Problems writing to flash card...

[Daniel Bass]

Hey guys,

I recently purchased 4 x Symbol MC9000k (running Windows Mobile 2003)
scanners, along with cradles, and 4 x Pretec 32MB Flash MMC Cards for each
scanner.

In writing an application, the purpose of the flash card was to act as
backup storage, should the main and backup battery run flat, or the scanner
be in some way damaged. This would result in an operator changing the flash
cards with another scanner, and still being able to retrieve the data.

The scanner application that was developed (a .Net CF c# application) will
write to the card for a while, then after a short period of time the
application will get an exception when trying to write to the card with an
access violation message. If the scanner happens to be connected to a PC
(via ActiveSync 3.7.1), browsing to the MMC Card via Explorer and trying to
write to the card in anyway (delete, copy to, etc), will cause an access
write error (similar to the one the application receives). The card only
contains up to around 512kb of data, so it's not that the device is full.
The scanner otherwise continues to work as expected, with other partitions
behaving correctly. The only way to get around this is to give the scanner a
(warm) reboot, from which point it works correctly for a little while before
the original problem arises.

This problem occurs with all the scanners...

I write data to the volatile scanner memory as well, and have absolutely no
problems here.

Has anyone encountered this sort of thing before? Are there any suggestions?

Thanks for your time.

Daniel.

 

[chris]

Hi Daniel,

Whilst not using Symbol kit, we have experienced a similar problems
with some brands of cards. Check to see if Symbol recommend a
particular brand, or try some others yourself.

Chris.

 

[Daniel Bass]

Thanks for your comments guys.
Much appreciated, and will look into it.

we use pdt8100 symbol devices using the storage card as to hold the

database we write to as well as all other files. so far no real issues.
one or two cards do go bad but thats about it. we have over 300 devices
deployed this way. I would suggest giving another storage card brand a try.
our company actually just purchased most of them from comp usa in bulk.
they are the mr.flash 256 compact flash cards.