I used Sony Connect software to put five rtf books onto my SD card (512mb DaneElec brand(?) SD). I disconnected the Reader, and put the SD Card in there, and turned on the unit. It scanned and read the books, but when I went to open one, it was like it lost the memory card entirely, and my book count went from 30 to 25. Successive insert/ejects couldn't get it to read those books on the SD card again.

The 512 SD card works fine in my PC, works fine through Sony Connect, but Sony Reader doesn't play well with it. I don't know if it's because it's an off brand or what.

To troubleshoot, I took the 2gig mini-SD card out of my phone, put it in an adapter this time (ha ha), and put it into the Reader card slot. Bam! It cataloged all my rtf files and I was able to pull them up fine and read them.

I remember a post where someone said that the Sony Reader only catalogs once, and beyond that you have to reset the Reader if files on a card change. Is this true? Does that mean if you take the SD card and add more books to it, Sony won't catalog those?

Debating whether to just go purchase another SD card (this was an older one that worked fine up until now). I wanted to use my Magic Gate Pro Duo 512 mem stick from my PSP, but apparently they don't just sell the adapters by themselves anymore, so I'm out of luck there.

Anyone had issues with it refusing to read certain SD card brands?

I'm not sure about the compatibility issuse with your card, but the reader definitely detects changes (both adding and removing) when the card is inserted.

It should re-cat the card each time it's inserted. Alternately, you can use the USB cable and put the files directly on the card via the Connect Software. It should work the way you're doing it, though.

I think I remember having a similar issue when I first had mine ... but it stopped after a few minutes and has behaved since then. :shrug:

I've seen over the years with PocketPC's where certain SD readers/units are grumpy with certain brands of SD cards. It likes my 2gig Sandisk mini-SD just fine (actually catalogued surprisingly fast), so I may go pick up a "brand" name SD card and see if I have better luck.

Thanks for the confirmation on re-cataloguing items!

I remember a post where someone said that the Sony Reader only catalogs once, and beyond that you have to reset the Reader if files on a card change. Is this true?

Well, it was me :) I had problems with the old memory stick. I also didn't like memory slot cover, it looks too flimsy. So I ended up with USB transfer.

I agree on the cover -- makes me nervous to flip it open, looks like it could pop off easily. I'll stick to USB transfer for the most part.

I do freelance writing on the side, and it's really nice to stick the mini SD card into the reader to read an article or manuscript I'm working on -- WAY nicer than reading it back on my tiny T-Mobile MDA screen :D

Well, if Reader for some reason doesn't rescan SD card, you can alway reset it, and once rebooted Reader will rescan the card.

I've actually had the exact same problem as you, tekchic, though I was trying to open some PDF files. I've been trying to use a Kingston 256 MB SD card.

The cache.xml is there fine (made from the Connect PC software), but anytime I've opened a PDF from the SD card the Reader has promptly went back to the main menu and delisted everything on the card. I guess I can also quickly check to see if it doesn't like that specific card or brand for whatever reason (I have a Viking 256 MB SD lying around as well, in addition to 128 MB & 512 MB Kingstons).

Random question as you mention using PPCs as well: Do you have other programs for PPCs or anything that the Reader doesn't support on the card? I actually just pulled my card out from my Axim as it has lots of PDFs (in addition to several programs).

Tekchic, There is a difference between cards and the electronics that read them. I had a similar problem with an SD card in a camera. It worked for months & now no longer works in that camera but does work in another camera. Another SD card (different brand) works in the first camera. Go figure. :rolleyes5

I agree on the cover -- makes me nervous to flip it open, looks like it could pop off easily.I remarked on the slot cover in my original review (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7713), I felt like it seemed flimsy that day. It's one of the things I've been particular about taking another look at since I have one of my own. I probably ought to have remarked on it before now. :(

After playing with the Reader for some time now, I think I was just seeing it as flimsy in comparison to the solid feel of the rest of the Reader. The tether/hinge is very flexible, but after closer examination, it also seems to be pretty tough. It's not stretchy at all, and it seems to stand up to moderate tugging without so much as a flinch. I'm still not going to do a failure test on it. :grin:

That's good to know on the slot cover! I'm generally pretty gentle with my electronics (aside from jamming wrong sized cards into the slot hahaha), so hopefully that won't be an issue.

What's funny is the 512mb card that's giving me issues is a clean formatted card. My 2gig mini-SD that works is the one i pulled right out of my MDA (running WinMobile 5), and it cataloged and worked fine! Maybe I'll just start loading up my 2gig and swapping between phone and reader :)

I'm generally pretty gentle with my electronics (aside from jamming wrong sized cards into the slot hahaha)Does it really qualify as "jamming" if the card in question is too small? :grin2:

I have tried two SD cards in my Reader, and neither one of them work. One is a brand new Patriot 1 gig (bought specifically for the Reader - obviously now a waste of money) and the other an old 64 mb I used in a digital camera. Does anybody have any suggestions on what will definitely work???

Have you tried to format your SD cards on your computer as FAT/FAT16?

No, I haven't. How would I do that?

You will need SD card reader. They are cheap, convenient and usully faster to transfer files.

Here is quote from CONNECT Help:

Q. A compatible memory card cannot be recognized.
A. A compatible memory card which is not formatted in FAT may not be recognized by CONNECT Reader.
When formatting a compatible memory card, format it using the formatter supplied with the compatible memory card, or using Windows Explorer, specifying FAT.

Be sure to copy any files off your card before you format it, 'cause they'll all go bye-bye if you don't.

To format, just right-click on the drive icon (whichever one your card shows up as) and choose format. Under the File System option, choose an FAT option, and then let it run. You can add a label there too, if you like.

Do be sure you select the right drive! :scholar:

Thanks guys, I will try that tonight when I get home.

Sorry guys, it didn't work. I reformatted the Patriot SD card from FAT32 to FAT. Continued getting the same aggravating result. When the Connect software does recognize the card, it puts a separate device icon in the list on the left-hand side, but doesn't give it a name like the Connect help info says it will. When I click on the icon, my computer freezes. I've rebooted my computer and reset the Reader resulting in no change. Any suggestions?

FAT32 should have worked just fine, my SanDisk is FAT32....

:shrug: I'm fresh out of ideas. I know some folks had reported issues with some less well known brands of card, but that's more of a guess than anything.

Yeah, I wish they would just come out and say which brands are compatible. As it is, there's too much guesswork involved. Thanks for your help!

Theoretically, they should all be compatible, if everyone is complying with the standard properly. Since it seems to be the off brands that have issues, my nasty suspicious mind wonders if the lack isn't on the part of the cards. :shrug:

Well, Sony does specify that compatible cards work. May be a way for Sony to increase their bottom line.

My frustration towards Sony would go up tenfold if that was an intentional action on their part. I wonder if any Memory Stick users are experiencing similar issues.

I obviously don't know much about the SD card spec, but it vastly confuses me on why different devices that are supposed to support the same standard (SD) apparently don't do so. I could see why there might be an issue with >2GB cards (as that is apparently governed by a newer SD spec), but AFAIK all older SD cards should be swell.

My frustration towards Sony would go up tenfold if that was an intentional action on their part. I wonder if any Memory Stick users are experiencing similar issues.I don't think there are any off-brand Memory sticks out there. I know that SanDisk has made them, but they're hardly an off-brand. :)

It wouldn't bother me at all if Sony intentionally decided that they weren't going to chase their tails trying to support every "SD" card out there that deviated in some small way from the standard.

It would bug me, a lot, to discover that the card I bought believing it was an SD card didn't quite comply with those same standards. If it can't be used in all SD devices then is it really an SD card?

Is it the Reader that isn't complying, or the card? The card would make more sense to me, the Reader isn't the first thing Sony has put an SD slot on, some of their newer laptops have them too. I don't assume that my laptop is at fault when some media or other doesn't want to talk to it, I usually assume (correctly or incorrectly) that it's a problem with the media itself, especially if the hardware is behaving itself otherwise. :shrug:

I don't know anything about the cards we're discussing, however, so unless somebody else does and would care to comment, then for me this discussion is all hypothetical in the first place. :grin:

I suspect the "compatible cards" clause is a CYA move for those cards that don't meet the SD standard. :shrug:

I don't know if the problem is with the Reader or the card. I called Sony customer service last night, but the person I spoke with couldn't help. She did state that there wouldn't be a problem using the Memory Stick Pro. She said that someone from Sony with more experience with the Reader would give me a call in a couple of days (there's probably about a 50% likelihood of that actually happening, I would say).

Likewise, I wouldn't have a problem with only Sony SD cards and memory sticks working with the Reader if they would come out and tell you openly. Throwing away money on another brand that I later find out is worthless -- I don't really appreciate that.

I can vouch for SanDisk, and whatever brand that Palm puts their labels on. I think we found on another thread that the big names worked fine: SanDisk, Lexar, etc. I'd jump over there (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8011) to verify, though.

My Sandisk mini-SD and my Lexar 1gig SD both work in the Reader. My generic "Danelec" 512mb SD card does not work in the Reader. I've seen this before, where certain devices "like" certain cards better than others. Usually I've seen with SanDisk/Lexar, you know it'll work in most readers/devices.

I just wanted to let everyone who helped me out here, and anyone reading this in the future with the same problem, that a Sandisk SD card worked in my finicky Sony Reader. Thanks for everyone who helped me here!

Glad you got a resolution, sloc187! Thanks for letting us know. :)

After getting my Viking 256MB SD card and formatting it to FAT32 for the heck of it (from FAT), it seems to work well with the PDFs (and a text files) that had not worked so well on my Kingston 256MB SD.

I suppose I'm happy, but that's only cause I had multiple cards to use...I feel for those who only have one card specifically for the Reader, only to find that it doesn't work correctly.

We should collect the findings on working and non-working memory cards in the Wiki.

http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Sony_Reader_Memorycards

hmmm anyone have a problem with the connect software not being able to start when the sd card is in the device? because as long as my SD card is out of it, it will start... in, and it just hangs...

No problems for me when the sd card is in the device.

hmmm it might be because I have a 1GB one, with lots of folders and what not in it. I'll try deleting most of the files and see if that fixes it :). (Thanks bob)
and that's what it was^^; Apparently having 400MB of music files and 200 jpg images kinda makes it freak out :p

If you have a lot on the card, I know it is pretty slow to catalog the books on it, so it might seem like it's hanging. Might do something similar reading the card from the desktop Connect software. Have you tried waiting an exagerated long time (e.g. 30mins) to be very sure it's hanging? Is there an animated "busy" sign somewhere?

If you have a lot on the card, I know it is pretty slow to catalog the books on it, so it might seem like it's hanging. Might do something similar reading the card from the desktop Connect software. Have you tried waiting an exagerated long time (e.g. 30mins) to be very sure it's hanging? Is there an animated "busy" sign somewhere?
Hmmm well at the time it would show the top bar (part with the minimize/maximize/close button) but everything else would be white). I didn't wait longer than 8 minutes before manually force closing the program (was sure to send the error as well :p )

The thing is, if it's going to take *that* long to open I'll gladly just use my laptop's built in memory card slot and transfer books via that, and when connecting the book to the pc to make sure the SD card is out of it.

Hopefully they can work on the indexing speed....

No, it's not usually nearly that long. I was just hoping that your particular huge set of files was the issue. Maybe try a nearly empty card to see if the contents is the issue. (Maybe there's a file the Reader thinks is a book and get's confused while indexing?)

No, it's not usually nearly that long. I was just hoping that your particular huge set of files was the issue. Maybe try a nearly empty card to see if the contents is the issue. (Maybe there's a file the Reader thinks is a book and get's confused while indexing?)

ah yes, (guess I didn't make it too clear when I edited my post up above) But yeah, having a nearly empty card did the trick :). Hopefully that problem will be fixed~ but it's not too important (just was using my cell phone's mini SD card and it had a bunch of various info in it....

I've updated the wiki page with the info in this thread up to this post.
http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Sony_Reader_Memorycards

...don't give up. If you reformat the card using your PC, it may restore it to full utility. I've had this situation in the past on a variety of cards that I tend to move from unit to unit, camera to PC, MP3 to GPS, etc. So far, reformatting has always fully restored the cards. (You will however lose any data on the card, if you are reusing an existing card.)

I've had total success with a 1GB SanDisk Extreme III SD card in both of our Sony readers. It's a 133x card, and seems to allow the reader to be pretty zippy at locating and re-paginating content. The reader took well under a minute to identify 300 books on the card, and paginates a big one (David Weber's "War of Honor") in about 30 seconds. I guess faster SD cards really DO make a difference!

Xenophon

I'd agree with the statements about the flimsyness of the memory card door. However, for $30 for a 2 gig SD card, I was just planning on buying one and leaving it in there until 4 gig ones get cheap enough. I'll probably just load it using the sony connect software.

I don't think we have any definitive answer yet about whether the Sony Reader works with 4gig SD cards... that requires FAT32 and specifically 4gig compatibility. It also would take a long time to index if there's a lot on the card.

I did try my 4gig card in it and I know it can read from it (does that at least mean it supports FAT32?), but I didn't check to see if it could read all 4gig, or just the 2gig portion.

I've got a 1gig card in mine, but what a waste. I basically don't put any books on it unless I want the option of deleting books away from my computer. (I can do that by popping the SD card into my Treo and managing the files there.)

I like just having a short book list, so I keep it pretty clean.

It also would take a long time to index if there's a lot on the card.

I did try my 4gig card in it and I know it can read from it (does that at least mean it supports FAT32?), but I didn't check to see if it could read all 4gig, or just the 2gig portion.

SD HC (4GB capacity) is a new protocol, my understanding is that if you can insert it and read it, then you've got SD HC as otherwise you see nothing.

But I haven't tried one yet myself. I bought a 4GB Sandisk Extreme III CF for my iLiad because I knew it wouldn't do SD HC.

I've been examining a MS DUO full of BBeBook created ebooks and I'm examining it with an eye to being able to pre-index/pre-paginate for the Sony Reader on a computer with a few more 0's behind it. :)

More as I make progress (in between my iLiad projects.)

From my post in this thread (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7435&page=4&pp=15)
Just wanted to say that I just got my 4GB Ritek Ridata 150x SD card working in my reader. It gave me lots of problems until I just deleted all the data off of the card (after backing it up on my computer) and stuck the blank card into my reader. After that, it appeared in the CONNECT Reader and showed Available 3.8 GB, Capacity 3.8 GB!
I'm pretty sure this means that the Sony reader supports at least some 4GB SD cards. The "flat" interface to selecting books and music on the reader makes me disinclined to put too much material on the card at one time.

I bought a PNY 1 GB SD card at CompUSA, and it works fine in the Reader. It was on sale for $29.99, plus there is a $10 mail-in rebate until the end of the year for a total cost of $19.99. There also are 2 GB versions of this card, but they were not on sale.

I got a new 2 gb card to work the first time, But i did reformat the fat partition to a much smaller cluseter size. Becasue the most of these book files are fairly small, If you use a default cluster size, it uses one whole cluster for a small file. waisting lots of space on The end of the cluster. I think I used 32KB the smallest it would let me use. I would start by reformating your cards in a pc. Loading them throught to sony software. The Sony connect software says they do some compression and conversions when transfering.

Hey,
I've now gone through two Sandisk 2gb SD cards, and CONNECT has wiped them both out. They will work fine until I try to use CONNECT to load data into them, then the software freezes, and the cards become completely unreadable afterwards. I am not even able to format them and have had to return them to the store. Anyone else have such a bad experience? I went with Sandisk because I've had good experiences in the past. The CONNECT software does work fine with a 1gig kingston miniSD card that I have in an adapter.

Also, has anyone else read about formatting the SD cards with special software? Aparently the SD specs require some kind of custom formatting, but I'm not sure if this is manufacturer specific. Here is a panasonic link:
http://panasonic.co.jp/pavc/global/cs/sd/download/sd_formatter.html

-Joel

Hey,
I've now gone through two Sandisk 2gb SD cards, and CONNECT has wiped them both out. They will work fine until I try to use CONNECT to load data into them, then the software freezes, and the cards become completely unreadable afterwards. I am not even able to format them and have had to return them to the store. Anyone else have such a bad experience? I went with Sandisk because I've had good experiences in the past. The CONNECT software does work fine with a 1gig kingston miniSD card that I have in an adapter.
-Joel
I use a 2GB sandisk without any problem, both transferring from Connect to the SD and dropping directly from the PC to the SD. Perhaps the Reader's SD port it bad?

Same response as SoCal Bob -- no problems with the 2 GB SanDisk SD card. (On sale a while back at RatShack.) I used it straight from the package. Just plugged it in and connected the Reader to the USB port. I have used the SD card outside the CONNECT software to load music and pictures (each in their own subdirectory for my sanity.) Never a problem yet.

As for formatting the SD card, yes, there are special formatting programs required for the higher features of SD cards that the generic Windows type OS formatters will not provide. If you use the Windows format programs the card will work fine in most readers attached to computers and MAY work fine in the Reader. It also may not work fine. I would go with the referenced program for formatting the SD cards if I wanted to reformat an SD card. I have a special program from Sony for reformatting Memory Sticks and another from HP for reformatting USB thumb drives. I always use these rather than the OS commands.

I use a "no-name" 2GB SD card and it works just fine. Put it straight out of the package into the Reader. No problems at all. It's what I've got all my Reader content stored on.

My 512M Lexar gave me problems the other day with an Ebook that apparently got corrupted. The card "disappeared" and would not be recognized. A reset fixed the problem.

My 2G Sandisk works fine, and for grins, I put in a 2G PNY I had sitting around. Both are fully functional out of the box.

However, I have noticed an interesting phenomenon regarding cards - both SD and Memory sticks, and on two different Readers:

- Start Connect, plug in Reader, reader shows up in the Connect software, and a few seconds later, the card shows up in Connect. Everything works fine.

- with Connect not running, plug in Reader, start Connect. Reader shows up in Connect, but SD or Memory Stick never show up (at least not after 30 minutes, then I give up.)

Anyone else have the issue where the card is not seen in Connect if the Reader is already plugged in when Connect it started? This might have some bearing on some of the card issues reported in this thread...

I've had equal (good) results with both SD cards and Memory Sticks in all sequences of starting.

I'm going to pick up a new Card reader, hoping that it is the problem (although it doesn't explain why the kingston 1gig works fine). Anyone have a recommendation on a good piece of software other than the Panasonic app for formatting SD cards? It will only format my newest sandisk card to 1.8gig (I'm pretty sure it was 1.9 when I originally checked it).

-Joel

- with Connect not running, plug in Reader, start Connect. Reader shows up in Connect, but SD or Memory Stick never show up (at least not after 30 minutes, then I give up.)

Anyone else have the issue where the card is not seen in Connect if the Reader is already plugged in when Connect it started? This might have some bearing on some of the card issues reported in this thread...

I just tested my kensington 2gb SD in this manner. Showed up fine after I entered the lock code, about 5 seconds after the Reader itself showed. I do use the screen lock, and therefore must enter the code each time in Connect to see the Reader drive and the SD card. That might make the critical difference.

I start Connect both with and without Reader plugged in, and my SD card always shows up fine. I don't use a lock code.

From another thread, though, I seem to be one of the fortunate ones who doesn't have any problems with Connect. Perhaps the "no-show" of the SD card is related to the other instability problems that some people are experiencing?

Harry, that makes sense - I am one of the unfortunate ones that have mucho instability with the Connect software (and so does my wife, and she doesn't have anywhere near as many whacky programs installed on her PC.) I restart the Connect software so much after crashes that it is contstantly at the top of my most frequently used program list...

It's certainly not a huge problem to unplug it and plug it back in for me, so I'm not actively worried about it, although I'd really love it if the instability were fixed.

-e-

Does anyone know whether or not you can load the files onto one card and then just drop them (xml file and all) onto another card? I'm interested in doing this because CONNECT wiped out yet another SanDisk 2gb card (I'm on #3) and I can only get an RMA replacement at this point. My Kingston miniSD 1gb continues to perform like a champ, so I'm only using this with CONNECT for now on. If nobody knows the answer I can just test it, but I won't be getting an RMA for a few weeks. Thanks.

-Joel

Also, to detail my SanDisk problem: When transferring large RTF files (over 1.5mb) CONNECT freezes. This locks up the SD card and destroys the file system. About 50% of the time the card cannot be reformatted (by either windows, OSX, or the SDFormatter from Panasonic) and has to be returned.

I have a really dumb newby question... I just bought a reader and am waiting for delivery.... I know I'm going to max out the memory (I've already downloaded lessee.. checking now... 256 books... I'm like a squirrel hiding acorns here. i love old books and have went through the manybooks website downloading any and all i found even slightly interesting) so I bought a memory sd card from amazon. I got this product... (SanDisk 2 GB Extreme III SD Memory Card) :uhoh2: I hope that was the right one????

My question is, (And bear with me because i'm kind of computer challenged...)

Do I just what, slip the card into the device like I do my camera memory card and never open the reader again using the software and usb cables to transfer files to it or do I have to buy another umm.. Card reader.. (Whatever that is) and transfer files to the card, then put the card into the reader every time I get new books, (Which I'm certain will be regularly)

I was kind of hoping for the former rather than the latter procedure.

Can anyone hold my hand and lead me through the baby steps...

Thanks. Roy

That SD card should be fine, some folks have reported issues with larger than 2GB, but the only thing you're likely to run into is that the Reader will slow the card down. :grin:

As to getting texts onto the card, either approach you've mentioned will work fine. The drawback to the former is that you have to use the ConnSoft to transfer the files. The downside to the latter is that the page calculations will be done by the Reader (instead of your PC (via ConnSoft)), so it'll take time re-indexing the entire card every time you re-insert it.

You may find that you don't want to keep a lot of files on your Reader, or a memory card for that matter, since the Reader uses a flat file system -- it displays all the files on the card and in its memory in a single list, 10 at a time. So opening the last of your 256 files would require paging through 26 screens of file names. :sad:

Most of us have found that it's simpler to keep only the book we're currently reading, plus the next few we plan to read, and leave it at that. Of course, you'll have to decide what approach works best for you. :shrug:

I am using a Kingston Elite Pro 4G in my Reader. It is formatted as FAT32. To the best of my knowlege it is not an SDHD card. All of the content on my card shows in the Reader catalog with a small card icon beside it. I have 18 books on the card as well as 9 songs and 46 photos. The files (73 total) on the card are organized into folders by type. The reader takes approximately 20 seconds to catalog the card when it is inserted.

I also have a Kingston 512MB card that was formatted as a FAT file system by my camera. When I insert it in my reader and connect to it via the Connect software, it is recognized. When I put a book on it, the Reader adds a "Sony Reader" folder that contains a "books" folder and a "database" folder. The Reader takes about 5 seconds to catalog this card. The Reader found some MP3s I had in a folder on the card though the folder had not been created by the Reader. Yes, my camera plays MP3s.

Kingston is a name brand that I have used before. I am in China so I never know if some electronics I buy are not knock-offs, but this card works well. I use a 4G capacity card reader that looks like a USB flash drive, only a little wider. It makes a convenient 4G USB flash drive when I choose to use it for that. I paid less than US$4 for it here. The 4G card was a hair more than US$40.

I too am disinclined to buy a high another capacity card for this device, now that I have seen the flat-file organization of the Reader. It is tedious going through many pages of the catalog. Maybe in the future, the Reader firmware will support directories. It would also be useful to have a mechanism that would prohibit the Reader from cataloging certain (pehaps specially named) folders so non-Reader content on the card, or a reserve store of reading material, would not burden the cataloging process. This would be easy to do by creating a configuration option that would tell the Reader to catalog only the "Sony Reader" folder and its subfolders.

As an experiment, I loaded an additional 595 files of MP3s and associated files (album art, desktop.ini) in 49 folders onto the Kingston 4G card using my card reader. This brought the total size of the files on the card to 2.869G. My reasoning was that if the Reader could not address all 4G of the card, anything over 2G would reveal the difficulty. When I inserted the card into the Reader, it took about 90 seconds to catalog the content. The Reader showed I had only 120 songs onboard. Obviously something was wrong! Then I connected the Reader to my PC and invoked the Connect software. It tried to access the card within the Reader and gave up shortly showing an error in the left menu section.

I then put the SD card back into my card reader and removed about 1G of MP3 files, taking the file size below the 2G point. The Reader took about 70 seconds to catalog the content of the card. It showed I now had 110 songs -- clearly untrue. Then I reconnected the Reader to the PC and started the Connect software. The Connect software now reported the content of my SD card as 18 books (as before), 99 pictures (a lot of album art from the MP3 folders) and 108 songs.

Next I put the SD card back into the card reader. I moved most of the MP3s into one folder and eliminated all of the album art and extra files. I wanted to eliminate folder nesting as a factor. Now I had 1.2G of Mp3s in 264 files. The card had a total of 1.76G in the filesystem. The Reader showed 110 songs. There should have been more than 260. The Connect software showed I had 108 songs on the card. It showed I had about 2.2G left out of a 3.8G capacity, but it wouldn't catalog all of the MP3s.

Conclusion: The Connect software knows the size of the SD card. Does this mean the Reader is correctly addressing all 4G? Probably not. I think the Reader is getting the 4G capacity info from the SD card in some way, but the addressing is not available for the full card. Maybe it sees the card as a 2G card or a 1G card. I suspect this is a Reader limitation. Is it hardware or software? Sony, would you care to comment?

We can demonstrate that a given card works in the Reader, but it requires further effort to determine if the Reader can use the full capacity of the card. Here is the fill-test. Load your SD card almost to capacity with a known number of files of a given type: songs, books, pictures. Now see if the Reader can enumerate them correctly and that the Connect software can see them. I suspect further that if you try to put more than a given amount of files on your reader using the Connect software (beyond the addressing capability of your Reader), the Connect software will go toes-up. I have not demonstrated this. it is only a suspicion.

It would be useful if we could report card models and brands that do not work on the wiki page (http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Sony_Reader_Memorycards). My suspicion is that Sony engineered the interface correctly, and that there are some card makers that are using flaky electronics. Working from that assumption would give us an idea if there is a pattern to the "incompatibility". There are knock-off cards on the market, so the picture may be muddied by that.

The only time I have had trouble with USB flash devices has been when I have an insecure connection to the PC and then inadvertently power up-and-down quickly. This erases them by destroying the file system. In every case I have been able to reformat them and use them again. It is a good idea to insert them firmly and make sure the USB device is supported physically if it is heavy or in a bad location, so it cannot pull itself loose.

Anyone else have the issue where the card is not seen in Connect if the Reader is already plugged in when Connect it started? This might have some bearing on some of the card issues reported in this thread...
When I first connect the Reader via USB and then start the Connect software, the Connect software successfully catalogs my SD card. I am using the February Reader firmware upgrade (Version 1.0.02.01300) as well as the current Connect software (1.1.00.13290). My Reader reports the battery level correctly after charging provided I disconnect the power cable and reconnect it -- per the reports of others.

Conclusion: The Connect software knows the size of the SD card. Does this mean the Reader is correctly addressing all 4G? Probably not. I think the Reader is getting the 4G capacity info from the SD card in some way, but the addressing is not available for the full card. Maybe it sees the card as a 2G card or a 1G card. I suspect this is a Reader limitation. Is it hardware or software? Sony, would you care to comment?



Reports from a number of users suggest that cards >2GB don't work correctly in the Reader. 2GB cards work fine - best to stick to those, if you want to use a memory card.

SD cards support a serial interface mode (SPI) that is compatible with MMC cards, though applications can use the faster 4-bit parallel SD mode. If the demands of an application permit, it is logical to use the SPI mode which, though slower, gives MMC card compatibility with only one software stack rather than the two stacks required to support both SD and SPI modes.

Additionally the SD standard is not open to open-source developers, so Linux based devices are not likely to support SD mode. Sony might have its own proprietary drivers under license however.

Compatibility issues exist when older cards are used that adhered to a previous set of standards. Some commands have changed. Some micro-SD cards do not use the SPI interface, so if our Reader uses only SPI (likely) these would not work. SDHC cards do not work. They are a newer standard and a different interface that does not provide backward compatibility to SD/MMC interfaces.

SDHC cards can be addressed up to 32G. It does not appear that the Reader supports SDHC functionality.

The interface to an SD card is via a 4-bit data bus that is usually used in (SPI) one-bit serial mode. Obviously then, the physical addressing of memory is accomplished via registers internal to the SD card, which registers are accessed via a system of software commands. The standard does not permit variations in the physical interfaces of various SD cards, though the physical interface of the MMC card has fewer pins. Wikipedia states that the theoretical memory addressing capacity of an SD card is 128G using 28-bit sector addressing. They don't say whether it is 128G bits or bytes. If bits, that would confer a 16G byte limitation.

The SD Group Technical Committee specifies that SD cards can have a capacity of up to and including 2G. It seems that those producing SD cards in excess of 2G are doing so in violation of the specs. One manufacturers's site projects SD cards of up to 16G capacity.

It is probable then that the limitations to the SD/MMC addressing capability of the Reader are firmware limitations. I found a statement that the SD cards have a greater growth capacity in terms of memory size than the MMC cards. It is possible that the current ceiling of 2G on the Reader's SD capacity reflects an industry-wide tendency to adhere to the capacity limits of the MMC standard for the sake of being compatible with both formats simultaneously using the same firmware. It is also likely that the SD/MMC host controllers available on the market present addressing limitations.

I believe that Sony only claims that the Reader is compatible up to 2GB. :shrug:

Wow you guys are truly geeks... :rolleyes5 (And I am totally joking with that comment) Reminds me of some of the speeches of Bill Clinton. I knew the words he was using but I just couldnt figure out what he was talking about!

Natch thanks for the answer. Now I know I dont have to go buy a card reader. I already bought one of those M Edge cases for my reader i dont even have yet.

I'm probably going to put hundreds of books on the reader. I LOVE the idea of lugging hundreds if not thousands of books around with me to read at my leisure. I tend to be a bit eclectic about my reading choices depending on mood and setting and would love to have the diversity of choice 300 or more books offers. From Robert frosts Poems If I'm looking at a sunset to Patrick McManus hilarious outdoor hyperbole if I only have a few minutes waiting in line somewhere.

I was at WalMart just today with my wife... "Oh Honey! I wanna just buy Mom a card for mothers day!" So I grabbed a card after looking for a total of 55 seconds, she's looking, I'm waiting. Finally I say, "I'm gonna go sit on the patio furniture and wait for you." About 25 minutes later she finally selects her card and is ready to go. Meanwhile I sat there watching people walk by with NO BOOK TO READ! I wish I would have had my reader with me. It would have been a perfect place to drift off to Pern for a few minutes.
Or read a couple of chapters of Isaiah!

I dont think I will mind scrolling through tons of file names to find the book I wanna read as long as it only takes a second to go to the next page of files.
Flat file system?
How is it even possible that the good folks at Sony did not design this thing with subfolder capabilites? Its hard to believe...

I have an excellent MP3 player, The gigabeat so i dont think I'll use the mp3 application at all...

I guess I'll just have to put up with the file system.

How is it even possible that the good folks at Sony did not design this thing with subfolder capabilites?That, Roy, is an excellent question. I wish we knew the answer to that one. :shrug:

That, Roy, is an excellent question. I wish we knew the answer to that one. :shrug:
I think the thinking is that many people will forget where they put a book and blame Sony for the lost book. Remember all the stories you have heard of the people who have all of their documents in "My Documents" and have to go through 10 pages of file names to find the letter they wrote that morning. I believe it is easier for them to put up with our comments than it would be to put up with hundreds if not thousands of people calling in and asking where their books are (or even worse for Sony, returning the Reader because the books they put on the Reader are gone.)

Well, I certainly agree that they'll catch heat no matter what that do with it, so you may be onto something there. :shrug:

I believe that Sony only claims that the Reader is compatible up to 2GB. :shrug:

My research with the 4G card agrees, in that my one example of the 4G card fails the fill-test. There are two 4G cards listed as working in the wiki page (http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Sony_Reader_Memorycards). I expect a fill-test will confirm my results.

Here is the fill-test. Load your SD card almost to capacity with a known number of files of a given type: song, book or picture. The object is to prove that your card can be addressed uniquely over the entire range. You should be able to use all of the files with your Reader. If you cannot, then the card is not being addressed properly. Make sure the card reader you use to fill the card is capable of addressing the range of your SD card. e.g. I have two card readers. One, a new one, can read/write a 4G SD card and the other, old one, cannot.

We should really fill-test a 2G card to corroborate Sony's claim. Maybe I can pick one up this week. I have a 1G that is wandering around China in a lady's handbag. I will endeavor to test that too when she returns.

There are ways of having a card work and there are ways of having the card work, and they aren't necessarily the same.

You can use a 4GB card with no problem as long as you keep the size of all the loaded data to less than 2 GB -- in other words, as long as you don't try to use the full capacity they work fine. Either SD cards or Memory Sticks. So people who have begun using the 4GB media but haven't reached that capacity think they work fine (which they do for that amount of data.)

I have fill-tested the 2GB cards and they work just fine.

I have an excellent MP3 player, The gigabeat so i dont think I'll use the mp3 application at all...


Smart move. The MP3 player is quite "dangerous" on the Reader, in that it doesn't have a "Stop" facility, just a "Pause". It's all too easy to leave it playing accidentally (which you obviously won't know unless you have headphones plugged in). When it's playing, the auto-power-off doesn't happen, and you can drain the Reader's battery FLAT in a few hours.

Safest thing is to use a "proper" MP3 player for music (I use my iPod) and use the Reader for what it's best at - reading books.

i only keep a week's worth of books on the reader. every sunday i reload.

the world is my symphony so no mp3s for me.

I think the thinking is that many people will forget where they put a book and blame Sony for the lost book. Remember all the stories you have heard of the people who have all of their documents in "My Documents" and have to go through 10 pages of file names to find the letter they wrote that morning. I believe it is easier for them to put up with our comments than it would be to put up with hundreds if not thousands of people calling in and asking where their books are (or even worse for Sony, returning the Reader because the books they put on the Reader are gone.)

The Reader actually isn't alone in showing the file structure "Flat" - the Pocket PC works the same way. It has a standard FAT file system and you can store files in whatever folders you want, but the "Open File" dialog from any application shows you all the files for that application in a "flat" list, no matter what folder they are stored it.

I suspect there's a lot of truth to the suggestion that Sony feel that hierarchical file systems confuse people. We may be doing them an injustice in thinking that they just "forgot" to implement this - it may very well be a deliberate choice based on customer testing. Companies like Sony spend a LOT of time finding out what customers think of products a long time before they release them, and the Reader is not intended to be a product for computer geeks.

I only have time to read one book per 2 or 3 weeks. I still have the same selection on the reader's own memory from two months ago's download.

When I got the reader it was imperative at that point to get the biggest card available. I felt like I absolutely needed my whole library with me at all time. Today's feeling... pffff! What a waste of time. It was a good demonstration while showing the reader off but that was it!

Looking backwards at it, it was exactly like piling up paper books out of the library for quick access. Kind of defeating the real use of a bookshelf isn't it?

The real work should be on the computer itself only... the downloading of a book to the reader's memory is so quick that you have whatever mood choice available in no time. And since you regularly have to charge the device, that's where download time is done ; frequent enough for anyone's needs I say!

MP3s and pictures are an other story though. My card is now used for JPEG comic books.

You can use a 4GB card with no problem as long as you keep the size of all the loaded data to less than 2 GB -- in other words, as long as you don't try to use the full capacity they work fine. Either SD cards or Memory Sticks. So people who have begun using the 4GB media but haven't reached that capacity think they work fine (which they do for that amount of data.)

That is what I would have assumed based on my former experience testing RAM. Something is funny about the way the Connect software behaves. From my earlier post . . .

I then put the SD card back into my card reader and removed about 1G of MP3 files, taking the file size below the 2G point. The Reader took about 70 seconds to catalog the content of the card. It showed I now had 110 songs -- clearly untrue. Then I reconnected the Reader to the PC and started the Connect software. The Connect software now reported the content of my SD card as 18 books (as before), 99 pictures (a lot of album art from the MP3 folders) and 108 songs.

Next I put the SD card back into the card reader. I moved most of the MP3s into one folder and eliminated all of the album art and extra files. I wanted to eliminate folder nesting as a factor. Now I had 1.2G of Mp3s in 264 files. The card had a total of 1.76G in the filesystem. The Reader showed 110 songs. There should have been more than 260. The Connect software showed I had 108 songs on the card. It showed I had about 2.2G left out of a 3.8G capacity, but it wouldn't catalog all of the MP3s.

I would be interested to see other results. I think the Connect software is confused by 4G cards that are nearly half full. My suspicion is that it is prudent to avoid > 2G cards.

I have fill-tested the 2GB cards and they work just fine.

This is good to know.

I am not unhappy with the flat-file arrangement of the Reader. I can easily reconnect to download another book, so I won't keep my onboard catalog too full.

The same with my 2GB SanDisk SD card. Filled it to the max and it read fine.

I bought a Kingston 2G SD card yesterday. It passed the fill-test and the Reader enumerates the files properly.

Caveat: I discovered music files mixed in with my fill-test MP3s that were not MP3s. They have since been replaced. The Reader will not enumerate them. This may explain some of the questionable results I had earlier about the Connect software and the Reader not cataloging correctly. At this point I am confident that 2G cards can work properly.

I am also quite sure 4G cards will not be completely addressed in the reader and that they will fail in the Connect software if they are filled to > 2G. The 4G cards listed as OK in the wiki page should be fill-tested or moved to the "Working with Restrictions" section of the page.

This latest Kingston SD card has holographic stickers on it and has a number to call (in China) to verify authenticity. The other three Kingston cards came with no such sticker and are probably knock-offs. I will mark the wiki page accordingly.

The Kingston 2G SD card cost about US$22 from a dealer I trust.

It's been a while since I last bought a memory card. A few days ago I needed a new one for a Sat-Nav system and I was absolutely amazed to see how much they'd fallen in price. I finished up buying a Dane Electronics 2GB SD card for £9.45, including VAT (about US$18). Just crazy!

It's been a while since I last bought a memory card. A few days ago I needed a new one for a Sat-Nav system and I was absolutely amazed to see how much they'd fallen in price. I finished up buying a Dane Electronics 2GB SD card for £9.45, including VAT (about US$18). Just crazy!


Ain't it grand? I recall when the first flash memory cards started appearing (the SmartMedia cards which have gone the way of the dodo) prices were like $70 for 256MB!

Now if Sony will just address the 4GB card issues and make such a card usable for those of us who wish to use such cards, along with improving the indexing and listing of huge quanitities of books in a soon-to-be-forthcoming firmware update, life will be even better.

As it is, I have stopped using any memory cards at all to lengthen battery-charge life and to increase speed.

I was having problems with my kingston 2G card, until i opened up a dos window, and used "format g: /fs:FAT /v:cardname /a:512" <<note that g: is my sd slot, yours may vary!>> \. It came back with an error, and then I dropped the "/a:512" from it, and it worked! Even the windows formatter didn't fix it!

Hopefully this little tidbit will help come other users out there!

For some reason while I'm reading a book that is stored on my 1 gig sandisk memory card the card will just disspear and I have to remove the card and re-insert it for the memory card to be recognized by the reader, this happens randomly, it could be completely still except for me turning the pages, or if I'm holding the book in my hand while reading. It's gotten bad enough that for books I'm reading I've had to move them over to the internal memory card if I don't want the story to crap out on me at random intervals and have to go through the process of resetting it and most of the time I lose my bookmarks when this happens as well.

Does anyone have any ideas or solutions? am I the only one this is happening to?

For some reason while I'm reading a book that is stored on my 1 gig sandisk memory card the card will just disspear and I have to remove the card and re-insert it for the memory card to be recognized by the reader, this happens randomly, it could be completely still except for me turning the pages, or if I'm holding the book in my hand while reading. It's gotten bad enough that for books I'm reading I've had to move them over to the internal memory card if I don't want the story to crap out on me at random intervals and have to go through the process of resetting it and most of the time I lose my bookmarks when this happens as well.

Does anyone have any ideas or solutions? am I the only one this is happening to?
The only thing I can suggest is try a different SD memory card in case the one you have is faulty.

Jon

Hello,new here.My name is Pat.I have Karaoke Machine.It lets you record voice,using SD card.I,had been able to do record&add to computer.
Then tried it other day&couldn't get file to play my recording.So,I formatted(1st. time) well;didnt help. So,i put SD back,in Kar. Mac.& deleted files to start over.I press record&all 000000 show up,even as Iam recording.It is not working.

Hello,new here.My name is Pat.I have Karaoke Machine.It lets you record voice,using SD card.I,had been able to do record&add to computer.
Then tried it other day&couldn't get file to play my recording.So,I formatted(1st. time) well;didnt help. So,i put SD back,in Kar. Mac.& deleted files to start over.I press record&all 000000 show up,even as Iam recording.It is not working.

Maybe I do not understand your intention, but this forum is about ebooks and readers for ebooks. We do not concern ourselves so much with SD cards in other equipment. For that reason I don't have any idea how I could help. Perhaps someone else has an idea.

For some reason while I'm reading a book that is stored on my 1 gig sandisk memory card the card will just disspear and I have to remove the card and re-insert it for the memory card to be recognized by the reader, this happens randomly, it could be completely still except for me turning the pages, or if I'm holding the book in my hand while reading. It's gotten bad enough that for books I'm reading I've had to move them over to the internal memory card if I don't want the story to crap out on me at random intervals and have to go through the process of resetting it and most of the time I lose my bookmarks when this happens as well.

Does anyone have any ideas or solutions? am I the only one this is happening to?

You are not the only one. I have the same problem on both my reader and my wife's reader, with 3 different SD cards.

If you find an answer, or anyone else does, I would be very interested in hearing it.

You are not the only one. I have the same problem on both my reader and my wife's reader, with 3 different SD cards.

If you find an answer, or anyone else does, I would be very interested in hearing it.
From what I gather, the SD card should be FAT formatted. You will need a card reader for your computer so you can format the SD card as FAT and not FAT32 or NTFS. And the Reader doe snot support 4GB SD cards. So if they are larger then 2GB, forget them and get a 2GB SD card to try.