 8.724 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 1.229 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 2.764 MB/s [ 674.9 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 1.227 MB/s [ 299.4 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 2.627 MB/s [ 641.2 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 0.794 MB/s [ 194.0 IOPS]
As you can see the 2nd one has quite good results
But I haven"t tried it yet, have to find how to back up before flashing

Related

Mini SD Benchmark

Hi,
i have got a 1GB SanDisk Mini SD in my Wizard and i wanted to know how fast it is. i have done a benchmark with following tool:
http://spbsoftwarehouse.com/downloads/45/SpbBenchmark.e
Here are my results:
SanDisk 1GB:
Writing 1 MB file 3194.4
Reading 1 MB file 1112.6
Copying 1 MB file to storage card 1006.2
Copying 1 MB file from storage card 1042.9
Writing 100 of 10 KB files 39187.6
Reading 100 of 10 KB files 1286.8
Copying 100 of 10 KB files to storage card 36057.7
Copying 100 of 10 KB files from storage card 36231.4
Directory listing: 2000 files 378.5
I have done a comparison with other Memory Cards (SD) with other devices and have recognized that my card is not as fast as other SD Cards. Here is a link (unfortunately in german) where you can find a lot of results (i recommend to switch to the last page at once because these results are the new one):
[url]http://www.pocketnavigation.de/board/thread.php?threadid=6844&threadview=0&hilight=Extr ememory&hilightuser=0&page=1
[/url]
What i want to know: Is the SanDisk the slowest part in the system or is it the Wizard itself. To find out i need your help: I want you to do also a benchmark and post the results here. This will help us, to speed up the Wizard by buying an apropriate Mini SD Card to a reasonable price.
You need to install the tool (it is very easy) perform a test, post the results and unistall the tool again.
Thanx in advance.
Hi
I have bought a 120X fast 1 GB mini sd from ebay.
Here is my test results:
O2 Mini S with K-jam wwe rom
120x 1GB Mini SD
Writing 1 MB file 2386
Reading 1 MB file 67
Copying 1 MB file to storage card 820
Copying 1 MB file from storage card 1361
Writing 100 of 10 KB files 16215
Reading 100 of 10 KB files 250
Copying 100 of 10 KB files to storage card 11156
Copying 100 of 10 KB files from storage card 4682
Directory listing: 2000 files 357
Have you measured this in/with your QTEK?
i dont understand: if i compare your results with mine you can be lucky!! A very fast card compared to mine
topcaser said:
Have you measured this in/with your QTEK?
i dont understand: if i compare your results with mine you can be lucky!! A very fast card compared to mine
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I have measured this in my o2 xda mini
but what i dont understand is how the result works is the lower numbers you get mean a faster card or the other way around
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
wadialdoor said:
topcaser said:
Have you measured this in/with your QTEK?
i dont understand: if i compare your results with mine you can be lucky!! A very fast card compared to mine
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I have measured this in my o2 xda mini
but what i dont understand is how the result works is the lower numbers you get mean a faster card or the other way around
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The measurement is done in ms. The lower the numbers the faster the card. It measures the time which lasts if a e.g. 1MB file is read from your storage card. The lower, the faster.
topcaser said:
wadialdoor said:
topcaser said:
Have you measured this in/with your QTEK?
i dont understand: if i compare your results with mine you can be lucky!! A very fast card compared to mine
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I have measured this in my o2 xda mini
but what i dont understand is how the result works is the lower numbers you get mean a faster card or the other way around
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The measurement is done in ms. The lower the numbers the faster the card. It measures the time which lasts if a e.g. 1MB file is read from your storage card. The lower, the faster.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok mate
Can you test your card speed in your pc using a card reader and the tool attached to this post choose KByte/Sec & post the result here
Unfortunatly not because i have no adapter to SD. I will get it in appr. one week.

Memory missing?

Hi,
in the prophet specs it says that it is supposed to have 128MB storage and 64MB RAM.
When i pop open the memory in settings it says:
Storage
Total: 47.46
In Use: 18.37
Free: 29.09
Program
Total: 44.01
In Use: 33.69
Free: 10.32
Where is my 64 and 128? Have the memory nomes stolen it?
Cheers,
Oz.
Yes, those gnomes are tricky little bustards
But seriously, I wrote this before and I am writing it again:
128 and 64 are "box numbers".
First, the calculation there is a bit off because they round up 1024 to 1000 when calculating KB and MB. It's just like with a memory card or PC hard disk, even with nothing on it you see a bit less.
Than there is the division:
128 ROM is all your flash and it is divided as follows:
64MB +/- OS Image, 10MB Extended ROM, whatever is left - yours to do with as you please.
64 RAM - well we already established that you should see around 55 instead of 64, plus the OS reserves some so there you go.
Those numbers are normal although we all wish they could be bigger (the available part any way).

Turbo Speed X1 - ROM 1 - Performance Thread, tweaks and benchmarks

Here it is the thread you all been waiting for, these simple tools and freely avaliable software will turbo charge your X1 into the stratosphere, safely, consistantly and error free, upto 8 X faster !!!
To check these wild claims use SKTools 5 supplied here, within there is a benchmark program to test key paramenters like Video speed and Memory Card speeds, run benchmark a few times to get a consistant reading.
View attachment SKTools5.CAB
To find the Bench mark Program: Click Catagory at the bottom, then Information, then you will find the benchmark program.
1) Turbo charge your micro SD card.
View attachment 137353
This simple program written by XDA developers will increase the read speed of your micro SD card by a facter of 8 !
Benchmark before program: Read Speed: 2,000 approx
Benchmark after program: Read Speed: 16,000 approx
2) Turbo charge your graphics
Within SkTools5 there is a program called Optimize, it is under the first catagory : Standard. It will automatically pick 3 settings that can be adjusted, tick Font Cache Size and TCP window size. Then click the Action button at the bottom, make sure Performance is ticked and then click Optimize. The program will then do a soft reset.
Using Benchmark: Draw bitmaps: before Optimize: around 180, pathetic ! a 5 year old can draw faster than that.
Using benchmark: Draw bitmaps: after Optimize : around 780 - wow ! i-robot speed ha ha
Thats 4 X graphics - its smokin !
3) General performace tweaks
View attachment Schaps_AdvancedConfig_v2.0.2.0.CAB
Using Advanced Configuration settings, under performances check these settings.
File System Cache: Enabled
File System cache size: 8mb
File system filter cache: 16384 sectors
Glyph cache: 32 kb
The effect of all these tweaks and enhancements means I can play 800 x 480 video perfectly just like TV, and Touch 3D is silky smooth and fast.
These are not idle claims, my X1 has vastly improved performance all round, I am finally happy with my X1, it rocks, bring on that iphone and our 'cuz' the Touch HD.
With this site.
And a bit of insight.
Through our will.
And XDA Developer skill.
The X1 is...the king of the hill
View attachment 137362
thanks a lot. Will try out later
Don't see much of a difference but then again i had most of these tweaks already in with the exception of the sd card read/write speed increase.
I did these tweaks and like Bxsteez only the SD card read speed increased.. from around 2000kb to 15-16k kb... However the bitmat draw speed was already 781 from the start.. perhaps there are ways to evern further increase it?
And what more can we do?
Thank you so much!
Increasing the filesystem cache improved my file navigation. The Windows folder used to take a long time to display, now it's faster.
Can't see much improvement on the display though. BTW, any trade offs in terms of battery life with the tweaks?
Thanks for the tnyynt SD TuneUP.cab and it indeed make the Micro SD Card reading faster.
However, the Advanced Config program is not so good compared to another version I have as I cannot find many section like the calendars etc.
Thanks for your effort anyway.
Can anyone say what the dispaly/graphics tweaks do? Are they modifying certain registry entries?
Could someone tell us what is exactly changed, so we don't need to download that program, and can manually edit the registry entries?
Same for the SD Card tweak, what exactly is being changed here?
For learning for us all, I think it is much more interesting and important to know what is being done and being applied so we can learn from it and improve further, than just blindly install .CAB files!
I believe you can use advanced config to do all of those tweaks with the exception of the sd card tweak. I have no idea what is being done there.
The fastest X1 in the west !
After all your tweaking and performance enhancements, its time to put your X1's on the track. Tick all 6 benchmark catagories in SKTools5 and run the test, if anyone consistantly gets higher than any of these results please post your results, and any explanation or tools you may have to help us all improve.
Rules, there are none, may the fastest X1 win !
Custom Roms entries are welcome , any smokin hot rods out there ?
I have a stock Rom with a 16 gb sd card
Phone and wifi ( traction control ) off
Integer: 329
Floating point :7.47
Ram access:1519
Draw Bitmaps:797
Main storage (write):11070
Main storage (read):17066
Storage card (write): 483
Storage card (read): 16832
Can you brake the 800 barrier on Bitmaps ?
Can your SD card out run the 17,000 sound barrier
Mark A Cilenti said:
After all your tweaking and performance enhancements, its time to put your X1's on the track. Tick all 6 benchmark catagories in SKTools5 and run the test, if anyone consistantly gets higher than any of these results please post your results, and any explanation or tools you may have to help us all improve.
Rules, there are none, may the fastest X1 win !
Custom Roms entries are welcome , any smokin hot rods out there ?
I have a stock Rom with a 16 gb sd card
Phone and wifi ( traction control ) off
Integer: 329
Floating point :7.47
Ram access:1519
Draw Bitmaps:797
Main storage (write):11070
Main storage (read):17066
Storage card (write): 483
Storage card (read): 16786
Can you brake the 800 barrier on Bitmaps ?
Can your SD card out run the 17,000 sound barrier
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, below are my Benchmark results :
Integer: 332.1045
Floating point :7.513
Ram access:1417
Draw Bitmaps:801
Main storage (write):11191.26
Main storage (read):16297.08
Storage card (write): 646
Storage card (read): 16384
Contender
Hi Chongbh
Nice Bitmaps, I bet your runnin a 4gb card ?
Mark A Cilenti said:
Hi Chongbh
Nice Bitmaps, I bet your runnin a 4gb card ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, you are right. Still running on default 4GB MicroSD Card.
Mine with Jacks 1.06 ROM
Integer: 329.2297
Floating point :7.486
Ram access:1481
Draw Bitmaps:789
Main storage (write):10326.05
Main storage (read):15794.66
Ramdisk (write): 5394.21
Ramdisk (read): 16925.62
Although I think i've slowed it down a bit by installing/uninstalling too much stuff, perhaps it'll be better with a fresh installation
Ram disc nitrous !
Hi, THJahar
Whats the ramdisc, that more than 10 X my SD write, you,ve taken the lead, for now ha ha
Mine with Jacks 1.07 ROM
Integer: 328
Floating point :7.442
Ram access:1470
Draw Bitmaps:787
Main storage (write):11548
Main storage (read):15022
Ramdisk (write): 5242
Ramdisk (read): 15835
Ran twice
Thanks for this write up. I got:
Integer: 328.89
Floating point :7.521
Ram access:990
Draw Bitmaps:786
Main storage (write):8641.35
Main storage (read):11273.39
Storage card (write): 409.03
Storage card (read): 15633.59
Why are my numbers lower?
ok ran it again just to be sure:
Integer: 331.2134
Floating point :7.54
Ram access:1510
Draw Bitmaps:798
Main storage (write):8904.35
Main storage (read):13444.20
Storage card (write): 425.54
Storage card (read): 16605.41
Yay at least everything went up the 2nd time haha.
Hmmm whats the down side of applying all those tweaks?
battery life?
heat?
Can we undo all of those changes and get the phone back to what it was just in case something goes wrong ?
Thanks
what about the camera recording/encoding at vga?
any enhancement with these tweaks?
rotsu said:
Hmmm whats the down side of applying all those tweaks?
battery life?
heat?
Can we undo all of those changes and get the phone back to what it was just in case something goes wrong ?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
memory leaks = more freq. soft resets. they're all just registry changes so easy to revert.
aussiebum said:
memory leaks = more freq. soft resets. they're all just registry changes so easy to revert.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What are you talking about? Most tweaks are just use more memory for caching to increase performance. The SD cab probably just enable DMA to increase throughput. All of them has nothing to do w/ memory leak.
BTW, why use SKtool instead of SPB Benchmark? SPB takes much longer but provide more detail.

HTC Touch HD Benchmark

Hi,
I have run benchmark test on my HD, using spbBenchmark, result as below. Is it "acceptable"? I found that the file system benchmark index is far lower than other devices. What could cause the poor performance, hardware? Anyway to tune it?
I also run storage card test, and it is better than other brand.
kkchan
Spb Benchmark index
553
CPU index
1877
File system index
245
Graphics index
1464
ActiveSync index
16135
Platform index
Write 1 MB file (KB/sec)
594
Read 1 MB file (MB/sec)
17.4
Copy 1 MB file (KB/sec)
826
Write 10 KB x 100 files (KB/sec)
96.5
Read 10 KB x 100 files (MB/sec)
0.751
Copy 10 KB x 100 files (KB/sec)
130
Directory list of 2000 files (thousands of files/sec)
7.84
Internal database read (records/sec)
1269
Graphics test: DDB BitBlt (frames/sec)
129
Graphics test: DIB BitBlt (frames/sec)
32.5
Graphics test: GAPI BitBlt (frames/sec)
167
Pocket Word document open (KB/sec)
error
Pocket Internet Explorer HTML load (KB/sec)
error
Pocket Internet Explorer JPEG load (KB/sec)
error
File Explorer large folder list (files/sec)
755
Compress 1 MB file using ZIP (KB/sec)
194
Decompress 1024x768 JPEG file (KB/sec)
643
Arkaball frames per second (frames/sec)
120
CPU test: Whetstones MFLOPS (Mop/sec)
0.102
CPU test: Whetstones MOPS (Mop/sec)
61.8
CPU test: Whetstones MWIPS (Mop/sec)
6.87
Memory test: copy 1 MB using memcpy (MB/sec)
114
ActiveSync: upload 1 MB file (KB/sec)
1786
ActiveSync: download 1 MB file (KB/sec)
1638
Beside, what could cause IE can MS Word test fail?
Thank you
Haven't done this benchmark myself, but your write speed seemed very low. Try tnyynt SD TuneUP.cab, give it a search (tuneup).
Hi,
I have installed this cab. Storage Card only benchmark show extreme fast performance. However, Main test File System show slow. I guess Main Test is testing ROM/RAM instead of storage card.
EDITED: I have kaspersky mobile security installed. Do you think it slow down my gadget? I ever try to stop it real-time protection and re-run the benchmark. It has 10-20% improvement, but still not as good as benchmark posted from other site.

[Q] New Kingston 16GB Class 4 MicroSDHC Card + 32kb Used Space

Hello to everyone.
I just received a Kingston 16Gb Class4 MicroSDHC Card. The card according to Kingston's specs is preformatted in FAT32 format. I checked the card and saw that although it was totally empty, when I made a right click and chose properties, it showed as "Used Space: 32768 bytes (32kb)".
I can assume that those 32kb are related to the cluster size. Am I right? Do I have to reformat the card (to the same or to another format type e.g. FAT) and change that cluster size in an other most efficient size or shall i leave it as it is?
The preselection of FAT32 format with a cluster size of 32kb (if I have understood correctly what represents that 32kb in Used Space) is the most efficient one selection?
Thanks in advance.
John
Leave it as it is. ALL file systems, even after a format, use a very very small portion. It's normal.
Thanks for answering
Best Regards,
John

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