Re: [NTLK] dying Flash card?

From: Ed Kummel (tech_ed_at_yahoo.com)
Date: Thu Jul 19 2001 - 02:01:03 EDT


--- Jeremy Bond Shepherd <jbond_at_eskimo.com> wrote:
>
> At 02:25 AM 7/18/01, you wrote:
>
> >Do flash memory cards just "die" after awhile? Is
> there a little backup
> >battery that's given up the ghost?
>
> No battery, but flash RAM cards can become damaged.
> I have personally lost
> one Ethernet card and one 20MB flash RAM card which
> became irreparably
> damaged.
>

<snip>

> I believe that MP2x00 devices have the potential to
> damage the "tuples" on
> any flash cards that are inserted at the time of a
> device reset (i.e.,
> pushing the reset button on the back of the Newt).
> This theory has been
> supported by opinions from other Newties, as well as
> Apple's recommendation
> (so I'm told -- I have never heard it) that all
> flash cards be ejected
> before a reset. I have adopted the habit of always
> ejecting my cards before
> resetting the Newton and so far I haven't destroyed
> any more cards.

An interesting observation I have made is that the
majority of failed Flash cards seem to be higher
capacity cards. I know I may be jinxing myself for
saying this, but I have 2 Pretec 2mb cards that I have
had and used in my Newts since I've upgraded my 120 (I
guess that's about 5 or 6 years now...) to os 2.0!
I've rebooted and even changed batteries in my Newt
with these cards installed on my Newt with never a
problem.
And while I don't use it as much, I also have one of
those 6mb cards that I use for backups. Granted, it
is't used as much, (about once a day) but it is
heavily used as far as erasing and placing fresh data
on it.
Yet, I constantly hear on this list of people's 16mb,
20mb 32mb and even higher cards failing! Granted, if
one of my 2mb cards fail, no really big deal, not an
expensive loss, so I would probably not advertise the
loss, so perhaps we hear mostly about the higher
capacity cards because of the extreme expense
involved...or perhaps they really do fail more often!
Not having had the pleasure of such exuberance of
storage, I can't tell...anyone here have a low
capacity flash card fail? And heck, for really
reliable storage, nothing beats a Newton branded 1mb
Storage Card! Fast and reliable!
Ed
web/gadget guru

=====
note: This does not constitute a sig file...

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