4gig Sd Works Only Sometimes


hicksman

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Sep 30, 2006
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I recently dug out the gp2x and started fiddling with it again. I've never had much luck with my Adata 4gig SD (NOT SDHC). When I first started using it, it worked fine, but after a short while, I started having problems where the GP2x wouldnt ever see the card as being in the unit. The autorun wouldnt go, and if i went to the games or explore menu, i wouldnt see anything there either.

Today I spent probably 3 or 4 hours copying things to the card and testing it. I've found that I can get a few hundred megs of stuff on there and it works fine, but even then, sometimes I would have to turn off the unit, pull the card out and try it again. After doing that once or twice, it would work. Taking it one step further, if I had the card working with some stuff on it and then added another folder and tried it again and this time it didnt work, if i deleted that new folder the card still would not work, so that kinda rules out some corrupted file or something I keep putting on there.

I have a feeling that pulling out the card isn't the solution, as that would point to a hardware problem and my 512 meg SD card doesnt have any problems working in the gp2x.

I tried going from firmware 2.1.1 to 2.1.2 but that didnt help. I'd go to 3.0, but the comments in the filearea say its a bad release.

Any ideas? I'm kinda getting a little frustrated here.

[EDIT] Forgot to mention. I had a hunch it was the SD card, so i got ADATA to replace it for me. The new card does the same thing as the old card, so unless the Compatibility list on the wiki is wrong, the card is working as expected... i guess.
 
4GB Non-SDHC isn't a officially supported card by the SD spec (2GB is the largest official supported non-sdhc card). The card is basically a complete hack. Some things work with it, some don't.
 
You may as well try 'zero-filling' the card with HDD Low Level Format Tool. It fixed one of my 4GB SD's a few months ago. It takes about 15 minutes and then you need to pull card out of PC reader, reinsert it, then format.
 
Trooper, I was resisting trying the SDHC hack because I didnt have an SDHC, but last night I finally gave in and tried 2.1.2, which appeared to be more official with the same SDHC support. I guess I should learn my lesson and trust the community's releases more than GPH's.

Anyway, going from 2.1.2 to the SDHC hack doesn't appear to work. The bootscreen still shows 2.1.2. I'll try going down to 2.1.1 and then doing Notaz's firmware. I'm not sure that'll do anything because he says, "This is a modified GP2X firmware 2.1.1 kernel with SDHC SD card support." which leads me to believe it IS the 2.1.1 firmware with additions, so it should just be able to flash over 2.1.2 outright.

Squidge, I've heard that. Pretty disappointing that Adata and lots of others would put out cards if that is the case. Especially since they JUST fulfilled their RMA with one just last week. They could have given me an SDHC (i was kinda hoping they would)

imhotep, i'll try that next. Thanks.

Anyway, thanks for the tips. I'll keep the thread updated

[UPDATE] I flashed down to 2.1.1, then to Notaz's SDHC firmware and that worked with just a few things on the card. Once I put more things on the card, it stopped being recognized, just like before flashing.

So I tried a low level format with Format Size Adjust to see if that would do anything and still it does not get recognized.

Anyone think Open2x would solve my problems? I'd be willing to give it a whirl at this point. The gp2x does nothing for me if this card isnt recognized, so i'm at the end of my rope. Unless anyone has anything else to suggest?
 
Hi, i had exactly the same issue with a sd card in my giz, the problem turned out to be the card reader which wasn't compatible with the card, not the card and machine. Try a diff card reader and see where ya get.

good luck!
 
fev said:
Hi, i had exactly the same issue with a sd card in my giz, the problem turned out to be the card reader which wasn't compatible with the card, not the card and machine. Try a diff card reader and see where ya get.

good luck!
You say your faulty card reader still copied stuff to the card, but for some reason it was unreadable in your giz? That is odd. I'm off to Staples to procure a more decent reader.

That might explain my next point...

I booted up Ubuntu and tried to format the card in EXT2 and copy the files over. It crashed Gparted about 3 times before I got it to format... but once i got it to format/copy, the gp2x still wouldnt read it. It did take about half as long to copy the stuff over tho. 3 gigs in about 12 minutes.

anyway, i'm off to staples.

[EDIT] So I bought the Sandisk MobileMate SD Plus, reformatted the card and copied over all 3gig of my gp2x files. It all worked perfectly the first time i booted up, but when i pulled the card out to copy my gmenu settings back to my HD and then put it back in the gp2x, it didnt get picked up the first time. After rebooting, it did. Oh well, I suppose if it works some of the time, thats better than not at all :( Thanks all for your help.

[EDIT2] So since that last message, I havent been able to get the card to recognize in the gp2x. I've turned it on and off 10 or so times, popped the card in and out and read it on my PC just to verify it was still working. Nothing.

So after replacing the reader, i'm still having the same problem. Anyone else have any ideas?
 
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Like Squidge said, non-SDHC 4GB cards are not from an official spec. They stretched the spec to fit that space on there and compatibility problems can arise.

Go for a Transcend or Sandisk next time is my advice. I had to get rid of a couple of el cheapo 4GB SD's that my GP2X hated, but my Transcend has been perfect.
 
indeed. I think i'll hold onto it though. I paid $80 for it, so ebaying it for $20 doesnt seem right.

I did email the SD Association and ask them for some clarification on how they allow companies to put the SD logo on cards that dont conform to the SD spec. (or need special handling) I think i'll also drop a line to ADATA too and see what they have to say. We'll see what happens.
 
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