New DP24sd failing during recording

[-mjk-]

@Stew71 please allow me to amend your list:

5. Put the SD card in the machine.
6. Format the SD card.
7. Enjoy error free recording.

 

[Stew71]

#4

Thanks. So presumably it's something else about these cards that distinguishes them from the others.

DP-24, FW v1.19, recording with a SanDisk Extreme Pro SDHC 3/10/V30 32gb card that's being discussed. The card is now half full, has 773 files in 32 folders, and is error free.

I've moved songs onto and off of the card at various times between making recordings.

The card has zero disk fragmentation (inspected using the Windows defrag utility).

So, one less thing the DP-xx FW has to deal with when writing/reading files.

Good to know. I'll update my FW later & then format the cards.
Is the lack of fragmentation likely to be a feature of the card rather than the machine then? Do cards differ in how they manage data?

 

[Stew71]

Right, FW updated to 1.19 and a new card now slowly formatting.

Incidentally, I tested the old card I'd been using with 1.15 (mostly glitch-free, though not 100% reliable) - a blue Sandisk 32GB 'SDHC Card I', class 4. Write speed was 7.08MB/s, read speed 20.5MB/s again.

And just because I'm getting a bit obsessed with this now:
- the 4GB Lexar card that came with the machine: 8.93MB/s write / 20.5MB/s read
- the 16GB Blue Sandisk card that I'd had quite a few problems with and retired: 4.59 MB/s write, 20.5MB/s read

 

[Sam Trenholme]

The fact that you’re getting a 20.5MB/second read from three different cards indicates that it’s the SD reader, not the card, which is the bottleneck.

Here is how a transfer from a SanDisk Extreme Pro SDHC to my computer looks; it’s about 35 megabytes a second (about 10x the speed the DP-32 actually needs), probably because the DP-32 fragments things more than a typical digital camera:



The signs of a fake SanDisk card are usually as follows:

• The write protect tab on the left is yellow, not grey
• The back of the card does not have a tiny serial number and the words “MADE IN CHINA” embossed on the back
• The card will fail to do a full slow format on the DP-32SD
• You purchased the card from a third party seller instead of directly from Amazon. As I type this, a place called “PicStop” is selling the card on Amazon for slightly less. While getting a card from a third party dealer does not mean the card is fake, it does increase one’s chances of getting a bad (or fake) apple. Note that, right now, one needs to go out of their way to buy this particular product from an Amazon third party seller, but that will probably change once 32gb cards start getting scarce.

Personally, I do not 100% trust Amazon to get something like this right; ever since they allowed third party sellers to sell their wares on Amazon, quality control has gone down and counterfeits have gone up (just read the reviews on Amazon’s US site for this card).

 

[Sam Trenholme]

Sam, I'll add my thanks for your excellent posts on this subject. I think that, with some minor edits, the info in your post #29 in this thread would make a great addition to the Equipment Stickies, if you're so inclined.

You have my permission to do this. The big thing to edit is to make it less likely to get obsolete. Hopefully, the SDSDXXG-032G-GN4IN is not the final 32gb SDHC SanDisk Extreme Pro card ever made, so that shouldn’t be in the edited version, nor should be a direct link to the current version to get.

 

[Mark Richards]

Sam, you can make the post yourself. The Stickies were set up that way so anyone with good info could contribute. But if you don't have time, I can have a go at doing the edit.

 

[Sam Trenholme]

I will do so when I have time later this week.

 

[-mjk-]

Glad I live where those things are made. China fakes don't cut it here at all.

 

[-mjk-]

@Stew71 honestly, you're gonna drive yourself crazy trying to figure out what makes certain cards work and others not. I had a 100 MBS card that failed. Mark's card is actually slower than the latest version cards, and has never had a failure. Speed alone does not appear to be as great of a factor as one might expect.

 

[Don B]

Further to my last post (6th March), I have now purchased and used a 32gb Extreme Pro (on mjk's advice and since reinforced by Sam's research) without any hitches, so far. I only did the quick format which I hope won't rebound on me. Anyway, I have just purchased two further identical cards and can only hope I never see a 'write failed' message again. Thanks for all the excellent recent posts. By the way, contrary to some comments above, I rate Amazon very highly for getting orders right. But that's Amazon UK.

I know this thread (and some others) have touched on the role of firmware in all this. My DP24SD version is v 1.05. It seems that there are updates since then. but it seems some people have found these problematic and have switched back to earlier versions. I must say I'm tempted to leave well alone at the moment, even if my version is not the latest

 

[-mjk-]

Don, glad to hear you are up and running with no glitches. But really, copy the contents of your card, and do the full format. It's too easy not to do it. It's not bad practice to do a periodic format too.