Hacking Can a bad microSD card break an AK2?

[abaddon41_80]

I don't know if this is a stupid question or not but my brother has now gotten 3 different Acekard 2s and all 3 have experienced the "FAT Error". The first one was ordered about the time the bad batch of Acekard's showed up so I understand that but the last two are both the 2.1 version which I heard was okay. After the second one broke in less than two weeks I thought the SD card might have something to do with it so I tried other SD cards in that one to no avail, the FAT Error persisted. He tried the SD card that I thought might be the problem in an EZFlash V for a couple of weeks while he waited for the 3rd AK2 and it worked fine, though. So when I got the 3rd AK2 I figured he just got unlucky twice and the SD card wasn't the problem. Sure enough, though, that 3rd one broke in less than a week. If the SD card was corrupted could that damage something within the AK2 and break it or is my brother just unlucky?

RESOLVED. Thanks bri

 

[Bri]

I doubt that a bad microSD card could damage your Acekard unless there was a short in it, but it could cause ... (wait for it) ... A FAT ERROR!

-Bri

 

[abaddon41_80]

So the microSD card, it was the same one for all three, is what is breaking them?

 

[Bri]

I've never heard of a bad microSD card breaking a flash card, so I doubt that's what's going on. Are you sure they're actually broken? A FAT error simply means that it can't read the file system. There are plenty of reasons why that could be other than a bad flash cart.

By any chance, are you or your brother removing the microSD card without using the "safely remove hardware" feature of Windows? If so, then the problem is that your microSD card is being corrupted. Always use "safely remove hardware" before you remove your microSD card from your PC.

Do you reformat your microSD card using the Windows "format" function? If so, always reformat your microSD card using the Panasonic formatter rather than the built-in Windows format (it's not made to format SD cards).

Are all your games on the root of your microSD card by any chance? If so, put them in a "games" folder (there is a limit to the number of files that can be on the root).

Do you have some free space on your microSD card for save files? If not, delete a game or two and make sure you leave some free space for save files and other system files that need to be written.

-Bri

 

[abaddon41_80]

I reformatted it with Panasonic and it works fine now. Thanks.

 

[Diosoth]

Do you reformat your microSD card using the Windows "format" function? If so, always reformat your microSD card using the Panasonic formatter rather than the built-in Windows format (it's not made to format SD cards).

I've never used the Panasonic formatter, but the Windows formatter works fine for me, shy of only allowing up to 1 GB access on a FAT16 formatted 2 GB stick. FAT32 format works fine and I haven't had any issues with devices reading the cards I format in Wondows. I doubt FAT16 formatted cards will read any faster than FAT32 cards seem to read.

 

[logical thinker]

You should try the SDFormatter. It is really good.

 

[Diosoth]

I did, out of curiosity. I can access past 1 GB with FAT16 formatting now and files seem to write ot the sticks better. But I'm not seeing any noticable difference in the performance of the Acekard.

 

[logical thinker]

My Acekard RPG with a Kingston 4GB class4 was taking 3 seconds to load a folder with 40 games and saves. After the SDFormatter, it loads the same folder in 1 second.