Problem with u520 and 2GB memory card

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Paul_in_NC - 01 Feb 2007 16:43 GMT

Problem with u520 and 2GB memory card

I am really hoping that someone here can help me with this one: I purchased
my u520 with the intent of using it for it's DAP features. After several
reassurances from two Alltel level 2 tech support types telling me that the
u520 did in fact support 2GB microSD cards, I went ahead and purchased an
A-DATA brand card from Newegg (since the 2GB cards that are for sale in the
Alltel stores are a bit pricey). A week later the card arrived and when I
popped the card into the phone and attempted to format it, the card only
formatted 1GB (of the 2GB space). "Hmmmm" I though. so I took the card out
of the phone and put it into my PC's card reader. All windows could tell me
is that the card was formatted in RAW format. So I decided to format the
card from within Windows and see what happened. So Windows formats the card
out to 2GB, not the 1GB that the u520 did. "Hmmmm" I says. So I pop the card
back into the u520 and reformat the card using the phone. Well guess what
happens? Yep, the card formats only to 1GB. "OK" I says, "Let's call Alltel
and see what they have to say". So I call Alltel tech support and get
another level 2 tech support type and I explian to her what has been going
on. After some Q&A back and forth she tells me: 1) Yes, the u520 does
support 2GB microSD cards, 2) Since I did not purchase the card from an
Alltel store, that they cannot support it or really even help me with it and
3) Had I purchased an "officially supported card" from an Alltel store and
had this same problem with it that I could have taken it back to said Alltel
store and they would have gottem me another card, tried to make it work , or
given me a refund for the card.

Does anyone in the forums have any ideas as to where I should go with this?
Has anyone in the forums had any problems like this with cards not wanting
to format to their proper size? Is the u520 so finicky that it has to have a
certain grade of memory card?

Any advice is welcome and looked forward to!

Thank you,
Paul_in_NC

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Larry - 03 Feb 2007 03:54 GMT

> Any advice is welcome and looked forward to!

As usual, cellular phone TSRs have no idea what the ACTUAL specifications
of the phones are because it's not in the scripts they read....turn the
phone off and turn it back on crap.

I was bored and plugged your phone into Google. From there I went to the
Samsung FAQ on your phone at:
http://erms.samsungusa.com/customer/sea/jsp/faqs/faqs_ars_input.jsp
did a little search on "microSD card" on the Knowledgebase and found:

What Are The Specifications Of The System And User Memory On My Alltel
SCH-u520l?

Memory

System
ROM: 64MB
RAM: 32MB
User
Internal Memory
Max Phone Book Entries: 500
Total Download Capacity: 65 MB
Ringtones Memory Capacity: 65 MB
Shared Memory: My Images, My Sounds, My Ringtones, My Videos,
Application, Pic/Video Msg
Image Memory Capacity: 65 MB
Shared Memory: My Photo, My Sounds, My Ringtones, Applications
Game/Application Memory Capacity: 65 MB
Shared Memory: My Photo, My Sounds, My Ringtones, Applications
Total SMS Storage Capacity: 2.2 MB
Shared Memory: Brew / Picture / MMS / Voice Memo / SMS
Total MMS Storage Capacity: 28.90 MB
Shared Memory: My Photo, My Sounds, My Ringtones, Applications
Camera/Camcorder Memory
Max Storage Capacity For Pictures In Phone Memory: 65mb
Shared Memory: My Photo, My Sounds, My Ringtones, Applications
Removable Memory:
Slot Type: MicroSD
Card Type: TransFlash
Max Storage Size: 1gb
Recommended Storage Size: 512MB

As you can see, it doesn't support a 2GB microSD card. Sorry....

I had the same problem here with my brand new Gateway laptop's card
reader. I bought a 4GB SD card to go with my crappy Win Mobile 5 Dell
X51v to expand its storage. The PDA would access the card, but my new
Gateway laptop wouldn't! Trying to figure out why, I looked at the
drivers for the Texas Instrument multicard adapter all the laptop
companies use, and the Microsnot drivers made for them. The date on all
the drivers was 2000! In 2000, we had 512K cards, max. So, no support.
I called the card manufacturer on Skype in Taiwan at Ritek who make the
Ridata fantastic memory cards guaranteed for life. He pointed me to:
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=517257
in Australia for instructions and a driver from sabercomputers. In
installed the free driver, followed the instructions and changed both
SDParam keys to 1 and rebooted, holding my breath. Voila! My 4GB SD
card works great with the laptops! I called Gateway back and pointed
THEM at the solution. They had no idea how to fix it, of course, just
like Alltel. They do now...(c; A test of 21 brand new laptops at the
local CC and Best Buy confirmed...none of them would use a 4GB SD
card....

I suspect your phone was developed and drivers programmed BEFORE the 2GB
microSD cards were developed, just like my laptop drivers.... So, it has
no idea. Send a message directly to Samsung from the support menu on the
webpage I quoted here and ask them if they have an update Alltel could
install to fix this driver problem and give you access to 2GB cards.
It's worth a shot. Use Skype to save airtime...www.skype.com...

Larry

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