FlashAir SD Card Failure?

[WSHenry]

Hi,

I really liked the convenience of using the FlashAir SD card along with the Sleep Master utility. It worked flawlessly for several months, but am now back to using a SanDisk Ultra SD card for the last few weeks with no issues.

Here's the narrative from my sleep log:

Installed and started using about 2/15/2015. In use until 7/5/15, and replaced with standard SD card, due to card write failure. The failure was write data from the 7/4/15 - 7/5/15 sleep session. Prior to this, I noticed intermittent failure to capture data (?) from the machine. This occurred occasionally from about 6/15/15 to 7/4/15. As displayed in SleepyHead, that pertained to flow rate, pressure, leak rate, snore and AHI, although events were flagged. Subsequent checks of standard SD card on 7/19/15 and 8/2/15 found all days recorded with all parameters logged and displayed.

Can anyone using a FlashAir card shed some light on this? Any suggestions on what/where to check? I'd really like to go back to accessing the data remotely.

Thanks in advance.

[AlanE]

Did you try formatting the card? Save the SD_WLAN folder (or all data) and copy it back after the format. It is possible it is failing. These types of storage medium have a life span. They have so many writes before they become unreliable. I don't know if FlashAir incorporates any type of wear leveling algorithm. It may be you have hit up upon a defective block. Formatting may mark it as unusable.

[WSHenry]

Did you try formatting the card? Save the SD_WLAN folder (or all data) and copy it back after the format. It is possible it is failing. These types of storage medium have a life span. They have so many writes before they become unreliable. I don't know if FlashAir incorporates any type of wear leveling algorithm. It may be you have hit up upon a defective block. Formatting may mark it as unusable.

Alan,

I did a check of the media and Win 7 reported it as ok. I reformatted anyway, reinstalled the data files, reinstalled it in my PRS1 and the problem still existed. I've only had the card for a few months. Worst case would be about 120 read/write cycles. I can't imagine solid state nonvolatile memory going bad after that few cycles.

[Jack_Russell_Fan]

I have FlashAir cards that have been in constant use for over 8 months, without failures, but not without a few glitches.

With the cards in my PRS1 760P, every few months SleepyHead will
have a problem with the data for one day. Checked the data with Encore Basic and all is OK. Don't know where the glitch is, but I suspect SH.

The regular windows disk utilities will work on the FlashAir, scan for errors and defrag.

Tom

[eseedhouse]

I've only had the card for a few months. Worst case would be about 120 read/write cycles. I can't imagine solid state nonvolatile memory going bad after that few cycles.

Things can go wrong for no apparent reason. I had a card a couple of months old go bad. I had it in my laptop and noticed the plastic to right of the keyboard was getting hot. So I reached for the SD card and it burned my fingers! It was HOT. I'd used it without incident quite a few times but it just decided it was time to die, I guess. Couldn't read or write to it after it cooled down, either.

So yeah, stuff happens. Best to have a backup card ready.