Odd Problem

[skarletlightning]

I just signed up on this forum the other day on a whim and a thread thats still floating hereabouts. I thought I'd never have any questions because lurking solves most of that. I've long since learned that forum participation, while entertaining, is very time consuming if not relegated strictly to office downtime. Alas I have a problem, and I beseech this wise forum for wisdom.

Righto, so I love my Eris and have had barely any problems. Sure it lags a bit but I'm not rooted so its my own fault. I've had a problem the last two days with the SD card. Basically my phone suddenly starts saying the SD card is missing. Which is total BS since its still in there like a good little card. So like any reasonably technical person would do I popped it in and out. Lo and behold it works again. I think nothing of it and go about my business until it happens again later that day. Wtf right. So i pop that sucker out again, and reinsertion cured the problem.

At this point I'm slightly annoyed but just happy that my Eris works reasonably well. Seriously I had just finished telling someone, I could see myself keeping this phone even if I could upgrade. But the problem recurred even worse.

This morning all was well and my Eris woke me up to a bright sunny day. Except after a bit of browsing online suddenly my SD card flips out again. But heres the catch, reinserting didn't help. Reinserting it twice didn't help. So again like any reasonable person I powered it on and off. Didn't help. I then powered it off, took out the card. Waited, then put it back in then powered up. Didn't help. Folks this took a lot of patience because I have some classes to go to today, and not a lot of time to mess around. I then powered down, powered up, and then reinserted again once everything settled down.

Didn't help... In fact the problem got worse. Now its telling me the "SD card is empty." "Well this is frelling great", I thought to myself. I desperately reinserted to an even worse message. "The SD card is damaged and needs to be formatted." At this point I'm rapidly losing faith in this Eris that has kept me all the way since December. Reinserted once again... and didn't help.

I wasn't about to give up, after maybe a few more times it finally reads and I hastily backed up the card to my desktop. I'm relieved but unnerved. My first inclination is to whine to Verizon. Afterall they did swap this phone out 3 times already in the past, I had this weird restarting problem which they couldn't figure out. I had to run countless tests on my own which were never conclusive, but seemed to be related to app installations. It eventually went away so I stopped complaining Late May and got this 4th phone. Meaning I had my original, swapped out once, swapped out twice, swapped out thrice.

So this could be the opportunity for a new phone. Do I want a nice new model, yes. Am I willing to keep my Eris, also yes. As you all know its very aesthetically pleasing and conveniently portable. I'm trying to figure out what I should do next.

Should I wait or complain? If I complain should I keep Eris? If I don't want to how should I change?

-Forgive the text wall lengthiness

 

[Frisco]

Hello Scarletlightning.. glad you came out of lurking, even though it's too bad it took an issue for that to happen.

..I suspect the card itself, and I'd replace it after backing up what's on it to my computer. Those sd cards can become corrupted unpredictably.

 

[Papadroid]

Sounds to me that more than likely your problem is with the sd card and not the phone.

Edit: I see I got ninja'd by Frisco.

 

[skarletlightning]

Do SD cards have a high incidence of failure?
Although evidence would point to a bad SD, I'm reluctant to arrive at the same conclusion.
And by "replace the SD card," you mean "make Verizon replace my SD card" right?

 

[Frisco]

Do SD cards have a high incidence of failure?

Here's a good read:

Secure Digital - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

They do fail, and often quite unpredictably. They can be defragmented, by the way, if you know how to target the card using your computer and if you don't mind aging the card prematurely.

From that link:

"Defragmenting an SD card will wear the card out slightly, as the number of writes, before failure occurs, is limited (usually 100,000 times)."

In your case I doubt if we're talking about fragmentation, however.

 

[Papadroid]

Doubtful that they will replace it, but worth a shot. Have you tried formatting the card? And flash cards do go bad over time but it takes quite a bit of read/write cycles, typically around 100,000 cycles.

 

[OfTheDamned]

I agree with Frisco and Papadroid that it is most likely the card. My dad used to tell us, when we were playing with the power windows in the back seat, that they only have so many ups and downs before they start to break. I take that now as "dad speak" to mean that every thing has a life cycle and will eventually break down.

I would take it back to Verizon and see what they will do. I remember reports of people getting dead cards replaced, but this was at the beginning of the year when the Eris was still pretty new. The phone and all its accessories are supposed to have a one year warranty though, so they may give you a new one. If not, the 8 GB cards aren't overly expensive now.

 

[skarletlightning]

If the problem recurs I'll format. If that doesn't work I'll replace the card.

Looks like the cards are a lot cheaper than I remember.

 

[OfTheDamned]

If the problem recurs I'll format. If that doesn't work I'll replace the card.

Looks like the cards are a lot cheaper than I remember.

Yep, when the newer 16 GB cards came out the 8 GB dropped dramatically. Either way, I would still try and get Verizon to replace it as free beats reasonably inexpensive like a red headed step child.