x36-SD Failure??

[fenderblue]

I have searched and read til I am blue in the the face??? I have a 536 in the house, one in the car and a 436 portable. Have had for several years and never had much problems with sd cards. All of the sudden I have 7 fl's out of 28 or so that are not working. In other words it will say nothing to scan if you shut the workings off. Tried reprogramming a couple of the fl's and it didn't work. Yes, did use the check list etc. I will admit I hardly shut off scanner in vehicle. Have I got some bad cards? I am thinking I need to get some MLC-16+ cards according to Upman. If I do, can you just put them in and write to scanner and you are good to go? The reason I found this is that my 996xt never misses a beat, have one in house and one in another vehicle.

 

[trentbob]

Not Unusual to happen with the x36s.

You are right on track with the cards that upman recommended. You will need to format the card in Sentinel to prepare for use.

If you want to read about it there's tons of stuff on the internet most of it from here on RR dating back to 2014 to now. Just Google bcd536hp SD card. I had a ton of hits.

It does sound like you have corrupt cards, in a mobile application it's good to always have the radio off when you turn on the ignition, that has caused some people problems.

Your 996 doesn't have the issues of course but when you come down to it you know what radio will handle a lot more stored information because it has an SD card.

I'm sure you'll get a swarm of knowledgeable posts from people who know more about this than I do, I just saw that you just posted it... Bob.

 

[fxdscon]

I am thinking I need to get some MLC-16+ cards according to Upman. If I do, can you just put them in and write to scanner and you are good to go?

A brand new SD card (or a newly formatted card) will not work in your scanner until you use the "Clear User Data" function in Sentinel. The scanner won't boot up past an SD card error, and Sentinel can't write to it until you "Clear User Data".

Sentinel does not do any formatting on the card, it just adds the necessary files for the scanner to recognize the card. New cards should be properly formatted out of the box. If there is any need to properly format an SD card, click this link and download this program:

SD Memory Card Formatter for Windows/Mac | SD Association

www.sdcard.org

Put the new (or newly formatted) card in the scanner and connect to your computer in the "mass storage" mode. You may need to connect the scanner to the computer first before turning on the scanner to get into mass storage mode.

When connected to your computer, from the top menu in Sentinel, click "scanner", then "clear user data", then check the box that says "display all drives". If the SD card is showing up there, select it and finish the "clear user data" process and then "write" to the scanner from Sentinel to restore your data (assuming you have previously read all of your data from the scanner into Sentinel). Then disconnect the scanner from the computer and let it re-boot.

If the SD card doesn't show up in the step above, try reformatting the card using the program linked above, and then go back to the "clear user data" step above.

.

 

[fourthhorseman]

Odd happening...
Ive been using the same 2 in my 436's for 3+ yrs now..
Sandisk 16G Ultra-Plus cards, and theyre REFURBS...???
Picky and Finicky..the X36 line is..

 

[kc0rzw]

I had one sd card fail after about a year of use. 436 would not boot up, some error message if i am not mistaken. New card has been flawless for a couple years at least.

 

[ofd8001]

SD cards, like tires, wear out after use. How much mileage you get depends on many factors, but generally the more expensive ones last longer. You want a high endurance card that will deal with frequent read/write cycles. Yes your scanner does reading and writing more often than you realize.

New SD card steps:

1. Format the card use the SD Formatter utility (link noted above).
2. Run the Clear User Data option in Sentinel.
3. Do a Write to Scanner in Sentinel (erasing Favorites Lists on Scanner* and Write Full Database).

You are in business.

It's faster if you can do all this in a computer card reader, but in the scanner works too - just slower going.

*Yeah a new card doesn't have Favorites Lists, but this is a good habit to get into.

 

[iMONITOR]

In a mobile environment I think the SD slot gets a lot of dirt and dust in it over time. You might try spraying some contact cleaner generously on the card edge and insert and remove it a few times. DO NOT spray into the SD slot on the radio. Also clean the edge contacts on the Micro SD card with a pencil eraser and also wipe it clean with a cloth wet with some contact cleaner or alcohol. Also when you power off the scanner, do it from the scanner's On/Off control and do not do it by turning off the power to the scanner. As ofd8001 advised buy yourself something like a Samsung PRO Endurance Micro SD card. Make sure your firmware is up to date.