SD Card Read Error

Status
Not open for further replies.

ChrisP

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
May 20, 2002
Messages
1,330
Location
Portland, OR
I'v been reading the threads regarding SD card problems in both the 436 and 536 scanners, but I have not found a solution to my problems yet.

I have had my BC-536HP scanner for a few weeks and it had been running fine, but suddenly the scanner says there is an SD Card File Error and that I must use Sentinel to Clear User Data. Fine, and I have done that multiple times, but so far I cannot clear this error message and use the radio.

I have tried the original 4GB micro SD card that came with the radio and have 2 new 8GB cards that were purchased after this problem occurred. I have tried formatting the cards, both in the radio itself, and using an external card reader. I have formatted using both the OS formatter and the "SD Formatter" programming software. When exploring the card with Windows I can see all the Uniden scanner files on the card, and Sentinel sees the card either in the scanner or in the external card reader. And despite the fact that the USB cable is working fine, I have tried multiple cables just as a test, with the same results.

I guess my main question is what is supposed to be on the card for the scanner to recognize it? I have written the database and the firmware update to the card after clearing the user data, but am I missing a step or is there something that needs to be on the card that isn't and causing the radio not to read the card?

Looking for ideas here before shipping the radio back to Uniden…

- Chris
 

gchapel

Member
Joined
Mar 21, 2014
Messages
18
That is strange.

If you formatted the card with SDFormatter4 and then used Sentinel to write the database to the card you should be good to go.

Once you have formatted the card, have you tried disconnecting the radio from power for 5 minutes or so, placing the card back in the radio, and then plugging in the radio and powering on.

What is the error message that you get?
 

ChrisP

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
May 20, 2002
Messages
1,330
Location
Portland, OR
I just tried that, as I had not been removing power (other than turning off the power switch on the front). I did unplug the radio for about 10 minutes and re-powered with the SD card inserted and still have the same problem.

The radio powers up, gives me the Uniden splash screen, then the Uniden copyright page, then says "Processing Please Wait", then comes the "SD Card File Error - Use Sentinel 'Clear User Data' operation to initialize SD card" message, where is now sits.

- Chris
 

gchapel

Member
Joined
Mar 21, 2014
Messages
18
I don't know what to tell you. Sounds like you are doing the procedure correct.

I had my SDCard get corrupt when I was trying to use the radio with the USB cable and sentinel. So now I just use a card reader to access the card because it is much more reliable.

All I did was take the MicroSD card out, place it in a card reader connected to my computer. I used SDFormatter4 to reformat the card. I then started sentinel. Selected Clear user data from the MicroSD card. Updated the database and wrote it to the card. Disconnected the card reader. Put the MicroSD card in the Scanner.

Turned the scanner on and I haven't had any problems since. If you are still getting SDCard errors after formatting, clearing the data, and writing a new database to the card. Then either the MicroSD card is bad or the radio has a fault in reading SDcards.

If you don't mind spending a few bucks, you might try buying another Scandisk MicroSD card and seeing if it is just a bad card.
 

ChrisP

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
May 20, 2002
Messages
1,330
Location
Portland, OR
Turned the scanner on and I haven't had any problems since. If you are still getting SDCard errors after formatting, clearing the data, and writing a new database to the card. Then either the MicroSD card is bad or the radio has a fault in reading SDcards.

If you don't mind spending a few bucks, you might try buying another Scandisk MicroSD card and seeing if it is just a bad card.

Thanks, I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing a step somewhere. I have purchased 2 other SD cards and gone through the same procedure and have had the same results. I have 2 SanDisk cards and one Lexar.

- Chris
 

ChrisP

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
May 20, 2002
Messages
1,330
Location
Portland, OR
UPDATE -

Well, as I sat here contemplating my next move with this issue, I realized that the only piece to this puzzle I had not changed was the scanner itself (only got one of them), and the computer. I decided to switch over to another Windows laptop I have running Sentinel and went through the whole format, clear user data, etc. process. And guess what - it worked! The card that was set up in one laptop worked fine when the same card prepared in another laptop didn't work.

I had to figure out what was causing this one, so I started looking at the Sentinel versions and got a shock - the laptop I was having problems with was running the Home Patrol Sentinel NOT the x36HP version! Arrrghh!

Mea culpa, mea culpa… (Mea culpa - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Thanks for the help…

- Chris
 

jrrob8

Member
Joined
Dec 19, 2002
Messages
116
Location
Roanoke, Va
had been trying to get a mini laptop to read the scanner, no luck. it only has two usb ports. discovered that the device manager was seeing a com port when I was it was in mass storage mode. took me several tries to delete the com port drivers, seems windows 8 had made a mistake when it decided that the mass storage was a com port. make sure you don't have any serial devices connected when checking this. uninstall the com port, make sure port disappears, keep trying it it doesn't.

hope this helps clear up some of the problems that people are having. finally have a dedicated computer for my new BCD536HP scanner.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top