SD micro disk issues

I am having issues with my Sport recognizing my Sandisk Micro disc.  I bought the player with the intention of putting all my music on the disc so having the player constantly tell me there is an error and to reload the disc is highly agrivating.  Especially since it is sporadic in when it does this.  One day it works fine, the next nothing.

Is there a fix to this?

It would help if you tell us something about the card. Size and/or brand?

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I am not sure if this is the same problem but my Sport stopped playing the first time when I played 2 (rather big) MP3 files from the external card. Then I reformatted the SD card, put the music files back on, checked the card for errors (no errors found) and it failed again a couple of times over the last two days.

Typically the device powers down and after powering up again it says:

“Disk error - Please re-plug card”

I am using a brand new 16GB Samsung microSDHC UHS-I Card, Class 10, HC I. Model: MB-MPAGC.

I am still investigating this problem, to see if it is related to the file size and/or whether you start playing from the Card menu or from the Folder menu -> External. I am inclined to think that the latter method is more likely to reproduce the problem.

Having the exact same problem.

Just bought the Clip Sport a week ago. 

Put about 12gb of music on a brand new Patriot 64gb Class10 microdisk with no problems; the largest file being a 1.2gb audiobook.  Files looked fine.  Seemed to play fine. 

Unplugged everything and went to use the clip sport about an hour later.  When trying to get to the external drive I got “Disk Error  Please re-plug SD card.”  I tried unplugging/re-plugging 10-15 times  - same error.  I also tried to turn off the clip sport and re start, same error.

I plugged the clip sport into the computer and it says H drive (micro disk) needs to be formatted.  I hesitated, but reformatted anyway since I had most everything backed up.  After refromatting, the Computer found the drive so I created folders and put some music on it.  Unplugged Sport Clip and tried to play music.  And it says same error “Disk Error.  Please re-plug SD card.”

I plugged the Sport Clip back into the computer and it says the card can’t be read and I need to reformat it again!

Help!

Fogot to mention -  I updated to latest Firmware and still have same issue… worth a try anyway!

does the card work in in a reader with the computer? you may have a bad card. 

@cobblestone wrote:
 

Put about 12gb of music on a brand new Patriot 64gb Class10 microdisk with no problems; the largest file being a 1.2gb audiobook

  1. 64GB? Those have a native formatting of exFAT. That format is not supported by the player. Did you re-format it as FAT32? With what software?

  2. Class 10 memory cards have been problematic with mp3 players. They’re overkill; Class 4 cards are more reasonable and compatible.

  3. I doubt the Sports teeny ‘brain’ is going to be able to handle a 1.2GB file. You’re likely going to have to break this down into smaller, more managable files.

I’m not sure if FAT32 is effectively necessary for the Sport – mine worked fine with a 64 GB card with default (exFat) formatting, although it was slow, maybe even slower than now with FAT32 (with which it’s still slow, but possibly because of all files stored in one folder and playing in folder mode/shuffle play). Perhaps it also depends on the card type and make.

And then there’s the 2000-file limit – at least in «Music» or «Card» mode! Which doesn’t prevent my Sport filled with >6000 MP3s from working, though.

I don’t understand why a faster card can cause problems. A class-10 card supports a higher transfer rate than a class-4 card. The host device can read or write at a slower rate, or not? Besides, the tests that I have done so far (I am still working on it) indicate that the problem is related to the file size. When playing normal songs (say 5 minutes or less), it played a whole night and day without any problems. When playing files of about 1 hour each, the player stopped a couple of times with a disk error. I let it play continuously - not touching a single key - starting with 100% battery power until the battery is empty or the device shuts itself off as a result of a disk error. After every disk error I restart playing the same files, etc. until it stops due to low battery condition. Then I recharge and start another test cycle etc. I also found that you don’t have to replug the disk to get the player back to work after the disk error. When hitting the disk error, the player turns itself off (maybe after a delay, I don’t know). If you turn it on again, you will see the disk error message. The same error pops up each time you try to access the external card. I tried this neary a dozen times. I was curious what would happen if I navigated to the internal memory and then back to the external card. As I expected, taking this side-tour to the internal disk cleared the disk error condition. Now you can play again a couple of hours (maybe 2, maybe 10) before it hits the disk error conditon again. Being a software engineer myself, I truly believe that this problem is a firmware issue, because how come the problem is persistent at first and clears itself when you take a side step. My guess is that the firmware’s internal housekeeping for the external memory screws up and when switching back from internal memory to external card, the logic / housekeeping re-initialised itself, thereby clearing the error condition. Hope this helps in finding the problem cause. I keep you posted when I have more results on this issue.

Are you aware of the Sport’s 2000-file limit (for each drive)? I’m not pretending that there is the rub, but who knows!

I am aware of this 2000 limit. I understand that this limit applies only to the number of entries in the database that the device maintains separately for files in the internal memory and the external card. If you play tracks via the Folder menu - which is what I do - then there is no limit! Besides, I have less than 2000 files on the SD disk.

After several days of testing I found out that the problem not only occurs with long files but also if you only play normal songs. The problem also occurs regardless if you play songs via the Music menu or via the Folder menu. It looks like the problem is related to the type of card, because with an “old” 2GB card the problem didn’t occur. Could be the memory size of the card or the speed. The player does support the higher speed cards though, because you can easily write 10 GB worth of data to it without any problem, but when you play songs on the device, it may stop after playing not even 0.5 GB worth. Maybe they switch the power of the external card on and off during playback to make the battery last longer, which might cause occasional problems. I don’t know. What I do know is that this device is not quite as reliable as it should be, and I am returning it, while it still is under warranty.

@mmhmjanssen wrote:
It looks like the problem is related to the type of card, because with an “old” 2GB card the problem didn’t occur. Could be the memory size of the card or the speed.

As I said before, if you have a Class 10 card, it has been reported by numerous people (on more than just this forum; and by owners of different players, not just SanDisk) that they are not ideally compatible with mp3 players. Your 2GB card is a Class 2. Class 4 works too, but (various) problems can happen when using Class 10.

Faster is not always better. :wink: