New BCD436HP bricked?

[kc2kth]

Before I return my newly unpacked BCD436HP does anyone know of a workaround for a corrupt sd card? I used the scanner in zip code mode for an hour or so. I then plugged it into my Mac connecting it to Windows XP running under Parallels to load Sentinel off the sd card and now I have basically a brick. It complains about corruption of the database on the sd card, Windows XP complains the card is corrupt and I can get no farther. I considered formatting the card per the manual but then saw I couldn't get to anything on info.uniden.com - the entire site seems down. Ironically the site is using Plesk for management it appears, a Parallels product. Anyhow since I can't get Sentinel anywhere even if I format the card I can't reload it. I'd hate to ship it back to ScannerMaster, but if I can't get this thing going today that's just what is going to happen to it. Please help!

 

[kc2kth]

Just realized I put this in the software forum instead of the hardware support one.

 

[Kingmobileaudio]

Go to Walmart get a new one.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

 

[w2xq]

Did you search the threads for the many messages addressing the SD card issues? I couldn't even begin to catalog the postings. Use the search box atop the page. HTH.

 

[Boatanchor]

Can you imagine for a moment.

John Doe decides that he wants to buy a Police scanner.
John knows absolutely nothing about computers or trunking scanners and never uses the internet.

John walks into a store and the salesman tells him that since he knows nothing about scanning or computers or the internet, he should put down 600 big ones on the latest, top of the range, 'automatically programmed' scanner. The salesman enters John's zip code for him and wazam! the scanner comes to life.

John slaps down the 600 big ones on his credit card and walks out of the store well pleased with his purchase.

Then after a few weeks of scanning, suddenly 'THE SD CARD OF DEATH' occurs!
John is mortified and has no idea what he has done or what has happened to his expensive toy.
As John doesn't monitor RR, his first thought is my scanner's broken

If John is (really) lucky, he will be able to take the scanner back to the store he purchased it from and
a helpful shop assistant will provide a new SD card and re-boot the scanner for him. More than likely though, John will walk into the store and be greeted with shrugged shoulders and blanks looks.

The next step of course, is to ring the Uniden helpline where a helpful person will inform John that he simply needs to go out and buy a new SD card and re-install the necessary files with the software supplied with the scanner. John then tries to explain that he does not have a computer and that he wants to return the faulty scanner for a warranty repair or refund.

We don't get to hear about such cases here on RR, but I guarantee they are occurring.
And, each case that occurs is very bad news for Uniden and by extension the scanning hobby.

 

[JamesO]

Can you imagine for a moment.

John Doe decides that he wants to buy a Police scanner.
John knows absolutely nothing about computers or trunking scanners and never uses the internet.

John walks into a store and the salesman tells him that since he knows nothing about scanning or computers or the internet, he should put down 600 big ones on the latest, top of the range, 'automatically programmed' scanner. The salesman enters John's zip code for him and wazam! the scanner comes to life.

John slaps down the 600 big ones on his credit card and walks out of the store well pleased with his purchase.

Then after a few weeks of scanning, suddenly 'THE SD CARD OF DEATH' occurs!
John is mortified and has no idea what he has done or what has happened to his expensive toy.
As John doesn't monitor RR, his first thought is my scanner's broken

If John is (really) lucky, he will be able to take the scanner back to the store he purchased it from and
a helpful shop assistant will provide a new SD card and re-boot the scanner for him. More than likely though, John will walk into the store and be greeted with shrugged shoulders and blanks looks.

The next step of course, is to ring the Uniden helpline where a helpful person will inform John that he simply needs to go out and buy a new SD card and re-install the necessary files with the software supplied with the scanner. John then tries to explain that he does not have a computer and that he wants to return the faulty scanner for a warranty repair or refund.

We don't get to hear about such cases here on RR, but I guarantee they are occurring.
And, each case that occurs is very bad news for Uniden and by extension the scanning hobby.

So sad, but so true and somewhat funny.

The funny part is Uniden needs to realize their Customer Circus staff should have a stack of blank SD cards available in the Customer Circus group.

This way when this situations come up, Customer Circus can load the most recent Master Database on a new, blank card and mail it to the owner. Such a SIMPLE idea and think how much time and effort is saves both the customer and Uniden Customer Circus staff.

But I think the way things probably play out are hours and hours on the phone trying to recover corrupted SD cards and deal with software and computer issues that are beyond both the end users and Uniden Customer Circus abilities.

Uniden best embrace this newer SD card scanner thing, I know the HP1 used the SD cards, no idea if there were major issues with the HP1, but there are PLENTY of SD card related issues with the x36HP series of scanners. I have had SD related problems with both my 436HP and 536HP so far.

 

[mikewazowski]

Gentlemen, let's try and get the OP the help he needs to install a new SD card without turning this into another Tavern thread. Thanks.

 

[kc2kth]

Ok, so walk this 30 year scanner veteran and 20 year IT professional through this because after three hours on RR last night reading posts what I determined was that a new SD card or a newly reformatted SD card would need to have the HP software and all data installed onto it via the Sentinel software.

Since Uniden's site is down and the original card has been corrupted I don't see any way to install the Sentinel software at present. However based on the posts in this thread it seems that the scanner will write the required data to the new SD card itself without the use of any PC connection. Is that correct?

Also what could possibly be the root cause of this SD card that shipped with the scanner becoming corrupted so that I can hopefully prevent a recurrence the next time I connect the scanner to my computer to update the databases or apply new firmware?

 

[detroit780]

SD card

You can try this SD formatter It works in most cases and then reinstall the database once the Uniden site comes back up.

https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/

Ok, so walk this 30 year scanner veteran and 20 year IT professional through this because after three hours on RR last night reading posts what I determined was that a new SD card or a newly reformatted SD card would need to have the HP software and all data installed onto it via the Sentinel software.

Since Uniden's site is down and the original card has been corrupted I don't see any way to install the Sentinel software at present. However based on the posts in this thread it seems that the scanner will write the required data to the new SD card itself without the use of any PC connection. Is that correct?

Also what could possibly be the root cause of this SD card that shipped with the scanner becoming corrupted so that I can hopefully prevent a recurrence the next time I connect the scanner to my computer to update the databases or apply new firmware?

 

[kc2kth]

Thanks Les. I was about to do that last night as that is the tool mentioned in the manual for the scanner. I stopped though once I realized the Uniden site was down and I wouldn't be any farther along regardless of the formatting if I didn't have Sentinel to reload with. I guess we've confirmed - it's a brick. Since I can't be sure that this won't occur again since I don't know what steps led me to a corrupt card this seems like a half baked idea on Uniden's part - not something I can rely on long term (as I sit here looking at my Pro197, BC296D, and Pro2005 that are all still in good working order).

 

[JamesO]

Here is the deal, SD Card formatter or not, the SD card still needs to have the Master Database and other files installed on the card.

A working copy of Sentinel is the simplest solution, however, you might be able to have someone (Uniden or a forum member) send you a file to paste onto a formatted and working SD card short of having a working copy of Sentinel. Uniden really needs to have CURRENT SD card images available for download from their site! I have not tried this copy and past option yet, but I believe this will work.

The other challenge you may have as a Mac user, it is my understanding that Mac puts some hidden or other files/folders on external storage and this has caused problems with these scanners. I am not a Mac user, but there are many, many comments on this forum about problems with Mac's somehow polluting the SD cards and causing problems within these scanners. I cannot recall if there is a setting within the OS that can be turned off or adjusted to work around this.

What you need as a owner of ANY scanner that uses external storage such as SD cards for the main OS of the scanner is to have a spare, cloned card taped on the inside of the battery door of the portable scanner or on the outside of a base/mobile scanner. This way when a card becomes corrupt, you can quickly swap the SD card and be back in business.

Good luck and I hope this makes sense and is helpful to you.

You may also want to post your experience in this thread for the record - http://forums.radioreference.com/un...report-x36hp-sd-card-problems-corruption.html

 

[Ensnared]

OP?

Gentlemen, let's try and get the OP the help he needs to install a new SD card without turning this into another Tavern thread. Thanks.

I feel rather stupid asking this, but what does OP mean? I've been seeing it written from time to time.

 

[PhillyPhoto]

I wonder if Uniden is taking Apple's approach and takes down the site before the release new software updates. Maybe we'll have new firmware Monday?

kc2kth - if you're in a hurry and want Sentinel quicker, you can PM me your email address and I'll send you what I have.

Another thing you could try, since you connected it to a Mac, is to format the drive on the Mac as FAT and then try again. I've never used Parallels, so I'm not sure how reliable passing through drives through to two different operating systems is. Do you only have a Mac, or do you have a physical Windows PC too?

 

[fourthhorseman]

OP-

Original Post,or Original Poster..

I asked the same Q about a year ago..(chuckling quietly)

 

[JamesO]

The key here is the OP will need a copy of the files that Sentinel will install that will allow the scanner to boot and function.

Without these files, even with a brand new Micro SD card, the OP will still have a brick.

The files are generic to the scanner until someone customizes the favorites and starts to change settings on the scanner.

The SD card not only will have the Master Database, but personality settings of the scanner, Favorite Lists, Service Types, Recordings and on and on. But there is a basic, default set of files that are required for the scanner to boot and operate.

Uniden needs to host these files on their site for all scanners that have SD cards.

 

[UPMan]

If the OP has Sentinel, he simply needs to use the "Clear User Data" in Sentinel and set "Show All Drives" in the popup window. This will write all necessary files to the SD card.

Unfortunately, Macs have a history of corrupting SD cards that are used in devices (not just for scanners). We recommend you use a PC.

 

[PhillyPhoto]

If the OP has Sentinel, he simply needs to use the "Clear User Data" in Sentinel and set "Show All Drives" in the popup window. This will write all necessary files to the SD card.

That's the problem, his SD card got corrupted before he could install Sentinel and the TWIKI is down so he can't download it.

 

[JamesO]

This is why a SD card image available for download is also useful.

This would be good for people that cannot install the Sentinel software on a computer because of the OS or other security reasons or even a public or family computer.

Kinds of seems to make a lot of sense, but nobody seems to be picking up this would be a useful idea??

OP, if you do not get anywhere, I can upload my 436HP image to DropBox and send you a link if I am still around the house later this morning.

 

[UPMan]

Here ya go:

http://massivelyuninformed.me/BCDx36HP_Sentinel_Version_1_02_01.zip

(Our wiki site will now be down until Monday afternoon. Our ISP didn't get our pipe installed on schedule.)

 

[Jay911]

UPMan - I've been talking with this fellow over on the Uniden forums as well. I'm wondering if the hidden files/folders that a Mac writes to removable drives could be confusing the scanner when it re-reads the card on bootup. Any thoughts on that theory?