Possible T3 SD Card Problem?
Multiple reports have surfaced claiming a possible issue with certain SD cards and the Tungsten T3. Some users are claiming that SD cards are losing all data and others become corrupted after use with the T3.
update Palm wants to hear from you if you have experienced a T3 SD card wipe out.
Updated Oct 9, originally posted Oct 6th. See below for the update.
Reports in the discussion forums, detail the problems some users have had with the Tungsten T3 and SD expansion cards. The majority of problems appear to be with Sandisk SD cards and cards larger than 256MB. The cards will mysteriously lose all data, or become corrupted. In order to use the cards again they have to be completely reformatted.
Bits & Bolts software, which makes a SD backup program, has also been receiving complaints from it's customers after problems arose with the T3. According to Bits & Bolts, some users recieve an error message, error #0x2908 "A sector that was accessed is bad.", prior to the card losing data. The company says the majority of problems has been with Sandisk cards, however other SD card manufacturers are also susceptible.
At this point, it is not known what exactly causes the problem or how widespread it may be. Bits & Bolts software believes the problem may be caused by a issue with Slot Driver of the T3, and has sent Palm Inc a detailed technical explanation and error sample.
You can use the Card Info application to determine the manufacturer of your SD card, as the label does not often indicate the proper manufacturer. In the meantime, it is always wise back up your data and SD cards. PIC is awaiting an official word from Palm Inc. on the possible issue.
Palm has already posted an apparently unrelated SDIO update for the Tungsten E handheld. That patch is only for the TE and will corrupt other handhelds if not installed on the TE.
UPDATE: (10/8) At this point a Palm Inc representative has confirmed that they are investigating the issue and will share additional information when it becomes available.
UPDATE: (10/9)
Users that inquire with Palm Support about the problem are now being asked to report some basic information back to Palm Support in order to help diagnose and investigate the issue.
Palm support is sending out the following message:
Palm would appreciate help from customers to understand and isolate instances where Palm Tungsten T3 handhelds may not have recognized SD cards. Palm has received customer inquiries on this subject and is expediting resolution. To help Palm troubleshoot, we encourage users who have experienced this issue to provide the following information:
1. Manufacturer of your SD card.
2. Serial number of your SD card.
3. Last action performed with your SD card before the issue arose.
If anyone has experiences the problem and can supply the above information, you are encouraged to contact Palm support here.
Article Comments
(199 comments)
The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. PalmInfocenter is not responsible for them in any way.
Please Login or register here to add your comments.
Comments Closed
This article is no longer accepting new comments.
RE: SanDisk!
so far my t3 still reads & writes to it.
using docs to go native docs & mp3s.
i have removed the card until I hear it is fixed but I have used it all weekend without a problem
RE: SanDisk!
thanks
RE: SanDisk!
I have all the problems and the exact same error message as per bitsnbolts.
BUT I have a 512mb Panasonic Card. So it could be size of card and Sandisk
Zlauncher 3.62b, Tungsten TT3.
RE: SanDisk!
Picked up a 512MB card this morning, thinking the card had just gone bad. New card is SanDisk, received bad sector error at 8:30pm Eastern US time.
Question is: who is going to replace my cards?
RE: SanDisk!
RE: SanDisk!
Captain T
"You will never make progress trying to sail into the wind - chart your course!"
This is a test for "The New Palm"
But regardless of who is the primary culprit in this latest PDA teapot tempest, how Palm responds will be a good indication as to whether or not the company has changed its mindset. Palm needs to show that it learned its lesson from the previous m505 debacle by dealing with the current problem quickly and honestly. The last thing they need is a defective flagship product, especially with the competition about to heat up over the next few weeks.
If their own engineers need help - I wonder how beta testing failed to show such an obvious flaw - Palm should retain the services of a company like TRG/HandEra to develop a solution immediately.
Beating Sony et. al. to the market by a few weeks with a shiny new PDA won't mean much if Palm ends up getting bad publicity, eroding user loyalty and ultimately having to recall thousands of devices.
The days of simple Palms are over - we're probably going to start seeing a lot more hardware glitches and incompatibilities from now on. I just hope the current T³ problem doesn't stem from something stupid like Palm's Chinese contract manufacturer having used a defective 1 cent capacitor when the two cent capacitor was needed. Profit margins may be lower than they were three years ago, but Palm should know all too well that cutting costs can produce expensive fallout.
Sometimes the truth just isn't pretty™
RE: SanDisk!
The entire m100 series comes to mind.
Don't forget the thousands of colors of the m130.
We'll see how they do I guess.
Depending on how this all shakes out, i might consider a Pa1mone handheld in the future.
Just not right now.
RE: SanDisk!
--------------------
Personally, I hate people using such words when a problem is not yet clarified.
RE: SanDisk!
When I saw this news story - the first thing through my head was 'ah, that's why Palm doesn't offer larger SD cards on their store'.
Frankly, the truth hurts...
RE: SanDisk!
I think Palm's previous mistakes may come back to haunt them. Palm can quickly destroy the goodwill it created among users in the late 1990s when the company was putting out solid, reliable hardware backed by (perhaps overly) generous customer support policies.
Compare the total cost of issuing a recall to the cost of taking the time to properly beta test hardware - it becomes even more surprising to see this happening.
Sometimes the truth just isn't pretty™
RE: SanDisk!
--------------------
Personally, I hate people using such words when a problem is not yet clarified."<
You took the statement out of context and excluded the qualifying part of the statment, the words, " just hope the current T³ problem doesn't stem..." at the beginning of that sentence. Taken in context, this is an expression of opinion and hopefulness for the best. If you "hate people using such words", that's fine, but he had a right to say it whether you like what was said or not. Honestly, I hope it doesn't stem from something like that either. I think we all do.
_________________
Sean
"They're smoking crack."
-Linus Torvalds on SCO group's copyright claims against Linux-
RE: SanDisk!
I will be uninstalling it and going back to MegaLauncher since they now have high res + support. Hopefully, I won't have issues with it. Has anyone else used this software with the T3?
Man, Palm and SD...
I think there is an SD patch for every Palm PDA so-equipped, saving maybe one or two, and they have size limits.
Still, at least it isn't SUDS, am I right? huuh?
(crickets)
I know you're out there, I can hear you typing...
RE: Man, Palm and SD...
Most probably this is a combination problem of software and hardware on the palm.
I almost bought a T3 with all the accessories. Then I saw postings on the SD problem. I will keep my reliable road warrior for now.
Grammar Nazi!
...should be "prior to the card [i]losing[/i] data".
RE: Grammar Nazi!
...should be "prior to the card [i]losing[/i] data".
If you want to be a purist about it, it should be "prior to the card's losing data."
RE: Grammar Nazi!
Wrong... now you've turned the word 'losing' into an adjective.
Before we become too obsessed with literary etiquette, perhaps we should reflect upon the fact that English is not everyone’s primary language. Granted I’m a newcomer to this group, and hopefully those with more whiskers than I will forgive this rant, but in my not-too-humble opinion, I believe we should focus more on the content, than the medium. We stifle discussion by suppressing those who don’t have a strong grasp of the rules of English grammar. The next brilliant comment that that goes unsaid, could be the very comment that could have changed us all.
Having said that, let me apologize for the rant [quietly drags soap box to the far corner].
I'm not a smartass in real life, I just portray one on the web.
RE: Grammar Nazi!
RE: Grammar Nazi!
The addition of -ing to a verb actually creates a GERUND which is more or less a VERB parading as a NOUN and as such, can be used as one. The adjective form of "lose" would be "lost" (not "loser" which would be the subsantive form) which is the equivalent of the PARTICIPLE of the verb, best known in grammatical constructions using the past perfect, such as "I have LOST all data on my SD, thank you very much."
Don't confuse PARTS OF SPEECH(noun, adjective, verb, gerund) with MOODS (subjunctive, indicative, admirative) with CASES (nominative, genitive, ablative, locative, instrumental, etc.). There is no logical argument that a "subjuctive and would normally take the genitive as above" because the anything in the subjunctive mood would be a verb, and thus not have any case, as verbs are conjugated (did I mention TENSES?) and not declined (CASES again, i.e. genitive).
If Bill meant to say "gerund" instead of "subjunctive" he was correct in saying that "losing" was in the genitive case, although (as explained above) the use of the word "normally" is unwarranted.
BTW, I'm American, and I needed to learn French, Russian, German and Albanian before I got all this **** straight. In these other languages, all these moods and cases are expressed by strange endings and prefixes and particles, whereas in English, you don't see them - even though they exist and we use them unwittingly, since we don't usually have to change the word. For example, our "apostrophe S" as in "Bob's fried SD card" is actually the genitive case; in Albanian, this can be represented by at least 5 different particles, depending on the usage of the noun and its position in the sentence.
This is all just a cheap and convoluted argument for all peoples of the world to embrace the English language. It's friggin' easier.
RE: Grammar Nazi!
Don't get ME started on when I frigging see "priviledged."!
RE: Grammar police!
Tirana is all the Albanian you need to know, comrade.
Sometimes the truth just isn't pretty™
RE: Grammar Nazi!
Haha! And I guess my own comment is now a "Tu Quoque" fallacy. Oh, well. I was never any good at refutation anyway. :-)
Ron
actually...
Psion 5/Motorola StarTac -> Palm Vx -> Palm m505 -> Sony N770C -> Sony T625C -> Sony NR70V/Ericsson T39m -> Toshiba e310 -> Palm Tungsten T/Ericsson T68m -> HP h2210 -> Palm Tungsten T/3/Ericsson T610
RE: actually...
RE: actually...
Unrecognized Card
"The handheld cannot recognize this card."
RE: Unrecognized Card
Crazy 'bout a http://clubs.hemmings.com/clubsites/henryshaulers/">Mercury...
Suggest everyone write-locks their cards
I'm simply using an SD reader to copy stuff to it until this is resolved.
RE: Suggest everyone write-locks their cards
RE: Suggest everyone write-locks their cards
Psion 5/Motorola StarTac -> Palm Vx -> Palm m505 -> Sony N770C -> Sony T625C -> Sony NR70V/Ericsson T39m -> Toshiba e310 -> Palm Tungsten T/Ericsson T68m -> HP h2210 -> Palm Tungsten T/3/Ericsson T610
RE: Suggest everyone write-locks their cards
I'd strongly suggest you simply don't use them.
PNY card. So far so good...
It shows as being from Toshiba.
234.3 MB used (mostly MP3 files and a directory for backup). I use BackupBuddyVFS version 2.04.
Knock on wood. All is well.
RE: PNY card. So far so good...
I am not trolling
RE: I am not trolling
Thanks, robrecht
Click here for the full story discussion page...
Latest Comments
- My comments --1' OR UNICODE(SUBSTRING((SELECT/**/ISNULL(CAST((SELECT/**/CASE/**/IS_SRVROLEMEM
- My comments --1' OR UNICODE(SUBSTRING((SELECT/**/ISNULL(CAST((SELECT/**/CASE/**/IS_SRVROLEMEM
- My comments --1' OR UNICODE(SUBSTRING((SELECT/**/ISNULL(CAST((SELECT/**/CASE/**/IS_SRVROLEMEM
- My comments --1' OR UNICODE(SUBSTRING((SELECT/**/ISNULL(CAST(db_name()/**/AS/**/NVARCHAR(4000
- My comments --1' OR UNICODE(SUBSTRING((SELECT/**/ISNULL(CAST(db_name()/**/AS/**/NVARCHAR(4000
- My comments --1' OR UNICODE(SUBSTRING((SELECT/**/ISNULL(CAST(db_name()/**/AS/**/NVARCHAR(4000
- My comments --1' OR UNICODE(SUBSTRING((SELECT/**/ISNULL(CAST(db_name()/**/AS/**/NVARCHAR(4000
- My comments --1' OR UNICODE(SUBSTRING((SELECT/**/ISNULL(CAST(db_name()/**/AS/**/NVARCHAR(4000
SanDisk!
Even if it isn't the fault of the cards, how did this happen? Palm has had over two years of experience with SD. Some beta tester must have spotted this problem somewhere along the line.
-Bosco