[NTLK] Frying Flash Cards was: Debating 32MB purchase

From: Gary Moody (gmoody_at_gmx.net)
Date: Tue Feb 12 2002 - 15:27:44 EST


Pretec used to have a warning posted on their site regarding the potential
for frying cards on reset. I don't have (or remember) the text, but it was
scary! All of the Pretec cards are 5V/5V read/write voltages.

Apparently, the 12V/12V and 5V/12V (Intel II and II+ and derivatives/private
label) cards are less susceptible to this than the 5V/5V cards are. Most
cards of higher capacity (>8MB) and all cards >20MB are of the 5V/5V
variety.

I have (prior to reading the Pretec warning) successfully performed a hard
reset while having two 12V/12V 20MB Intel TypeII cards inserted with no
apparent damage to the cards. This is when I was a raw newbie, and
immediately after read the Pretec message after a spate of fried cards were
being reported. Scared the crap out of me and I've never done it again.
"God looks after fools and little children", and I, for one, do not qualify
for the "little child" category anymore.

I would eject any inserted cards prior to *ANY* reset, just to make sure.
Dang things just cost too much - better safe than sorry!

Regards,

Gary

-----Original Message-----
From: newtontalk-bounce_at_newtontalk.net
[mailto:newtontalk-bounce_at_newtontalk.net]On Behalf Of Jeremy Bond
Shepherd
Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2002 12:37 PM
To: newtontalk digest users
Subject: Re: [NTLK] Debating 32MB purchase

>
>Nope, that' a soft reset. The 'hard reset' is bad for cards.

I respectfully disagree. I have fried (permanently destroyed) 2 PCMCIA
cards (one Ethernet, one linear flash) by leaving them inside the Newt when
resetting (either by poking the button in the back, or initiating a reset
via software).

I know others have been happily resetting with cards inside for years, but
I had bad luck twice and now I would never dream of resetting the Newt
without popping out the cards.

If anyone wants more details of this please search the archives. I have
written on the topic before including exactly the troubleshooting steps I
performed to try to revive the cards. Bottom line is I had to throw them
away -- they were completely unusable.

-Jeremy

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