CF Card compatibility issues

[DanielV]

First two posts have been split away from the "Top 5 or 10 netBook accessories" thread. CF card discussion to be continued here.

Hi All,

This is just for info.

To answer Peter's question regarding the recording function with the SimpleTech Cards at the 256MB size. I have 2 x 256 SimpleTech CF cards in the D: and the E: drive. Both seem to work very well with the Recorder built in software of the OS.

I have also the 64MB size for all my backups and OS software. Recorder software also seems to work well with this card

[Peter Walker]

Hi Daniel,
thanks for your confirmation re the 256 MB SimpleTech cards. I purchased 2x 512 MB SimpleTech cards (1 of them is still unopened) and they DO have the click problem when used with Recorder. Simpletech have offered to exchange my 2x 512 MB cards for 4x 256MB cards and I will now go ahead with that exchange.

Regards

Peter

[Peter Walker]

Hi,
this afternoon, I got a call that my four 256 MB SimpleTech CF-Cards had arrived. I drove straight there to have my 2x 512MB card exchanged and when I tested the new cards, all four were faulty!

Both my Netbook and my 5mxPRO told me that the disk was not available. I even tried both ports on my Netbook with the same result. All my other CF-cards work fine so I am sure it is not my Netbook at fault.

Unfortunately, it was not possible to test them on a PC or Notebook, but I suspect they would not have worked there, either.

I obviously did not take them and will now have to wait for them to get another four cards for me :(

I can only recommend that anybody buying Compact Flash cards should test them in the shop as soon as you get them.

Has anyone else experienced this problem with any CF cards?

Regards

Peter

[diem]

the only time I've heard this happening was when the card was either being inserted upside down, was not being pushed firmly home in the slot, or when one of the connector pins had got pushed in/bent.

If you have other cards that work fine, then this seems quite odd :confused: I use Simple cards (albeit 32MB and 64MB) without a hitch.

I would suggest a soft reset - this is known to help sometimes if a CF card shows the 'Corrupt' message - perhaps it could help here too?

[Peter Walker]

Hi,
I have now received another 256 MB SimpleTech card and it works fine. Apparently, an entire batch of those cards were faulty and that was why I had problems before (they did not work in cameras, either).

I can now confirm that SimpleTech cards up to 256 MB work fine with the Psion Netbook with no clicking sound when using the Recorder application (unlike Sandisk, Toshiba, etc.).

I can therefore fully recommend these card for use with the Netbook. I cannot recommend the 512 MB SimpleTech card as that does have the clicking noise (an annoying clicking sound is heard about once a second on all sound recordings) problem!

Diem, may I suggest you add this to your FAQ as the Recorder application is effectively useless when using the wrong CF-card.

Regards

Peter

[netBookBabe]

Hi Peter

We've also got a general thread running (not netBook-specific) on which brands of CF to choose:

http://www.pdastreet.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5535

Perhaps you would like to contribute this information in brief there as well?

Thanks
Julie