SD Write Busy message

[Rich Colozzi]

I have been getting a "write busy- power off " message recently on a new DP 03 sd.
Called Tascam .... They were a bit dismissive. I was told I didn't have the proper card. It is a Sandisk 32 g sdsdh class 4.
It is on the list or tested cards. Anyone else experiencing this?
I'm wondering if I need a better card. I'm assuming a class 10 card is better. Any ideas?

 

[Guinevere]

I have exactly the same problem. It's happened to me many times in the last couple of days. Right in the middle of a mixdown I will get that message -- it freezes everything -- and god forbid if you forgot to save all your changes before that because you'll lose everything you've done since you last saved. MAJOR BUMMER. Sorry to hear the Tascam people were dismissive. Probably some low-level stooge who just wanted to get back to his video game. I know I am using the right card, so that answer to you was nonsense. They need to address this, and yesterday would not be soon enough. G

 

[Gerry Aire]

"SD Write Error - Please Power Off" -- solved (for me).

I was having this problem when I tried perform a "Mixdown" of all eight tracks. It would start mixing up the music, playing things out of order for a few seconds, and then crash and give me the "SD Write Error - Please PWR OFF".

For some odd reason, it was solved when I did the following:

1. From the MULTI TRACK screen, go to MENU (press the MENU button)
2. Go to SONG
3. Go to COPY
4. Place a check next to the current song -- the one with the asterisk (*) and hit NEXT
5. It will ask if you want to copy to "Partition 1".... hit EXECute (it takes a while, took me about 15 minutes, I think)

I'm not technically savvy enough to know why this cleared the problem up for me, but it did, so hopefully it will help someone else here. Give it a try -- I don't see how it could hurt.

By the way, I only have one song loaded in the unit at a time, which is the one I'm currently working on (I deliberately unprotected the built-in demo song and deleted it, to free up space). If you have more than one song in your machine, maybe you should copy all of them to "Partition 1" ... I don't know.

And please post if this worked for you, so others can use it... this is a common problem, as far as I can tell from Google-searching the issue.

And, by the way, always save your latest work before you try to do a mixdown -- that way, if you get this error message, you won't lose your changes. You can save easily by going to the MULTI TRACK screen, pressing and holding the POWER button to turn off the unit, and then restarting it. The machine automatically saves your changes when you shut down properly.

 

[Gravity Jim]

Actually, the CSR at TASCAM was probably not some "low level stooge" but a trained CSR who can only do so much, gave you the right answer and is sick to death of being railed at or called a jackass on line when he fails to give you the answer you want or talk to you like you're a 60s rock star. "Dismissive" usually means "didn't want to hear me whine about the company he works for or the details of my 'solo album' and has 20 more calls backed up behind me."

Hope you get your problem fixed. Has the SD card in question ever been used for another purpose, or did you buy it new specifically for the DP-03?

 

[Michael Ogle]

Me, too... Just got a Tascam DP03. It stops and errors with a "Write busy, shut down" (or something close to that) message during recording, and all unsaved tracks are lost.

Try a different card? It's a new SanDisk 800 in there now. Or does the method suggested by Gerry the answer?

 

[Michael Ogle]

Thank you. Gerry... I tried it, but that didn't work for my DP-03.

 

[wkrbee]

Michael.Did you try a different SD card? Don't assume it's a good card just because it is "new". It doesn't matter if it is "new",you can still get a bad-or counterfeit-SD card.They are out there.Did you buy the Dp 03 new, or did you get a used one that someone else bailed on?' Did you do a complete format of the card-not the quick format? The "quick format" erases the TOC while the complete format verifies and IDs the bad memory blocks and ignores them during R/W cycles.Gerry problem sounds like a bad card.

Looks like Guinevere was the perfect example of a troll.One rude post from a entitled obnoxious
"artist".

 

[Michael Ogle]

http://www.tascamforums.com/threads/dp-03-write-busy-power-off-message-aggravation.3852/

 

[wkrbee]

So it must be a non-issue then.

 

[rubyvoxx]

Tascam DP-03 “WRITE BUSY POWER OFF”: Solved.

I am Ruby Voxx, a brazilian singer and composer. Soon after I purchased a Tascam DP-03, I had the same problems commented on this forum:
During recordings, mixing and mastering, the operation was stopped abruptly, erasing everything after the following message: “WRITE BUSY POWER OFF”.
After many unsuccessful attempts, including changing the memory card (according to the manufacturer's instructions), installing a no break on the power supply, trying to save in PARTITION-1,following user forum guidelines, not succeeding, I decided to analyze the situation coldly and I understood that the information displayed on the device is accurate and means that a certain track is full and logically, this happens when we repeatedly try to record and re-record on the same track. It is obvious that at any moment, the track will be full, triggers the "write busy" alarm and the device stops working. I solved the problem using the following tool: MENU / TRACK EDIT / F4 / DATA WHEEL / CLEAN OUT / F4 / DATA WHEEL TO SELECT THE OVERLOADED TRACK / EXEC. With the track completely clean, start recording again. In this way, the total of the recording becomes lighter, without the repeated data that overloads the track. I did not have any problems after this procedure. Now I love my device, but before that, I almost destroyed it!

 

[soccerdanofluv]

I have had the dp-008ex for a couple of years now and just recently have been encountering ,ore and more SD Write Busy/Power Off freezes. I am using 16gb cards on the approved list. The Write Busy message pops up even when I copy entire song to new partition. Write Busy message pops up in Mixdown and Mastering phase. Incredibly annoying. Has anyone found a solution yet?

Is it possible that once an SD card hits a threshold-- even if it is well below its capacity-- that the dp-03 or dp-008ex can't handle the weight? I plan on comparing a new SD card to the 3/4 full one I have that gets the Write Busy Power Off message so often.

Has Tascam said anything about this?

 

[Kevin Bailey]

I've been seeing this issue lately on my DP-008EX also. I have not been able to resolve it yet. Iam using a 16Gb "approved" card.

Interestingly, I reformated the card for the DP-24 and it is working fine, so I don't know if it's just a compatibity issue or a fault. On a side note, I did not see this issue until after I updated my firmware in April of this year.

Kevin

 

[soccerdanofluv]

Kevin, thanks for the input. Since my post I have found that obsessively saving after every record moment has stopped the Write Busy freeze. So far.

 

[Kevin Bailey]

Good to hear.

 

[SkywaveTDR]

I wonder if there would be a error message that said you should have bought a reel deck. Maybe Tascam does not know the answer and has to check with off shore sources. This can take a lot of time.

 

[soccerdanofluv]

Ok update. The Write Busy/Power Off message is back. I really suspect that once an SD card gets maybe 75% full that it the DP0008ex (or others) hard drive can't organize the files any longer. This may be an increasing risk from the moment you record on a new card for all I know. But it's a real and consistent problem. I bet Tascam is silent because (1) companies like this do not have money or do not care to track these kinds of things-- thinking that 'so what if we lose a few customers there are way more suckers up ahead' (2) Their lawyers tell them never ever ever respond to a problem that might invoke a recall etc... So I guess we are s.o.l. Too bad because otherwise this little machine is very useful....

 

[TexasPicker]

It's September now, and I've started getting the same Write Busy/Power Off problem on my (formerly) trusty DP-03 in a 10-song project for a friend at church. Frustrating! I've tried the suggestions on this thread, and it actually seems to be getting worse. It usually happens during Mixdown, and sometimes during Mastering. I'm only using at most 7 of the 8 tracks, and sometimes as few as 4, and it doesn't make any difference how many tracks or what mastering tools are in use; when it freezes, it freezes.

Any new word on a fix?

Thanks!

 

[soccerdanofluv]

TexasPicker,

How full is the disk approximately? I find that the more space left on the disk (I have dp008ex) the less Write Busy/Power Off happens. My recent new 16gb card had no problems at all until I reached about 3gb (13gb open). And the freeze has only happened once. I def recommend saving after everything you do. It helps.

I wonder if how many layers or versions a single track (within a song) has stacked contributes to the possibility of the hard drive freezing at any given time. As wonderful a tool 'history' is...

I am just thinking in terms of how much file work the computer has to do-- maybe the computer brain just can't handle all the bells and whistles advertised.

Still a nifty machine.

 

[Phil Tipping]

Not sure if it's been covered before, but there may be an issue with fragmentation on the card, just like hard discs on personal computers. I'm only guessing the process is similar, but after writing and deleting files on a storage device, you get varying sized 'holes' which the system tries to fill by splitting new files into chunks. With a computer, this is a well-known problem which impacts performance, so maybe this also occurs with the recorder and cause the occasional glitch. This would fit with the symptoms of it occurring more often when the card is getting full as there is never a large enough contiguous space available. A computer normally has a utility to de-fragment a drive without losing the data, but this would only work on partitions it can 'see', i.e. the FAT partition. The only other solution is to re-format the card so it starts off with a huge contiguous 'hole' for filling. As mentioned, no proof, just speculation.

 

[brent larimore]

Gerry Aire: your solution above worked for me! TY!