Firmware updates- killing MicroSDs- 7 reports and counting

[omgwtfbbq]

Hello all,


LARGE BOLD EDIT 2.0: This issue appears to be resolved as of 1.3 Beta 3. We are awaiting further results. If it's solved, this thread is irrelevant.

LARGE BOLD EDIT: IF YOU REFORMATTED AND IT WORKED, THAN YOUR MICROSD CARD WAS NOT BROKEN! See " New firmware corrupting Micro-SD card. IF YOU WERE ABLE TO REFORMAT!

This is a fork from Vaderag's post about MicroSD card corruption. Namely, this thread is intended to track people who update and then have broken, unformattable, unusable MicroSD(HC) cards.

The other thread encompassed many users who just corrupted their filesystems, and were able to reformat. Between the two types I thought it would be easier for all involved to separate the two issues into two threads.

Anyhow, here is the information I compiled from pg 3 of the existing thread. I plan to update this one from now on.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anyone having issues, so users (and, if it is a problem, Team Cyclops) can figure it out:
-Please continue detailing your full setup, especially the MicroSD cart manufacturer and country of manufacture. Also, the batch of your CycloDS.
-Please describe your operating system.
-Included MicroSD reader, or another one? If included, what color is the MicroSD reader? What color is the LED?

-If you are a Windows XP user, and you type Start-> Run -> "compmgmt.msc" without quotes -> OK -> Disk Management, is your MicroSD "unreadable"? (see pic)


-XP Users, also go to My Computer -> Right click your MicroSD reader. Do you see any size, or 0 bytes? (see pic)


-XP users, also go to HDDguru and open their Low Level format tool (don't worry, you're just checking, you don't have to format). Does your screen look like this?


-Can VaderAG's method save your data?

-Can you format it with the Panasonic SDFormatter?

-If you also have a Linux machine, is your MicroSD mountable?

-If you have other SD/MicroSD devices, is there an option to format? If so, can you format with them?

This will differentiate whether or not you have a broken filesystem (which might be repairable to save your files, and will reformat) and a broken MicroSD (which isn't recoverable and won't reformat).


Card rendered unusable

Users who had cards readable only in the CycloDS for a short time, then had unrecoverable, unformattable cards:

Mailyfesux

-(Kingston 2GB Japan)
-(Batch 3 White CycloDS)
-(Multiple MicroSD readers attempted, all tested with other cards)

omgwtfbbq

-Polar White DS Lite
-FlashMe V8 Installed
-(Kingston 2GB Japan, 7 months old)
-(Batch 3 Black CycloDS)
-(Tried 2 MicroSD readers, Included & Kingston, 3 SD readers, Kingston, PC-Data, Generic- all read identical card from EZ-Flash V perfectly)
-(Attempted on Vista x64, Windows XP Pro SP2, Xandros Linux)
-(Could not format on Canon digital camera, Samsung cell phone)
-Occurred while updating to 1.3B
-MicroSD confirmed dead by Team Cyclops with an "internal card-controller" error. TC is working to determine whether or not the CycloDS could cause such a failure, or whether the card died randomly.

omgwtfbbq's friend

-Crimson Red DS Lite
-FlashMe NOT installed
-Black CycloDS (Batch 3)
-Kingston SD-C01G
-Did not try included reader, but multiple others after failure
-Attempted on same readers (other than the included, NOT tested on this card) and OSes as omgwtfbbq
-Attempted on same external devices as omgwtfbbq
-Occurred while updating to 1.3B
Card was exchanged for free under warranty, so no determination can be made about the exact failure.

zanbowser

-(Kingston 2GB)
-(Unknown, purchased late 2007)

babelfish

-(Kingston 2GB)
-(Batch 3 Black CycloDS)

CrimsonPhoenix

-Kingston SD-C02G Japan
-Batch 3 CycloDS

TheChromeCoyote

-Polar White DS Lite
-No FlashMe or other modifications.
-Kingston 4GB MicroSDHC JAPAN
-Occurred while updating to firmware 1.22

MHX_Scythe

-Black Cyclo (batch 4)
-Failure occurred shortly after install of 1.3B,
-Onyx DS, no FlashMe.
-A-Data 4GB Class6 SDHC

[blckthrn2k8]

Originally Posted by omgwtfbbq

Anyone having issues, so users (and, if it is a problem, Team Cyclops) can figure it out:
-Please continue detailing your full setup, especially the MicroSD cart manufacturer and country of manufacture. Also, the batch of your CycloDS.
-Please describe your operating system.
-Included MicroSD reader, or another one? If included, what color is the MicroSD reader? What color is the LED?

-If you are a Windows XP user, and you type Start-> Run -> "compmgmt.msc" without quotes -> OK -> Disk Management, is your MicroSD "unreadable"? (see pic)


-XP Users, also go to My Computer -> Right click your MicroSD reader. Do you see any size, or 0 bytes? (see pic)


-XP users, also go to HDDguru and open their Low Level format tool (don't worry, you're just checking, you don't have to format). Does your screen look like this?


-Can VaderAG's method save your data?

-Can you format it with the Panasonic SDFormatter?

-If you also have a Linux machine, is your MicroSD mountable?

-If you have other SD/MicroSD devices, is there an option to format? If so, can you format with them?

We're trying to figure out whether MicroSD cards are being corrupted (but recoverable) or truly broken (possibly both). Given that 3 users have had cards die shortly afterward, it seems that additional investigation is warranted.



Card corrupted, but not unusable

Users with recoverable data, who could reformat:
Vaderag

-(4GB SDHC by Sandisk)

Chandlben

-(unknown)

joho

-(card unknown)

Users who could reformat in an "alternate" device (e.x. cell phone, camera):
limitlis

-(Kingston 2GB)

Users who had cards usable only in the CycloDS:
MHX_Scythe

-(4GB A-Data SDHC)

Card rendered unusable

Users who had cards readable only in the CycloDS for a short time, then had unrecoverable, unformattable cards:

Mailyfesux

-(Kingston 2GB Japan)
-(Batch 3 White CycloDS)
-(Multiple MicroSD readers attempted, all tested with other cards)

omgwtfbbq

-Polar White DS Lite
-FlashMe V8 Installed
-(Kingston 2GB Japan, 7 months old)
-(Batch 3 Black CycloDS)
-(Tried 2 MicroSD readers, Included & Kingston, 3 SD readers, Kingston, PC-Data, Generic- all read identical card from EZ-Flash V perfectly)
-(Attempted on Vista x64, Windows XP Pro SP2, Xandros Linux)
-(Could not format on Canon digital camera, Samsung cell phone)
-Occurred while updating to 1.3B

omgwtfbbq's friend

-Crimson Red DS Lite
-FlashMe NOT installed
-Black CycloDS (Batch 3)
-Kingston SD-C01G
-Did not try included reader, but multiple others after failure
-Attempted on same readers (other than the included, NOT tested on this card) and OSes as omgwtfbbq
-Attempted on same external devices as omgwtfbbq
-Occurred while updating to 1.3B

zanbowser

-(Kingston 2GB)
-(Unknown, purchased late 2007)

babelfish

-(Kingston 2GB)
-(Batch 3 Black CycloDS)

CrimsonPhoenix

-(Unspecified MicroSD)
-(Unspecified CycloDS, got 2/11/08, so probably batch 3)

TheChromeCoyote

-Polar White DS Lite
-No FlashMe or other modifications.
-Kingston 4GB MicroSDHC JAPAN
-Occurred while updating to firmware 1.22

mine has also been corrupted and when i tried the 1st step in the disk management, i right clicked the corrupted disk(disk 1 removable disk) and it shows an option to format it and it WORKEDÜÜ. Its already readable in the pc same in the cyclods. i just don't know when that will last. . .Ü

[omgwtfbbq]

You would have a corrupted filesystem in that case, not a broken MicroSD card...

[RDCES]

My card was corrupted but was still usable. I got a file that could not be renamed or deleted that consisted of strange characters in the filename. This happened when I upgraded from 1.22 to 1.3b. Windows Vista business, CycloDS Black with provided card reader. Haven't had any problem since the reformat and moving of my files over.

[omgwtfbbq]

Originally Posted by RDCES

My card was corrupted but was still usable. I got a file that could not be renamed or deleted that consisted of strange characters in the filename. This happened when I upgraded from 1.22 to 1.3b. Windows Vista business, CycloDS Black with provided card reader. Haven't had any problem since the reformat and moving of my files over.

You would have a corrupted filesystem in that case, NOT A BROKEN MicroSD card...

[omgwtfbbq]

OK, I've added a gigantic warning. Those 7 of us with BROKEN MicroSD cards TRIED FORMATTING. IT DIDN'T WORK.

[CrimsonPhoenix]

Yea. Ill Add details about my SD

Its a Kingston 2GB MicroSD card. Work fine for a while then crashed. Still dont kno y >_>

It is a Batch 3 As well.

Hopefully we can figure this out. Its such a big problem....

EDIT
Notice how we all used Kingston

[omgwtfbbq]

I don't know if that's the cause or not. Kingstons are pretty available worldwide and they're reputed to be the best cards, so it could be coincidence...then again, we're all using batch 3 Cyclos...

[SoraK05]

Try formatting the card(s) with either:
- Panasonic SDFormatter
- Art Plus Memory Card Secure Eraser (complete low-level formatter for cards).

If the second one doesn't work, I think the card is quite messed for sure..


You can also try another card reader, since sometimes the card reader could be the reason the computer doesn't pick up the MicroSD(HC) card..

[omgwtfbbq]

-5 Readers
-Several OSes (Xandros Linux, Windows Vista Ultimate, Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2)
-Several Formatters (Vista Builtin, XP Builtin, SDFormatter On Both, HD Low Level Format Tool)
-Several Card Readers (2 MicroSDs adapters, 1 is the included and another is a Kingston, 3 SD Adapters, 1 builtin, 1 internal/external, and a Kingston SD adapter).
-Tried formatting in my cell phone and camera. Both formatted a second Kingston SD-C02G (a spare) perfectly.

No, it's thoroughly dead.

We did a lot of this troubleshooting in the other thread...but really, it seems to be two issues. Some people are getting corrupt filesystems when they format- sometimes, it's so bad, they have to reformat in a camera.

And others of us appear to have completely fried MicroSDs...that's mainly what our troubleshooting (and communications with Kingston!) seem to be yielding. Kingston went through some troubleshooting and asked for additional details (I didn't talk about the CycloDS), but after explaining all of the symptoms they told me the card is definitely shot.