iQue M5 SD card writing problem [Archive]

AKlopper

02-23-2005, 07:15 PM

My brand new M5 seems to be unable to write anything but the smallest files to an SD card. I have tried 3 cards of 3 different sizes from different manufactures, and all have the same problem.

Interestingly enough, it has no problem reading from the card at all (installed maps directly to the card using MapSource and a card reader). The WiFi portion of my SanDisk SDIO Wifi+256MB card also seems to work flawlessly.

It's almost as if the M5 isn't supplying enough power to the SD card for writes, but can supply enough for reads and WiFi access.

If I try and install apps to the SD card using ActiveSync it complains that I don't have any storage space available. It does, however, write 71.2KB of each file to the card. MapSource also cannot install directly to the M5 SD card but also leaves a small file lying around. A backup to the SD card using SpriteBackup gives an error message followed by a reset, and leaves a 32KB backup file on the card.

I have visions of a string of RMAs coming up.

It's a pity because I like may of the features of the M5. Then again, I also miss some of the features of the 3600 (which I still have, luckily).

AnswerDude

02-23-2005, 11:32 PM

For the combo wifi/memory card, does it behave properly if you turn wifi off? The card is known not to work as both wifi and memory card at the same time on some pocketpc.
Now for the other cards, i assume that they are not the combo card. What file system did they format to? This is probably a long shot but one thing to try is to format with other file system such as FAT32.

AKlopper

02-24-2005, 09:25 AM

I have tried it with the WIFI portion on and with it off. The other 2 cards are ordinary SD cards - a Sandisk 256MB and a PNY 1GB. All are formatted as FAT32. I'll try FAT16 on one of them and see if it makes any difference.

On a slightly different note, having the Sandisk WIFI card inserted (even if the radio is turned off) severely decreases the efficiency of the internal GPS antenna (signal strength bars drop to about 25% of their original size).

JMckie

02-24-2005, 03:30 PM

Are you formatting the cards using the M5 itself?

AKlopper

02-24-2005, 04:35 PM

I tried formatting the SD card on the M5 using Flash Format. No matter what I try I seem to get 'Error 31 - a device attached to the system is not functioning.' My 256MB SD card also mysteriously grew to 5.3GB at one point. If only it were that easy... :)

I'm waiting for Garmin to email me RMA details. Apparently their systems were down when I phoned tech support.

testingd

02-24-2005, 10:56 PM

I've had similiar problems - unable to write anything but small files to the storage card via activesync, but no problem reading any I've written to an SD card via a card reader.

I thought I had been successful writing approx 220MB to the SanDisk WIFI, only to find I had corrupted 220MB. I can't reformat it in the M5 and can't recognize it in either of my card readers.

At this point I wish I'd gone with the plain WIFI - no memory - and kept my memory separate.

I'll be interested to hear how this develops

OWG

02-25-2005, 08:01 AM

Sounds like a call to Garmin is the nest step. Let's hope the fix is software.:(

Also, I suspect the decrease in GPS reception is due to the wifi portion of the card physically sticking out over the antenna. I am assuming the SD slot is in the same position as the iQue with relation to the antenna.

AKlopper

02-25-2005, 08:14 AM

I have this problem even with other SD cards, so it isn't only the WIFI+SD card that's the problem. I am RMA'ing the unit today. Hopefully this won't be the first of many RMA's... :)

I briefly thought that I had managed to get it to work this morning after performing a reset and then inserting a freshly formatted SD card (no WIFI). I was able to copy largish files from my Program Files folder onto the storage card (can't say if they were corrupt, though). I then tried to install a new basemap onto the card and got an error. After that I was back to all my original problems with only being able to write small files to the card.

AKlopper

02-25-2005, 08:17 AM

OWG: Garmin claimed they hadn't seen this problem before when I spoke to tech support yesterday. If it is a software bug, I doubt there will be a fix any time soon.

SYD119

02-25-2005, 11:15 AM

Hi all, first time poster, frequent reader though. Very good site. It has provided me with a lot of tips. Anyways, just thought I would post my 2 cents here. I have a variety of sd cards which I have used successfully on my M5 for a month, so I wouldn't think that it is a software problem. It will be interesting to see what the problem is.

OWG

02-25-2005, 12:20 PM

Originally posted by SYD119
Hi all, first time poster, frequent reader though. Very good site. It has provided me with a lot of tips. Anyways, just thought I would post my 2 cents here. I have a variety of sd cards which I have used successfully on my M5 for a month, so I wouldn't think that it is a software problem. It will be interesting to see what the problem is.

Welcome Syd! We'll take whatever change you have to offer (especially Bokkie) :D !

JMckie

02-25-2005, 12:42 PM

Originally posted by SYD119
Hi all, first time poster, frequent reader though. Very good site. It has provided me with a lot of tips. Anyways, just thought I would post my 2 cents here. I have a variety of sd cards which I have used successfully on my M5 for a month, so I wouldn't think that it is a software problem. It will be interesting to see what the problem is.

A month? How long has the M5 been available for purchase? Not to be nosy, but I wonder if we have stumbled upon a beta tester for the M5?

OWG

02-25-2005, 02:42 PM

I think it was available around mid-January.

SYD119

02-25-2005, 04:38 PM

Definitely not a Beta tester. Would have liked to have been though. How do they go about choosing those?

Danzan

02-25-2005, 08:42 PM

Hi All, I'm waiting for my wi-fi +256 meg card for my ique, You mention formatting the memory card. Do you have to do this in order for it to read the memory correctly. Reason I ask is that I never did anything but insert my card and everything appears to be correct.
I'm just using the memory card right now. I believe I did read somewhere something about performing a soft reset before installing a different card . I'll let you know how it goes just as soon as I recieve it.

Dan

testingd

02-25-2005, 10:49 PM

I had no initial problems other than the inability to write larger files to that location. Only after I kept hammering away did I create new and interesting problems (corrupting memory).

The 256+WiFi only supports PPC / Windows Mobile OS so your options become limited in solving a problem. The 128+WiFi can also support XP in a laptop- so if going through your PDA doesn't work you have another route.

Sandisk tech support reiterated that the 256+WiFi should not be used in a reader or laptop as they are not SDIO compliant - which was disappointing to me since I normally transfer larger files in a reader rather than through activesync.

Danzan

02-25-2005, 11:17 PM

Bokkie

02-26-2005, 02:50 AM

Originally posted by SYD119
Definitely not a Beta tester. Would have liked to have been though. How do they go about choosing those?

Welcome SYD119,

How do they choose beta testers? Are you Swedish? No? Then forget it!:D

SYD119

02-26-2005, 07:43 AM

Bokkie,
Am I Swedish? No, but I've known a Swede, does that count? Or do I need some Swede!?

I have not any cards with my M5. All of my cards but one had been used in either my pc's built in card reader or my other pocket pc. But, the 1gb Sandisk card that I have now was first used in my M5 and I did not format it, just wrote mapsets to it through Activesync.
The only issue I ran into on the card was that at one point, I placed the card in my pc's card reader and it did not autorun and ask for a task as I always do with any card. I attempted reformatting the card in a variety of formats with no change during a 2 day span. Then all of a sudden a few days later I put the card back in computer to transfer a movie, and then boom, autorun comes up and asks me what to do with the card. I know this is random, but I haven't figured it out. Anyways, I'll stop rambling now.

Forgot to add, my SanDisk wifi card works well, but does not seem to get as strong of a signal in my M5 as it does in my other ppc. And, as another poster mentioned, due to placement of the antenna and the sd slot, when attempting use of both simultaneously requires that you not fully extend the antenna so that it lays parallel with the card. If I only open the antenna to a 90° angle I can still get enough signal for a position.

Danzan

02-26-2005, 09:44 AM

I'm sure there's a joke there somewhere <grin> anyhow.....If I remember correctly he had mentioned he had signal loss even with the radio off. i'm more concerned with installing the card correctly. as long as it allows me to connect via my linksys and download maps i'll be happy. I wouldn't see any reason for using gps while transmitting wi-fi anyhow. and like everything else I usually succeed by trial and error.:confused: :confused:

testingd

02-26-2005, 11:44 AM

Was he refering to your reader or all readers not being SDIO compliant. That was going to be my next purchase. Is this what was keeping you from writting larger files to the card . Do you know if I'll have to install any other drivers in order to use the card

My understanding is any card readers - I don't know if any are SDIO enabled ones - and again the OS limitation seems to confine you to the PDA.

The inability to write larger files was while in the PDA, I had problems with both the WiFi card as well as a straight SD card. I could work around the issue with the regular card in a card reader.

The required driver for the WiFi card comes with the card and is also available for download from SanDisk.

Danzan

03-02-2005, 06:46 PM

Well, I recieved my wi-fi +256mem card and seem to be having problems. Installed driver etc, loaded maps, but GPs won't accuire any satellite activity, I remove card it does, I install my other card, 256 mem only no wi-fi it aquires satellites fine. Anyone have any suggestions, I also reset before using each card.
I'm assumming soft reset is using the pin hole on the bottom ? I thought it would be just the on/off switch ?
Also As far as the wi-fi I can't make a connection via msn chat, browser, or mail. it seems to be connected to my network,shows a good signal, etc "connected" linsys. Green light is lit . I wouldn't think bluetooth would have to be enabled but maybe it does.
If anyone has any info to what might be going on here I'd appreciate any help I can get. I hope its simple opperator error and not my card.
Thnx
Dan

AKlopper

03-02-2005, 06:59 PM

The wifi antenna seems to interfere with the GPS antenna, even if both are at right angles to each other. With the wifi card installed the satellite strength with my M5 was less than one quarter of that without the wifi card. I assume that the mere presence of the wifi antenna (with wifi on or off) distorts or attenuates the signals received by the GPS. I don't think there is much that can be done about this apart from using a different SD card when using the GPS, or using an external GPS antenna. It kind of defeats the point of having a wifi card with memory, though, since I don't want to be constantly swapping cards (hence the external antenna idea).

As for the wifi portion, does the wireless network status show a valid IP address for your network? If it shows 0.0.0.0 or 169.xx.xx.xx (can't remember the exact numbers) then it probably hasn't been able to contact your DHCP server (if you have one; otherwise you will manually need to configure an IP address). Are you using WEP on your network? Have you set up a profile for your network in the Wifi settings, or alternatively checked the checkbox that says to always connect to non-preferred networks?

My M5 is currently in for RMA, so all the above is from memory.

Danzan

03-03-2005, 07:17 PM

All most at my ropes end. Can you tell me what setting I should be using if even at all. There's an option of vpn? two types, IPSec\L2tp or PPTP I'm assumming its IPsec ?? everytime I try checking mail it says something like "Cannot connect
dialed the answering modem has disconnected, check your connection settings. my status is showing connected via linksys, good signal, IP address is there SsID . I'm not sure if zonealarm could be the problem or not. I've gave access to activesync program. I thought it would find the IP address its elf, I think it did the first time. This time i just entered it in. Do you know how to do a soft reset? I'm thinking I should restore to its default settings and start over.
Dan

AKlopper

03-04-2005, 07:06 AM

My M5 is currently in for repair, so I am working completely from memory here. The only settings you need to configure are on the SanDisk wifi configuration panel, more specifically on the AP browser page.

If you want to start again, delete all the personal profiles from this page. Then click on the little button near the top right of the page that looks like a spike with a little ball on top of it. Delete all the entries from this page as well.

Then go back to the AP browser page and create a new personal profile. Use your wifi network SSID as the name of the profile (i.e., linksys or whatever). If you aren't using authentication or encryption, set the authentication type to open (WECA compliant if I recall correctly). Set encryption to none. Uncheck the 802.11x checkbox, and the WPA checkbox (remember I am working from memory here). Add the profile and then go back to the wireless network status page and see if you get an IP address on your network. If you have a PC, type 'ipconfig' or 'winipcfg' at a command prompt and see what it prints out. If you don't get an IP, click on the renew IP button and see if this makes a difference.

The VPN, PPTP, L2TP settings, etc., have nothing to do with wireless connectivity, so you can ignore thos.

To do a soft reset, push the recessed button at the bottom of the case. I don't know the key combination to do a hard reset, but I download this app to do it.

Danzan

03-06-2005, 09:23 AM

24 Hours later I think I got it, I was up till 3:00AM sat morning and back at it again at 7:30 till late in the afternoon, I probably wouldn't have had to gone through most of what i did, or tried, etc but did. First I lost my IP address, no wireless activity on my deskTop or Ique, Tried reinstalling my wireless card in my desktop but the software disk wouldn't run ? so out to RS I go, get another card, differnt one motorola, works fine, actually there's nothing wrong with the linksys card, not sure why the disk wouldn't work, its only a few months old. I'm guessing it has something to do with the startup files that were originally installed the first time ??not real sure. After having 3 pc's on and my M5 everything was working good for about 5-6 minutes then everything went back down. This happened twice, then I reset my linksys router and changed the name in my firewalls entry detail to Sandisk SD Wi-Fi card instead of garmin ique m5 and it seems to be working.
still having a problem sending mail, using Time Warner Roadrunner. It says logging on and then prompts me for incoming e-mail password ? I know I have the servers in correctly. Is BTExplorer only to be used with bluetooth not wi-fi ? I haven't figured how to disable the activity light and keep the program open. I tried searching "Explore Services on a remote device and "Connect to internet using access point" . Connect to personal area network but nothing is showing up after the search, I'm guessing its because the bluetooth and Wi-Fi card is on the sametime. however when i just use explorer I can browse sites ok. Anyhow rambled enough here, you've been a great help...... just wanted to say Thanks
Dan

thetransportguy

03-07-2005, 01:51 AM

Originally posted by Danzan

still having a problem sending mail, using Time Warner Roadrunner. It says logging on and then prompts me for incoming e-mail password ?

I recently got a M5 and am still working through the setup. So far i love the device. The sat. acquisitions are dam quick. Even for us out here in Hawaii.

Anyhoow, to your email problem. I have had issues with my other wifi/wireless devices when sending email via wifi & roadrunner. Apparently roadrunner blocks several outgoing ports for security. Try and locate your outgoing SMTP server port settings and confer with your local RR tech about which ports are open that you can switch to. The default port for outgoing mail is port 25. You may have to change this.

Another option is if you have the internet connection, use a web based email client such as www.e-mailanywhere.com for POP3 mail.

Good luck!

AKlopper

03-10-2005, 09:39 AM

Got my M5 back from Garmin today. They didn't find any problems with it, and since I have got it back it seems to have been working fine (no problems installing maps, voice files, applications, etc., to the SD card this time). It should be noted that I decided to try one of my other SD cards first (which also hadn't been working with the M5 before the RMA), rather than the Sandisk Wifi card, since I presume that this is how Garmin tested.

Before I sent it to them I did a hard reset, which may be the reason that everything is suddenly working. I haven't tried reinstalling the Sandisk Wifi card drivers yet, but I suspect that they may have been the cause of the SD card writing problems. If they are, then I see another hard reset coming up in my immediate future... :)

AKlopper

03-10-2005, 03:59 PM

It's official. Several hard resets later I have determined that it is the Sandisk Wifi+256MB drivers that cause the SD card writing problems I was having.

I have no problems writing to any of my other SD cards until I install the Sandisk drivers, and then I can only write small files to all of my cards, including the Sandisk. Soft resets don't fix anything, so I can't simply do a soft reset after having used the wifi card and get back up and running with another SD card. Turning wifi off has no effect.

Time to return the card, methinks, although I've had it for more than 14 days and I'm not sure what CompUSA's return policy is. It might end up being an expensive bookmark.

AKlopper

03-12-2005, 10:45 AM

Exchanged my Sandisk Wifi+256MB SDIO card for an Ambicom Wifi-only SDIO card (CompUSA has a 21 day return policy, luckily). The SD card writing problem didn't resurface with the Ambicom drivers, which is yet another indication that the Sandisk drivers were the cause of my problem. If only I had tried writing to SD cards before installing the Sandisk drivers I could have saved myself an RMA... :(

Oh well. The M5 is working like a dream now.

thetransportguy

03-12-2005, 03:46 PM

Thanks AKLopper for being our beta tester for the M5! Its good to know that there is a wi-fi option out there that works.

question, have you tried to sync or remote command (ie. pocket controller) to your PC from the M5 using the wi-fi LAN? If so how does it compare in speed to using the serial/USB?

AKlopper

03-12-2005, 05:40 PM

I have successfully ActiveSync'ed using wifi, but this was at work with the old Sandisk card. I haven't been able to sync with the new card yet as the M5 seems to be unable to look up the IP address of my PC on my home network (WinDump shows it querying DNS at my ISP with my PC's hostname, and naturally not finding it). I haven't put much effort into fixing it--too many other things to try at the moment. I assume that it worked at the office because the DHCP server provided the address of a WINS server that was able to map my PC name to its IP address. I was tempted to try PocketHosts, but I have seen too many references to problems with it.

Speedwise, I can't remember how well it performed. Definitely faster than infrared, though... :) I'll let you know as soon as I have performed a successful test with the new card.

I have found the Ambicom card to be much more stable than the Sandisk one (lots of soft resets with the Sandisk). The only drawback with it is that the software doesn't have an access point browser (I knew this in advance) and also isn't currently compatible with MiniStumbler (which would have at least rectified the lack of an AP browser--I'm not interested in war driving). It also seems to have good power consumption, but then again, so did the Sandisk.

I have also tested ActiveSync'ing over Bluetooth, which is not as fast as USB but is still perfectly usable, even for uploading reasonably-sized maps.

I've also successfully tried browsing the Internet via Bluetooth and Internet Connection Sharing on my PC. I was surprised at how good the range is. I could basically browse from anywhere in the (admittedly small) apartment that I am staying in while I am in the US.

Danzan

03-19-2005, 04:09 PM

Just when I thought everything was ok, its not.... I'm still unable to send and recieve mail using the pop. I've tried yahoo, msn, and my main roadrunner account. It shows connecting then prompts me for an incoming password ? I have no idea what its referring to.
Also seem to be having problems staying connected. I'm able to browse for about 10 - 15 mins then I lose my connection. I have excellent signal. I also have to keep resetting my router. One thing I haven't figured out is why my firewall doesn't tell me when my m5 logs on or tells me its found a new wireless connection. I've entered the name of the SD card thinking thats what it would be looking for but now i'm thinking its my profile in the M5. Actually I don't remember setting up a profile for my M5, other than my name maybe. if anyone has any ideas on what I might try or change I appreciate it.:confused:

unberleavable

01-31-2007, 06:44 PM

I was wondering if you could point me in the right direction with an IQue M5 I have. I purchased an Ambicon SD 802.11b card for it and there doesnt seem to be the option for wireless cards under settings/connections/networkcards. It just comes up with Cannot connect with current connection settings....

I think the thing worked when I first plugged it in but it's like I have lost the drivers. How can I get them back please.