23 replies to this topic

[dmrtn]

I bought the SanDisk 32GB Ultra Mobile Class 10 from a reputable seller (mymemory.co.uk, have used them before) so it's highly unlikely that it's a knock off but I've had nothing but problems since I got it.

Originally I had a 1Gb Class 4 card in my phone and it worked fine. I got the SanDisk and it worked fine for a while but after about two months it just one day stopped working and couldn't be read. I got a replacement and put it in my phone a few days ago (in the meantime I went back to the 1Gb card which worked perfectly)

Ever since I put it in, I've had nothing but trouble. The phone crashes regularly, I need to restart it at least 3-4 times a day, Processes stop expectedly (in particular the ones that are on the card but not only those) and folders disappear from the card, particularly music. As if it has been deleted.

Is it possible that this card is too high a speed for G300? Should I just buy a slower one and try it out? Is it to do with the size of the card?

I'm pretty pissed off with it at the moment, to be honest. After getting a second card I think it's fairly clear that it's not the card, its something between the phone and the card.

Any advice? Anyone had problems with this card? Anyone have the card and had no problems? Would rooting help this issue?

My phone is not rooted, model U8815, Android 2.3.6

I was intending on rooting the phone when I got this card working, but I can't with it not working properly.

Thanks for any help you can give.

Edited by dmrtn, 07 February 2013 - 07:52 PM.

[ChrisPNE]

Have you tried formatting the card using the phone?

[dmrtn]

Hi. Yeah I saw that advice so I formatted the card with NTFS in my laptop and then formatted it with my phone (to FAT32, I assume)

[dalyer]

I doubt that it's "too fast". I'm using a class 10 16GB SanDisk possibly also from MyMemory no problem (so far). I was using a class 10 32GB SanDisk definitely from MyMemory before that. Maybe it's just a dodgy card? Could you run some continuous read/write tests on the PC just to check? The phone will have formatted it as FAT32.

[dmrtn]

When I said "too fast" I meant too high a spec. I didn't really think it was a good reason I just had seen it mentioned in another thread where they were discussing similar issues with the same card.

http://www.modaco.co...page__hl__ 32gb

So if it works for you then it works in general. I suppose it could be the card itself, it just seems unlikely that I would get two defective cards in a row.

I'll try the continuous read/write tests. Any advice on how do that?

[poludeli_kaktus]

Try to format with mini partition tool, maybe that help... but my personal opinion is that card is not compatible with your phone. Maybe is solution to buy card same producer originaly card (1gb).

[dalyer]

Sorry by "too fast" I also meant class 10 for example - i.e. this speed class is not inherently incompatible with the G300 for sure.

If two cards gave similar problems in your phone then there's a possibility that your phone/sdcard slot could be the problem.

If I was testing sdcards I'd look for one of the tools that does speed and/or capacity and/or integrity testing.

As ever it's a process of elimination to try to identify the root cause...

Hope this helps.

[BuckminsterFullerene]

I would recommend using the official format utility from the SD Association at https://www.sdcard.o...ds/formatter_4/

This utility supports Win7 / Win8 / Vista / XP and Mac.

BTW, I am using a 64GB Sandisk Mobile Ultra (Class 10 UHS 1) in my G300 and it works perfectly after formatting as fat32. (Have two G300 phones using 64GB Sandisk card with no problems ..... not bad for approx £39 each including SD Adapter to read card in old SD slots.)

Many phones that state they only support 32GB will work with 64GB, you just need to ensure the card is formatted as fat32 and NOT exFat.

[dmrtn]

BuckminsterFullerene, on 16 February 2013 - 05:59 PM, said:

I would recommend using the official format utility from the SD Association at https://www.sdcard.o...ds/formatter_4/

This utility supports Win7 / Win8 / Vista / XP and Mac.

BTW, I am using a 64GB Sandisk Mobile Ultra (Class 10 UHS 1) in my G300 and it works perfectly after formatting as fat32. (Have two G300 phones using 64GB Sandisk card with no problems ..... not bad for approx £39 each including SD Adapter to read card in old SD slots.)

Many phones that state they only support 32GB will work with 64GB, you just need to ensure the card is formatted as fat32 and NOT exFat.

Thank you for this. Going to try this formatting.

For the record, I have reformatted the card in my phone again and this time tried using it without moving any of my apps to the card. It worked for about a week until all the music files started being moved to the LOST.DIR folder again. I was very careful about plugging it into and out of my PC, doing the process in the correct order, etc, and in fact I avoided this completely apart from just after the formatting.

Here's a question which I am wondering about, I doubt anyone can answer though. Is it worth trying rooting the phone? If there is some issue with the software and the phone I guess it will help but if there is actually a problem with the card reader in the phone then the problem will remain?

I'll try this formatting software first though.

EDIT: Just so you know, the card has always been formatted with FAT32 when I've tried to use it.

Edited by dmrtn, 17 February 2013 - 02:24 PM.

[BuckminsterFullerene]

Files appearing in the LOST.DIR indicate that during use the card is getting corrupted.
Android is recovering the files during the Filesystem Check at startup and they are appearing in the LOST.DIR.
This could indicate a bad card or a badly formatted card.

Try re-formatting the card using the sd formatting utility and select the 'FULL (OverWrite)' option.

During the format all data areas will be written to. Any permanently faulty sectors will fail being written to and hence the format will fail.
Note: A full format of all the card will take a long time.

If the card formats OK test the card (roughly) as follows:

1) create a large zip file of approx 1GB size using Winrar  Link to Winrar (32bit) http://www.rarlab.com/rar/wrar420.exe

2) Use the 'Test' option in Winrar to test the approx 1GB zip file. (recreate zip file if it fails)

3) Copy the file to the microsdxc card as File1.zip

4) Repeat step 3 renaming the file to the next in the sequence (2.3.4......30.31) until card full.

if copy fails before card full ..... card faulty

6) if all 31 file are copied OK, run winrar and select all *.zip files on the card and execute the test option.
This will read all the *.zip files and test they read back as complete bitwise.

if the test fails there appears to be a read error and the card is faulty.

Yes, I know this test is crude but it quickly will find a faulty card.
I also know that the last 1gb (approx) is not tested. Smaller zip files can be additionally copied to test this if you want.

[dmrtn]

BuckminsterFullerene, on 17 February 2013 - 06:07 PM, said:

Files appearing in the LOST.DIR indicate that during use the card is getting corrupted.
Android is recovering the files during the Filesystem Check at startup and they are appearing in the LOST.DIR.
This could indicate a bad card or a badly formatted card.

...

Yes, I know this test is crude but it quickly will find a faulty card.
I also know that the last 1gb (approx) is not tested. Smaller zip files can be additionally copied to test this if you want.

This is fantastic and exactly what I've been looking for. Thank you very much!

Crude and quickly is my style!

[hippy dave]

I've been having similar problems with the class 10 32gb SanDisk I bought from Amazon in January. It sporadically unmounts, corrupts etc. I get the impression from the forum that this phone just doesn't get on well with certain cards, and this seems to be one of them.
Happily, I told Amazon of the incompatibility problem and they've said I can return it for a refund, so I can buy a different brand.

[dmrtn]

Just a quick update on this.

I did exactly as BuckminsterFullerene advised. Formatted the card using this program. Tested the card using the zip files and everything was fine. There was less than 200MB left over untested but I went ahead and used the card anyway.

Within a day there was one (numbered, no extension) file in my LOST.DIR. The next day there were 3. Today there are 10. Not sure where these files are coming from exactly (I don't know if there is a way I can test?) but it looks like the method isn't giving me any joy.

I might get in touch with the company I bought the card from to see if they will swap it, thanks for that advice, Hippy Dave.

[Combat Gerbil]

Also to note , especially for cards bought on ebay/Amazon.. there are a hell of a lot of fakes around that are only 2-4 gig masked as 32 gb... I bought two off Amazon and both were fakes. Your best bet is to buy from a highstreet retailer as you can always take it back easily. the 32gb class 10's I bought locally work fine..
Use a testing utility such as h2testw_1.4 which you should be able to find if you google it... I think there may also be links on this forum somewhere..

Edited by Combat Gerbil, 21 February 2013 - 10:12 AM.

[dmrtn]

Combat Gerbil, on 21 February 2013 - 10:10 AM, said:

Also to note , especially for cards bought on ebay/Amazon.. there are a hell of a lot of fakes around that are only 2-4 gig masked as 32 gb... I bought two off Amazon and both were fakes. Your best bet is to buy from a highstreet retailer as you can always take it back easily. the 32gb class 10's I bought locally work fine..
Use a testing utility such as h2testw_1.4 which you should be able to find if you google it... I think there may also be links on this forum somewhere..

Thanks for this. I have actually tested my card using that h2testw tester and it comes out fine. No errors. I didn't do the complete test because that would mean deleting everything off the card but the thing is that every test I do on the card shows that it is in perfect working order and there are no bad sectors, no errors at all. All 32gb present and correct. And as I said I was able to fill up the card with almost 30gb of data with the previous test.

Incidentally, I just had another major crash and lo and behold my LOST.DIR has gigs of data in it now and most of my music files have disappeared along with some ringtones I use. This is just getting ridiculous. it seems to usually start with a crashing app, Viber and Youtube (irrespective of whether these apps are on the phone or the external card) seem to be the main culprits but it's too hard to know if they are causing the issues or just the symptoms.

I think I'm just going back to my older 1gb card and seeing if I can get the SanDisk one changed. I might do a complete factory reset on the phone too while I'm at it.

EDIT: just to add, mymemory.co.uk are the company that I bought from. They are pretty reliable, or at least have been in the past, and are well established. They have already supplied a replacement card when I returned the first one so hopefully they will supply a replacement from a different supplier.

Edited by dmrtn, 21 February 2013 - 03:21 PM.

[BuckminsterFullerene]

dmrtn,

IMO, I think you have actually found the problem.

You stated that you have crashing apps. (Viber and YouTube app)

If the app crash corrupts memory and/or the filesystem on the card it will be possible for the filestructure on the card to be corrupted.

The Android OS runs a filesystem check at various times and 'fixes' the filesystem corruption, which can result in the files being recovered to LOST.DIR if the directory structure is too corrupt.

You need to solve the crashing apps to fix this problem, I personally, don't think your card is likely to be faulty.

You have used two methods to test the card and not found an error.

Can you identify when the crashing started ?

i.e. after a particular app was installed or de-installed etc

Can you go back to a backup of a working stable setup on you phone ?

Can you swap the card to another phone which is stable to see if it works if there are NO app crashes ?

Just some ideas to play with.

[dmrtn]

Thanks again for your response.

I know what you're saying, however balanced against that is the fact that none of the apps I am, and have, been running crash when I have my old 1gb card in the phone like I have now. There isn't even a brand on the card, I got it in an old Nokia at least three years ago so i imagine it's a class4.

I'm going to use this card for a week or so and see how it goes, if any crashes occur, lost folder filling up, etc. But seeing as it has always worked without problem, I'm not really expecting that.

[U8815]

I have the same card from the same shop and experience similar problems except I don't get crashing apps. Sometimes the phone just has a problem reading the card and if I take it out and put it back in it reads fine. About a month ago it couldn't read it at all and neither could my PC. I formatted it using SDFormatter and it worked fine again.

A few days ago I saw this thread and checked LOST.DIR. There were 3 files in there but the card was working fine.

This morning the phone couldn't read the card at all. PC can't read it either. Well Windows shows 1 file named DOWN.LOA. When I look at the card using Recuva it says "Unable to read boot sector".

I'm going to try a full format using the phone but I'm thinking I need a different card. I'm a very light user, have less than 2GB on the card, no music. It's not like the card is being written to or read from a lot.

[BuckminsterFullerene]

Overall, if the crashes are happening ONLY when the card is in the phone it does not look good.

Last idea I have is an old trick for cleaning electrical contacts on cards/daughter-boards/etc in Electronic Equipment.

Use clean Eraser (preferably one made of rubber and not the modern synthetic/plastic versions) to clean the metal contacts on the card , just rub it vigorously across the contacts a few times.

It will remove any oxidation and/or surface grime to give a better electrical contact. (Make sure there are no bits of rubber left on the contacts or it will be worse than before !!)

If this does not help it look like the card is definitely due returning for a new card under the warranty.

[george109]

To find if you could have this problem try this:

1. Plug in the phone to a PC and go to the notifications and click usb storage and then click turn on USB storage
2. Get H2TestW (Direct link)
3. Run it on the phone AND the SD card memory.
4. Report any errors back here, if you get any


I would also recommend clearing the Cache (settings -> Apps -> Scroll along at the top -> click all -> click clear cache

You could completely wipe the SD card, But only do that once you have tried everything above, and Post back here, and I will show you an easy(ish) way...

George

Edited by george109, 27 February 2013 - 09:05 PM.