Card going wonky? SG9665GCV2

[Dellaty]

Hi guys,

FW: date:2016-01-11
ver:SG20160111.V2 (update 2)​

Interesting first time issue popped up today; hopped in the car and instead of the usual startup tune, the sound was looping the start-up chime in a manner of which i could best describe as the scene from the movie Contact when Elle first hears the signal from Vega... (because this movie scene youtube[dot]com/watch?v=O9G5lrxTF6k&t=23 is the first thing that came to mind, hah)

Powered it off via pulling the adapter out of the cigarette socket and the camera sort of did the terminator-eye shutdown, (as in, the eye slowly going out). Removed the card and sure enough the camera powered up fine. Shutdown and reinserted card, back to sqaure one.

Once home, popped card in computer and could read videos fine, except no recordings for the video on trip to the lead-up to when i jumped in the card and noticed the issue.

I've had the cam/card for about 16-17 months now. Mem card is a Samsung 64GB pro variant. around 50 mins of driving 6 days per week. I've also sort of babied the camera as well, if it is forecast really hot or really sunny, i've removed the cam and placed it in the glovebox out of direct sun. It even has one aircon vent dedicated to blowing air near the camera

Still on the computer and untouched as far as formatting goes, I then copied about 40GB of known data to it which then i checksummed to check integrity which it passed. I then reformatted, uploaded latest firmware onto the card, and then updated the camera, reset factory defaults, then formatted card again (all in-camera).

Sound like a failing card that i should monitor?

 

[niko]

17 month for memory card to be used in dashcam on daily bases is good result. It sounds like your card want to retire.
Try formatting card on your PC (standard exFat format) then format inside dashcam and see if it makes any difference.

 

[thancam]

Memory card is consumable. Not something lasts forever. In fact, i think nothing lasts forever

 

[Dashmellow]

@niko is right, the card may be nearing end of life. You don't want to take the chance that you might have a mishap that doesn't get recorded because the card finally failed and it is best to replace it.

What I do at times like this is to reformat the old card, make sure it still functions properly in the camera and then I put it in a card case and keep it in my car as an emergency back-up in case I ever need a temporary spare card or I just use the old card for non-mission critical testing purposes.

I think of old memory cards as being similar to old video cassettes that could only be recorded over just so many times.

 

[niko]

Memory card is consumable. Not something lasts forever. In fact, i think nothing lasts forever

- “Forever“ may last forever.
- The only constant things in our life are changes.

 

[Deleted member 46308]

- “Forever“ may last forever.
- The only constant things in our life are changes.

True

 

[Dellaty]

This sounds like good advice and I will look at replacing it. Pity, as I specifically hunted the Pro variant as it was MLC based figuring i'd get 2-3 years out of it.

Thanks guys.

 

[Deacon]

Did you format it on your computer (normal Windows format) and put it back in the camera to do its own format, yet? See what happens.

It's not clear which card you got and if it's actually MLC, but how long cards last is really less a factor of calendar time and more a factor of write cycles. So if you drive 6 hours a week, it will last a very long time. But if you drive 6 hours a day, it will get worn out much sooner.

 

[jokiin]

Powered it off via pulling the adapter out of the cigarette socket and the camera sort of did the terminator-eye shutdown, (as in, the eye slowly going out). Removed the card and sure enough the camera powered up fine.

this indicates the O/S crashed, a failed card would cause that, you can have a look at getting that card to work again but first try restoring it to default config by doing a full format with this https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/index.html once it is back to default settings you can try an in camera format but you will need to update the camera firmware first, you're on a very old version still, you'll need a 32GB card or smaller to update from your current firmware version

 

[Dellaty]

Did you format it on your computer (normal Windows format) and put it back in the camera to do its own format, yet? See what happens.

It's not clear which card you got and if it's actually MLC, but how long cards last is really less a factor of calendar time and more a factor of write cycles. So if you drive 6 hours a week, it will last a very long time. But if you drive 6 hours a day, it will get worn out much sooner.

I didn't format it at all in windows - only did some data transfer to it to see if data matched via checksumming. It's really late but i can't actually remember what i did to get it going. I'm sleep deprived atm. I think i zero'd the first few sectors within windows, then put it back into camera and reformatted it there before then doing the firmware update.

Basically didn't have any issues from memory. When the checksum data returned good checksum, I was confident the card was in decent condition to do firmware upgrade (didn't have a spare card). I've sinced found a 1GB SD card (yes, 1GB lol) which i used to re-flash the firmware just to make sure it's a.o.k.

this indicates the O/S crashed, a failed card would cause that, you can have a look at getting that card to work again but first try restoring it to default config by doing a full format with this https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/index.html once it is back to default settings you can try an in camera format but you will need to update the camera firmware first, you're on a very old version still, you'll need a 32GB card or smaller to update from your current firmware version

Thanks, that's what I was interested in (O/S crash). Now to look for a new card.

Cheers for the help

 

[kamkar]

So if you drive 6 hours a week, it will last a very long time. But if you drive 6 hours a day, it will get worn out much sooner.

Thats the good thing with me being a 6 hours a week guy, on the other hand i do like driving and going places, i just cant afford it on my pension.

 

[wozzzzza]

I'm a 6 hours a day cam user at least, thats how long they go for each day here during school terms, I have had a samsung evo 128gb, transcend 126gb and a Kingston 128gb and not any issues really with any of them and had each of them over 12 months now I think and the Samsung evo around 2.5 years atleast.

 

[daniel_bel]

I have had a ..., transcend 126gb ...

I hope you kept it as a valuable collector item, will become very rare.

 

[wozzzzza]

I hope you kept it as a valuable collector item, will become very rare.

or very faulty and worth nothing.