My 536 Erased Its Memory By Itself

[mfn002]

I just turned on my 536 this morning and was greeted with some sort of ZIP code error message. I turned the scanner off, and then back on again and the error cleared. However, I then got a "Nothing to Scan" message. When I went and checked my favorites lists, it said that none were loaded. Apparently, my 536 cleared its memory all by itself for no apparent reason. The last time I had it hooked up to a computer was a few months ago, so I don't think that's the problem. It was working fine when I turned it off last night. This is the first real problem I've ever had with it since getting it back in April.

 

[Jay911]

Without knowing more about the "some kind of zip code error message", it sounds like the SD card became corrupt. Just format it in Windows and then write your favorites and full DB to it again from Sentinel. Any changes you made since the last time you backed up your card are, unfortunately, gone.

For what it's worth, the full DB in the x36 line is updated every Monday morning at 9am CST. It's worth your while to at least do a DB download and refresh the data in your card Monday evenings, if not doing a complete backup (to safeguard against losing your data if this happens again). If your radio is somewhere where you can't easily hook it up to a computer (i.e. mounted in a vehicle), it's simple enough to pull the card (with the power off, of course), put it in a full size SD adapter, and take it to your computer. Sentinel won't know the difference between a card outside the scanner and the scanner itself.

 

[mfn002]

Just format it in Windows and then write your favorites and full DB to it again from Sentinel. Any changes you made since the last time you backed up your card are, unfortunately, gone.

Which is exactly what I did. I just re-wrote everything to it. It seems to also have fixed whatever was causing the error message to pop up.

 

[jonwienke]

Also, it's worthwhile to have a spare Micro SD card in the event one goes bad. They're cheap.

 

[SCPD]

Jay911, I don't own one of these newer scanners, but you are a wealth of info on them, hats off to you !

 

[AC2OY]

Yeah Jay rules! That is a good idea to get a back up card they are cheap.

 

[JamesO]

Buy an additional SD card, copy the scanner image to the card either with Sentinel or copy the original card and save and write the image to the additional SD card.

Then wrap the additional car with a piece of paper, then with blue tape, tape the spare card to the side, bottom or rear of the scanner.

This way you will have a back up card ready to install in the scanner if/when you have another problem. Trust me, you will be happy you did this.

 

[mrkelso]

Also, it's worthwhile to have a spare Micro SD card in the event one goes bad. They're cheap.

Exactly. Very "CHEAP" that's why they are in this scanner. First thing i did was replace mine with a bigger better card and i have never had a problem.

 

[Markscan]

I donated my 536 to my local police department. Got a call last night it was showing "SD card error". Tried to reformat the card but it doesn't show up. I guess I need to buy a new card. This radio has been good, when it works.

 

[JamesO]

Add them to the list - http://forums.radioreference.com/un...report-x36hp-sd-card-problems-corruption.html

The more details, the close someone may be to understanding what is going on here.

Looks like a mixture of flaky original SD cards and some other issues?