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    Titan in the Playground
     
    Aotrs Commander's Avatar

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    Default Why are SD readers so unreliable?

    My SD card reader (an internal one from Amazon (with a pretty good rating, and Amazon choice) which I bought in July last year (and sees extremely regular not-quite daily use) has just... Stopped. It doesn't recognise any SD cards, keeping saying they are unformatted.

    I have double-checked with my back-up USB external crad reader (and my 3d printer) both are workign with the reader fine. I have done a sfc and DISM, which did apparently find and fix some things, but not that.

    Barely over a year old and just... Dead. Between yesterday and today.

    So, looks like I have to fork out another £14 for another one. (Because helpfully, my motherboard and case wouldn't even allow me to plug that one in, so I only have the USBs on the case (I suppose fortunately, since the only other free parts on in the arse-end of the machine) but are in an awkward position and mean that we have to take the emergancy back-up one out to use USB sticks.)

    How the hell can these things be so damn unreliable?

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    Pixie in the Playground
     
    Beholder

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    Default Re: Why are SD readers so unreliable?

    Tnis is the new technology
    Samller, faster, bogged, crashed

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    Ogre in the Playground
     
    gomipile's Avatar

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    Default Re: Why are SD readers so unreliable?

    Is there anything unusual about the environment your computer is in? Anything that wouldn't be present in a typical floor-of-cubicles office, say?

    Like, say, pets or cigarette smoke, or a nearby wood stove or kitchen, to name a few examples?
    Quote Originally Posted by Harnel View Post
    where is the atropal? and does it have a listed LA?

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    Aotrs Commander's Avatar

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    Default Re: Why are SD readers so unreliable?

    Quote Originally Posted by gomipile View Post
    Is there anything unusual about the environment your computer is in? Anything that wouldn't be present in a typical floor-of-cubicles office, say?

    Like, say, pets or cigarette smoke, or a nearby wood stove or kitchen, to name a few examples?
    What, me? (I'd sort of forgotten this entire thread, actually.)

    No, it's in the dining room (which never actually gets used for dining anymore outside of maybe once a year if that); smoking is not permitted in the house, the dogs aren't allowed in, it's a gas fire. PC is (along with most everything else) on surge supressors because we are right next to the substation.)

    As it happens, the card reader was still just in warrentee, so I contacted the seller on Amazon and they replaced it, so aside from being a nuisence, it didn't at least mean I had to replace it. (I mean, that to some extent says that they expect one to periodically go.)

    (We had a bit of a bad week,tech-wise, that week.)

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    Ettin in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: Why are SD readers so unreliable?

    Quote Originally Posted by Aotrs Commander View Post
    sees extremely regular not-quite daily use
    What do you mean by regular use? if you were keeping one card in it most of the time and reading that card regularly, it ought not to have failed (IMHO), however, if you were plugging and unplugging SD cards from it daily, it would not be unreasonable (again IMHO) for the contacts to wear out from the friction.
    The end of what Son? The story? There is no end. There's just the point where the storytellers stop talking.

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    Aotrs Commander's Avatar

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    Default Re: Why are SD readers so unreliable?

    Quote Originally Posted by halfeye View Post
    What do you mean by regular use? if you were keeping one card in it most of the time and reading that card regularly, it ought not to have failed (IMHO), however, if you were plugging and unplugging SD cards from it daily, it would not be unreasonable (again IMHO) for the contacts to wear out from the friction.
    SD cards are what the 3D printer uses (and my camera uses), so as you might imagine, when your day job is making 3D CAD models for 3D printing, the SD card reader does have to deal with me taking the card in and out. I mean, that's what it's, like, there for; it's not for long-term storage (I have a back-up HDD and external HDD and flashdrives for that), we only have one explictly for SD cards to be put in to have the data put on and off to be transferred to a peripheral. If normal use is enough to wear them out that fast... I mean, that's bad design akin to a DVD player wearing out because you're putting in different DVDs.

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    Default Re: Why are SD readers so unreliable?

    Quote Originally Posted by Aotrs Commander View Post
    ... If normal use is enough to wear them out that fast... I mean, that's bad design akin to a DVD player wearing out because you're putting in different DVDs.
    They basically do these days, tho, if you're looking at standalone DVD players - they're so cheap and the remaining market for them so small that almost nobody bothers making good/durable ones. It's what happens when a particular kind of device hits the commodity item level - all the manufacturers that sold based on quality leave the market because there's no money in it any more, not when somebody else can make a mostly-functional cheap version of the item at 1/3rd the price. Consumers will just go ahead and buy another cheap one when it burns out rather than buy the expensive one, which mostly chases the expensive one out of the market altogether. SD card readers have been at that point for a while as well. You might find one that soldiers on for a decade, but hearing that one goes out after a year of regular use is not at all a surprise to me, especially since it sounds like you use it much more than your 'typical' customer does.

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    Orc in the Playground
     
    HalflingRogueGuy

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    Default Re: Why are SD readers so unreliable?

    Quote Originally Posted by Aotrs Commander View Post
    How the hell can these things be so damn unreliable?
    Because they're not built to last. Even the good ones. Technology is cheap enough to nearly be considered disposable. If Apple had their way phones and tablets and laptops absolutely would be and they're doing everything they can to push things in that direction. If everything wears out in 2 years you have to buy a replacement. If it lasts for 15 years you'll NEVER buy a replacement before the entire technology is outdated and nobody makes money building it anymore.

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