N800 bought in February

2GB Transcend card #1
added/used music and movies and all was well - light use
installed Maemo Mapper downloaded many maps and filled up the card - killed one 2 GB Transcend SD

2GB Transcend card #2
only installed movies
installed one movie too many and killed the card

2GB Sandisk Ultra II # 1
not sure what I did but it dies in the external slot as well

2GB Sandisk Ultra II # 2
In the internal slot and working well so far *cross fingers*
I am not adding maps to it and not installing files so large to make it fill up...


I spoke to Nokia Support about it also and they said that only Nokia SD cards were supported. anyone know where to find one? I want to get one and kill it and then complain some more!

EDIT - oh yeah! It came with a 128MB Nokia mini SD
might try to break it if I can find it...

unfortunately I have to chime in here. I bought 2GB card for my trip to Miami and when I first used it it showed only half capacity and was slow as hell to copy to (which is what clued me into something being wrong).

I had to put it in my digital camera to format since my Mac refused to do anything with it. the camera formated it with the proper capacity.

By chance I checked the memory usage on my tablet and the thing is showing 64% full even though there's far less than a gig of data on there.

I haven't had any data loss or anything like that but this isn't good at all.

Add me to the list. My 8GB Transcend SDHC card started off good, then had a few corrupted filenames, and progressed to where the N800 doesn't even recognize that the card is inserted. Here is my story...

Just got my N800 along with an 8GB Transcend SDHC card. The N800 shipped with the previous software release, so I didn't bother putting in the SDHC card initially. After playing around for a bit, went ahead and flashed the July 7th release. Put the 8GB card in the internal slot and an old 256MB card in the external slot.

Things were fine for a few hours - the 8GB card was recognized (FAT32) and could read/write to it fine. Even used MaemoMapper to download several thousand map files to that card. Then I tried to use the USB connection to transfer a big batch of map files from my Windows PC to the 8GB card. During the transfer, Windows started complaining. Canceled the transfer and used Windows file explorer to look around the card. Most directories/files were there, but there was one directory that had messed-up filenames (with symbols and other junk), when they should have been normally-named .JPG map files. Used the N800 file manager to look in that directory, and it also showed corrupted filenames.

Decided to re-format the 8GB card (mkfs.vfat). Seemed to work, but MaemoMapper complained about not being able to write. I'm sure I rebooted once or twice during that time, but MaemoMapper was never happy after that.

Then I got crazy and decided to try formatting it ext2. After finally getting the proper tools installed, I created the ext2 fs. Again seemed to work fine, but couldn't mount it. The ext2 kernel module wasn't installed, and I couldn't get it installed. So after going nowhere I decided to use sfdisk to re-create the partitions and start over. Still couldn't get ext2 to work. Then after one of many reboots, I lost the 8GB device file (/dev/mmcblk0). Tried the 8GB in the external slot and no device file there either. The old 256MB card is detected fine in both slots, but the 8GB no longer shows up.

Got and installed the patched kernel from http://intr.overt.org/blog/?p=54
to see if the extra debug output would be useful. Unfortunately it isn't very illuminating. Just says some commands timed out for the 8GB card.

Unfortunately I don't have an SDHC-compatible card reader for my Windows PC yet. So right now I'm stuck with an 8GB card that is unrecognized by my N800, which means I have no way of even trying anything else

Follow-up to my last post:

Tried an SDHC-compatible card reader in Windows and my 8GB Transcend isn't recognized. Clicking on the SDHC card reader drive letter in Windows file explorer causes that explorer window to lock up until the card is pulled out of the reader. The "Disk Management" Windows management application does the same thing when I bring it up - locks up until I pull the card out of the reader. Windows "Device Manager" does not show any flash device, and no "New hardware found" popup message is displayed when the card is inserted.

So it looks like this 8GB Transcend is dead. Now I've got to figure out if I want to exchange it or get a refund.

Does anyone else have any new information about this problem? It seems like many of the problems (including mine) occurred when file transfers were occurring over a USB connection to a host PC. If this is the case, I can live without using the USB - SFTP/FTP/Samba/NFS will do for getting files to/from the N800 from a host PC.

Also, I have been using two old non-SDHC cards in my N800 rather heavily lately. The internal one is 256MB, external is 512MB. I have had no problems with either card thus far. I have not hooked up the USB connection with these cards, and don't plan to until this problem gets resolved (or at least explained).

In their "interactive demonstrations", Nokia states that cards must be FAT 16/32 for the N800. SDHC > 2 GB are FAT 32. Might this account for the problem? Did the recent update to 8 GB cards deal with this?

I think bug #1024 gives the most recent information. Nokia devs aren't able to reproduce this problem (Comment #36).
I don't think that this is a USB only problem... some people had this problem while downloading files through WLAN (e.g. maemo mapper). Two of my cards were damaged while transferring files from FTP.

...Only thing we can do at this point is to provide as much information as possible to bug #1024!

Yes, this issue definitely needs to be escalated via bugzilla, since it appears to be growing in scope. At first I suspected it to be more of a usability/source material issue but if it continues growing the probability of that conclusion becomes less likely. Recyclebin's related experience is ideal for bug tracking-- plenty of sober details. Nice work.

The trouble is that these issues are preventing me from buying the two 8gb sdhc cards that I so desperately want to get. I don’t see why I should risk £100 just to be a guinea pig tester for Nokia.

Why don’t Nokia make available some cards to be used as a pass around, we can individually try them under different circumstances, log the results and that way compile the information which will hopefully solve the matter.

Failing which let Nokia agree to reimburse us if the N800 fries our cards because I am not buying any cards until this is fixed.

It is unfortunate that we get not much feedback in bugzilla from nokia devs. 58 comments and only 1 "official" statement that provides some info about the status (comment #36 from quim).
Why don't we get some feedback to our dmesg logs? If Nokia devs aren't able to reproduce this, why don't they ask more specific questions in bugzilla?

This bugreport seems to be a monologue! But its the only hope for us to get this fixed

I won't speak for Quim, but I did finally meet with him in person today and I know he is passionate about the tablet software... as are his colleagues. I wish I could explain the lack of feedback but suffice to say you are witnessing the residue of "old Nokia" BUT there are many brave souls in the company trying to change the communications status quo (where it makes sense and within their own policy constraints, of course).

I think the idea of a user field test with a select set of cards is an excellent one. I cannot say if that is practical however, even though it makes sense from a problem analysis standpoint. Rest assured though that if this issue "grows legs" (and it appears to be) then it will HAVE to be addressed. The future of the tablets necessitates significant storage capability.

EDIT: I will reproduce Quim's bug comment here--

Ok, not as closed and fatalistic as some suggest. Just the opposite in fact. Bear in mind his last statement: lack of further communication at this point would imply lack of progress. It is up to us to continue offering context for the issue.