Is my micro sd card dead?

[garmcqui]

My Viofo A119 came up with a memory card error yesterday. Tried formatting in the cam, no improvement. Just tried removing it and formatting on my PC (Win10) and it is telling me the card is write protected? No such feature on the USB adapter I'm using, and other cards work ok.

Is this a symptom that the card (a 64GB Transcend Premium 400x) has died? It still reads fine.

Is there any way to check the write count using software?

Thanks

 

[jokiin]

time for a new card

 

[garmcqui]

Thanks. Only purchased September 2018, so am going to try out their warranty, for what its worth.

 

[Nigel]

Is there any way to check the write count using software?

Only by sending it back under warranty, if it has exceeded the specification then they will refuse the warranty claim.

Someday it may become standard that we are able to see memory card write count and other information ourselves, but on most current cards it is hidden from view because the manufacturers don't want us to see it.

Thanks. Only purchased September 2018, so am going to try out their warranty, for what its worth.

How much use has it had?
24/7 or just 1 hour per day?

 

[Alarm man]

Search H2testw This is a great little test for checking sd cards

Sent from my SM-G9700 using Tapatalk

 

[garmcqui]

To be fair, cam is on 24/7, so in 15mths it probably has had 10k+ hours of recording.

H2testw won't do anything, as the card is appearing as write protected.

 

[jokiin]

24/7 for 15 months, you got your money's worth out of that one

 

[Nigel]

To be fair, cam is on 24/7, so in 15mths it probably has had 10k+ hours of recording.

Does sound like you have worn it out, that is a good life for a 64GB card, I wouldn't bother sending it back. Cards 2x the capacity generally have nearly 2x the lifespan.

What parking mode have you been using?
Or has it been recording at full bitrate continuously?

Low bitrate parking mode on the newer Viofo dashcams will give about 6x longer life than standard bitrate.
Recording in normal mode with modified high bitrate firmwares will give much worse!

 

[IAmATeaf]

Do you think that if sending it back they would deny a warranty claim on the basis that it was used in a dashcam?

 

[Dashmellow]

Do you think that if sending it back they would deny a warranty claim on the basis that it was used in a dashcam?

At their best, memory cards, even the newer high endurance ones should be considered expendable, not unlike old school VHS tapes that could only be reliably re-recordered over a certain number of times.

As a dash cam user for almost ten years now I've had a couple of microSD cards die of old age, at which point it was time to buy new ones rather than try to get the manufacturer to replace them.

 

[Nigel]

Do you think that if sending it back they would deny a warranty claim on the basis that it was used in a dashcam?

They don't know what it has been used for, even if they can see that it currently holds video files, you could have just copied those on for archiving.

They will simply look at the write counter, if it has exceeded around 800 writes for each cell then it is worn out, and warn out does not mean faulty just as a worn out battery or light bulb is not faulty. For the high endurance cards, they should go to around 2200 writes for each cell before the warranty expires, although note that Sandisk "endurance" cards are not "high endurance" and probably expire at 800ish, Samsung Pro probably do reach 2000 or a bit more before the warranty expires.

 

[SawMaster]

24/7 for 15 months, you got your money's worth out of that one

Totally agree. I have used several of this exact same card in the same way (24/7 recording) and had one die at about this same point. Another went maybe 50% further while one did maybe double this. Being rather bored one day I ran the math and it seemed that my best card gave me about 900X writes before it died, the worst 600X. I was VERY impressed with these cards and bought no others till they apparently went out of production. Man, what a heartbreak that was

So far the Samsung EVO Select from Amazon seems to be equally good Probably at 400X or 500X with my first one of these, and with their excellent price they're now my "go-to" card in cams that work within their write speeds.

Phil