| See The Light!! (Seriously, this one's important!)
November 20 2001 at 8:09 AM | Root5
|
| I found out one of the potential culprits behind several SmartMedia errors... Blown formats, CRDERROR, NO SYS, NOCARD, garbled audio tracks etc. This may only apply to those of us that use a PC card reader. SmartMedia cards are inherently slow, compared to RAM, so the PC uses pretty extensive buffering and caching in order to keep the PC from being locked up while accessing these readers.
Here's the short version: The PC will indicate that it's done writing to the card BEFORE the card reader is done. So if your reader has an access light, use it to know when it's safe to eject the card.
My unit has a light that stays on all of the time, but flashes during read/write. So I have to watch it for extra seconds to make sure it doesn't start flashing again. In some cases, and in some systems it may take more than 20 minutes to read/write an entire 128MB card. I have noticed that the directory is copied first, so it really looks like the files have been transferred.... but don't believe it!! See the light. If you're planning to buy a reader, I suggest that you make sure that it has a GOOD, well situated ACCESS LIGHT, because you'll be looking at it alot!
If anyone is interested in 'the longer version' let me know and I'll post more. I've been meaning to post more stuff that I've found, but have really been pressed for time... so I'll just note some quickies and let you all prioritize what, if any followups are warranted:
I'm still having great success with 128MB media... Chris is right, Lo-Fi works too.
SmartMedia cards ARE static sensitive, don't touch the gold!
The plastic sleeves are anti-static. Use 'em.
Cards are safe in the unit (but possibly not from it!)
Been thinkin about a dock too, Chris let's talk. Don't think 9Vs have the pwr density.
Had better success recovering a 'blown' card from PS02 than PC.
You can't use a blank formatted card just for data, system files must be present.
Some interesting things about track to track recording.
I believe the PS-02 firmware has bugs/issues. Card detection, sliders, etc.
Write Protect system cards! Spend the $10 if U must!
PCs can read various SM card formats... PS-02 can't!
I got a 323. I like it so far!
Really gotta run!!!
|
| | Author | Reply | Chris Hurley
| | various items | November 20 2001, 1:34 PM |
Responding to a few points:
Regarding the dock, drop me a note at chrish@ax84.com
Regarding using a PC to format the smartmedia: You can easily use a PC to format the smartmedia and then drop the system files right on it. You can take a vanilla card and drop those files on it and its bootable. You seemed to imply that only the PS02 could make one bootable, which isn't the case.
|
| Root5
| | Formatting SmartMedia | November 23 2001, 8:40 AM |
I didn't mean to imply that you must use the PS-02 to format the cards. I just seem to have fewer problems when I format the cards frm the ps-02. It also eliminates a little ambiguity... my camera can't read a ps-02 formatted card, ps-02 can't read the camera format, BUT the PC can read them both. My intent in bringing this up is that it might shed light on how the ps-02 system operates. ie. if it really is only file based, I would think the ps-02 would recognize any card that had the files on it. My investigation was thwarted by the intermittent ps-02 card reading behavior. I've gotten crderror, no-card, no-sys and format? all from the same previously working card. In that case, formatting from the PC didn't fix it, whereas formatting from the ps-02 did. So, my advice is before you throw away a card that you can't get to work, try the REC+STORE+Power-on force format procedure on the ps-02. If anyone else have related experience, I would really like to hear about it.
|
| Chris Hurley
| | Re: See The Light!! (Seriously, this one's important!) | November 23 2001, 10:45 AM |
I must be lucky. My camera is happy to use PS02 formatted media. As long as I get the system files on there, they seem to cohabitate well.
|
| Root5
| | PS-02 / Camera formats | November 26 2001, 3:07 AM |
Or maybe I'm just unlucky. What kind of camera do you have? I have an Olympus Camedia C-3040ZOOM digital camera. It will not operate with a PS-02 formatted card, and my PS-02 will only give a CRDERR for an Olympus formatted card. I've tried it several times... sometimes inadvertently. So far my SmartMedia card collection consists of:
3 8MB Cards
1 16MB Card
1 32MB Card
3 128MB Cards
It sure would be nice if I could use them interchangably.
|
| BRIT GRIT
| | you may just be able to help.... | November 26 2001, 7:53 AM |
ive got a card thats comes up with the CDERR message.
its got a load of songs on it and im desperate to get them back so i don't want to force format....
any suggestions?
|
| Chris Hurley
| | Untitled | November 26 2001, 6:20 PM |
Export the audio with the card manager, if the card can still be read. If you don't have a card reader, get one. You should have it already. 
|
| | Advertisement:
Rent DVDs online -- Free Trial for 2 weeks!
| |
|
|
