Not all 2G SD cards are quite the same

SanDisk MP3 players All other MP3 players
1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure\_Digital\_card

Compatibility issues with 2GB and larger cards

Compatibility with 2 gigabyte and larger SD cards has been poor, due to the SD/MMC protocol’s using a 32-bit address field denominated in bytes. The SDHC standard addresses this limitation by using 32-bit block addresses instead. Both SD and SDHC are traditionally accessed as 512-byte blocks on 512-byte boundaries, so the change to host software or firmware is minor but required. Before SDHC was standardized, various manufacturers “extended” the SD control block fields for their 2GB and 4GB cards in different ways. Those cards are incompatible with many SD and some SDHC devices, as they conform to neither standard. All SDHC readers work with standard SD cards.[8]

Many older devices will not accept the 2GB size even though it is in the revised standard. The following statement is from the SD association specification:

“To make 2GByte card, the Maximum Block Length (READ_BL_LEN=WRITE_BL_LEN) shall be set to 1024 bytes. However, the Block Length, set by CMD16, shall be up to 512 bytes to keep consistency with 512 bytes Maximum Block Length cards (Less than and equal 2GByte cards).”[9]

Since all cards up to and including the 1GB card use a fixed 512 block size, some device drivers do not handle the larger block size and will not even recognize the 2GB card. For example, the SanDisk web site shows examples of devices such as the iPAQ 1910 that will only support 1GB cards and the Epson Photo RX300 Technical support says they only support 1GB cards in the SD slot. Users of many early card readers have found that they also only support cards up to 1GB.

2

So by changing the structure changes how the card is read?

I’m guessing that’s what it’s saying.

Good find… wikipedia lol

3

I don’t fully understand the wiki explanation (and I probably should) but I could
not find an alternative explanation.  But clearly, when the firmware was upgraded
(01.01.01A) it very well might have changed the device driver and hence the inability
to access some 2G cards. Could also explain the issues with the internal 2G memory,
maybe the new driver has multiple little bugs.

Though, I was wondering if the 01.01.01A supports SDHC? That could explain the
loss of support for some 2G cards. Unannounced support, though I have not seen
a 4G+ microSD card.

But … ta da … my Pentax camera supports SDHC cards and works with the Kingston
2G card.

I bought this player for next week, so I am looking at picking up another player …
local store has the 2G Express, but they also have 8G Creative Zen V Plus …
but it is MTP only. Maybe I will just carry 10 CDs and my old AA battery CD
player :smiley: I could also make a gift out of one of the Express … but
I would be into for $200.

I had been thinking like the Express, and the another player to replace the Rio Riot
(which I am of course using today) with something that can hold all my music, which
is now at about 25G. A super portable and then the full Monty when wanted.:dizzy_face:

I was thinking to myself has been a really bad consumer electronics experience due to the
circumstance of not being able to RMA the device in time for its intended use.

-r