Sansa E250: MicroSD Card not reading now

[BlackBolt]

I have had my Sansa E250 for about a year now and I LOVE it. Rockbox has added so much to it I can't stop praising the work that these guys have done. I tell everyone. I am having a big problem though. I purchased the Sansa E250 (2Gb) because it also has a MicroSD expansion slot. This has been great because of Rockbox's support of MSDHC cards.

I had been running RockBox version 3.3 and recently updated to 3.4. Sometime shortly after or right after I upgraded my MSD slot stopped working. I am not sure if this is a software problem or a hardware problem. I tried putting in a 1 gig msd card and it didn't recognize it and I also tried formatting the 4gig card I have been using (FAT32 format).

When I navigate to System->RockBox Info-> I see it say MSD: Not Present but when I go to System->Debug (Keep Out!)->View Disk Info-> and select MicroSD 1 (MicroSD 0 appears to be the internal memory) I see the following;

[MicroSD 1]
  Rev 0.0
  Prod: 0/2000
  Ser#: 0x00000000
  M=00, O=
  Blocks: 0x00000000
  Speed: 0kBits/s
  Taac: 0ns
  Nsac: 0 clk
  R2W: *0
  IRmax: 0..1 mA
  IWmax: 0..1 mA

When the MSD card is NOT inserted then I see;
[MicroSD 1]
  Not Found!

I can confirm that there isn't anything wrong with the actual msd card but I don't know if there is anyway to determine if something is wrong with my slot on the Sansa or if it's a bug in the software.

Can anyone help me in anyway?

Thanks in advance for your help.
-BlackBolt

[saratoga]

Does the 1GB card work in the retail firmware?

[BlackBolt]

I tested the original firmware with the 1 gig msd card and it doesn't appear to recognize it because it didn't update the database and I can't see the MP3 that I put on the card to test.

I deconstructed the sansa to see what I could see and I didn't notice any broken connections or anything. I tried gently pushing the pin connections down a little to make better contact with the msd card but that didn't do anything. The board and everything appears to be in good shape. As I posted above Rockbox is able to somehow detect that a card is inserted into the slot but nothing beyond that which makes me think that there is a solid connection between the slot and the main board.

Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated as I have exhausted all my own ideas.

-BlackBolt

[durand]

I seem to have the same problem as you with my sansa fuse (though I also get a Need more space error on the OF). Have you found a solution for this?

[BlackBolt]

I have *not* found a solution. In fact there isn't a lot of info in any of the forums or on the internet. I spoke with my brother who has a degree in electrical engineering and he said that it most likely is a hardware failure. I am actually looking at purchasing a Fuse does Rockbox work on it well?

-BlackBolt

[durand]

Yes, very well. The only problem is that USB support is non existent and you can't record anything yet but I hope that that changes soon. The original firmware on the fuze is utter crap and mine has stopped working with an error about disk space, which I cannot fix. So I'm basically just using rockbox now with a microsd card to transfer files across. So yeah, apart from the OF, the fuze is really nice and rockbox works great on it

EDIT: I managed to fix my microsd error. It turned out that I needed to reformat the card, and after that it worked. If your card is being detected in the debug menu then it surely can't be a hardware problem? That's exactly what was happening here.

[aarons510]

I'm guessing you have a problem with the electronics that reads data from the MSD or MSDHC card. You should try reinstalling the original Sansa firmware to see if it will then read 1GB or 2GB cards, but I wouldn't be too hopeful.

If your e250 is a v.1., you can upgrade it to 8 GB by taking the daughter card from a broken e280 v.1 and sticking it in your e250. If you have a v.2, you're stuck with 2 GB memory unless you can perform electronic neurosurgery.

[BlackBolt]

Fuze sounds like it may be a good deal if they are still on sale via Buy.com. Thanks for the info. USB support would be nice but I lived without it on my E250 for awhile.

As far as reformatting, I tried that to no avail. In fact I was trying two cards a 4gig MSDHC card and a 1 gig MSD card. reformated both and the 1gig (which is all the OF should be able to read) wasn't able to detected in the OF as far as I could tell. OF doesn't seem to be able to tell you anything about the card inserted. The only clue I ever got was the database commit and them the music showing up in the lists... which didn't happen.

Also thanks for the info memory hack. I am not looking forward to purchasing another sansa for parts but that is good to know. I am running V.1 btw.

I don't plan on electronic nano-surgery so I may just buy a new sansa or fuze or something completly different and pass this somewhat crippled but useable unit to someone less fortunate.

One last question does anyone know if a OF update may help? If so does anyone know the process? I would have to reinstall the dual boot loader right?

[maxpancho]

My MicroSDHC 8g on Sansa e250 v2. RockBOX r28878-101222 doesn't work either. Though when I load origina firmware it can see the music from the card. What can it be?

edit: okay, the new 28888 started to read it.