Zen and the SD Card/Slot

[BobbyRS]

Yeah, I think so. That's about $20 less than here in the US (with a quick check).

[CrowdAds]

[Spiritsong]

I'm a new member here, and just want to thank you so much for an excellent resource for understanding the Zen
I would have gone nuts otherwise.

My husband has the VisionW and loves it, and I have a Zen 8GB.
I just received an adata 16GB SDHC memory card (turbo series class 6) from Newegg.ca and it works great with my Zen for 40.49CAD. (I'm not sure if it's available or not on the US site).

Had trouble at first, until I read the posts about card readers that didn't support the SDHC-- then used the Zen directly as a card reader and it worked fine.

I wasn't aware until now, that it wouldn't work the same as the internal; but even so, I think it's very cool! I plan on throwing my videos onto the card.

Thanks for all the great work here!

Spiritsong~

[BobbyRS]

Welcome to ABI Spiritsong. Good to hear you like your Zen. I have a couple of those A-Data cards and they are great. Thank you for the compliments. I'm happy to help. Enjoy your Zen!

[ChrisV2]

Just another quick story about a new Zen user (me) and my experience with a Kingston 8GB 'class 6' card, purchased from newegg in the USA.

When I got the card and put it in the Zen, it was not recognized. It was as if the card were DOA. After reading a lot of posts here, I decided to keep trying.

Well, after letting the card sit in the Zen for 24 hours while the Zen was plugged into the USB port on my Linux machine (just charging, not attached as a device) -- it magically worked.

Very strange. I've never had a memory card need to have 24 hours to "get accustomed" to its environment, but this seemed to do the trick. I can now connect it to my Windows machine, and transfer files to the card in the Zen with no problem.

Thanks for a great website & forum!

-Chris

[BobbyRS]

Very strange indeed.... It doesn't make any sense. Did you try to see if the Zen could read the card directly (not using the computer as an attached card reader)? Maybe it simply just needed reinserted.

[ChrisV2]

Yup, I tried as you described. I even tried inserting/reinserting the card multiple times just to make sure the contacts were "scrubbed" a bit both in the Zen and the card itself.

I agree, it was very strange and doesn't make sense at all...but that's the way it went down...

The only thing I can figure is maybe there was some sensitivity with the battery charge level of the Zen. I was at about 30% charge during my first attempts, but after leaving connected to the computer overnight was at 100%...then it worked.

I'll have to see if the behavior changes again at a lower charge level. I sure hope not...

-Chris

[BobbyRS]

Originally Posted by ChrisV2

I agree, it was very strange and doesn't make sense at all...but that's the way it went down...

I'm not questioning what you say. I believe you. There just has to be something more to it than that.

Originally Posted by ChrisV2

The only thing I can figure is maybe there was some sensitivity with the battery charge level of the Zen. I was at about 30% charge during my first attempts, but after leaving connected to the computer overnight was at 100%...then it worked.

That's more like it.... Interesting.... Usually SD card sockets have a fixed voltage supply of 3.3v ensured by a voltage regulator. The battery level being too low to supply this..... by design, it shouldn't be, but you never know.

Originally Posted by ChrisV2

I'll have to see if the behavior changes again at a lower charge level. I sure hope not...

Yeah, I think that would be a good test.

[Spiritsong]

Originally Posted by davegorton99

Hi all

My wife has just purchased a 4GB Zen. It seems to all work fine, BUT when I try to use the SD card in it it keeps going back to the "Memory Card" screen when I am searching though Artists/Albums/songs.
EG: I am searching though the albums on the SD card and I press the middle button to bring up the songs on that album, but the player goes back to the "Memory card" screen and I have to start again.
Strange that it works fine on the 32GB player but has problems on the 4GB player.

Has anyone else had this and did you fix it?


Hope this makes sense.
Dave

I discovered the same problem today!! really weird!
I have an 8GB Zen and a 16GB adata memory card. I've been happily transferring lots of audio and video files without a hitch until today.
The audio is there, (I can see it when plugged into the computer) but won't let me access the folder via the Zen buttons.

I transferred the folder onto the internal Zen memory, and it worked fine- just not on the memory card!

I'm wondering if it has something to do with the way the files are named? Maybe it can't recognize files that have "-" (dashes) in them?
All my other mp3 files work fine, so I know that the card itself is fine .....

I'm going to see about renaming the files and see if it recognizes it-

Did davegorton99 ever get to the bottom of it?? anybody else see this before?? I'm stumped! lol

Spiritsong

[jondes99]

A follow up on my last post:
After 2 frustrating days, I discovered something although I don't understand the reason.

I had made a main folder and then had subfolders containing french audio cds - and it wouldn't work - even though I had other audio structured that way working properly....

My husband suggested not having the main folder, having them all separate ( not the way I'd prefer it ) - and wouldn't you know it? the darn things worked! (these are cds that I converted into mp3s).

This might be the same with davegorton99 ? did they have it set up with a main folder/subfolder structure for different subjects?

Also noticed that the cover art doesn't work on the memory card - which is disappointing.

The other mp3s that I have in sub-folders weren't ones that I personally converted...so I'm wondering if it's the FreeRip program that I'm using that does something.....

What program do you recommend for this purpose?

any thoughts appreciated!

Spiritsong~

EDIT: It does seem to have been the program I was using (freeRip) -

Once I switched and used MediaMonkey, everything worked fine.
So don't automatically think it's the Zen or the memory card! lol

Spiritsong

[BobbyRS]

Way to go with figuring it out on your own before anyone could answer! Usually when there is an issue like this, incompatible files are to blame. Nice job!

[npcaughey]

I got the Kingston 8 GB SDHC today Class 4 - the Zen has not immediately recognized it. I'm going to let the card get aquainted with the Zen (a la ChrisV2 and his post above) before sending it back. The other possibility is that its a fake: I got it off ebay...

[BobbyRS]

Welcome npcaughey. You can also try giving it a proper format with the sdformatter program. See Zen FAQ.

[npcaughey]

Originally Posted by npcaughey

I got the Kingston 8 GB SDHC today Class 4 - the Zen has not immediately recognized it. I'm going to let the card get aquainted with the Zen (a la ChrisV2 and his post above) before sending it back...

The Kingston card is now working - it took me a few tries and now seems be fine. It wasn't 24 hours like ChrisV2, but still about 45 minutes of agony attempting various tricks...

Thanks for the welcome! If it wasn't for this forum I would've never been able to use the player at all!

[BobbyRS]

Good to hear. What kind of tricks did you try?

[Dummdoedel4]

Hi,

I'm using a Zen 4 GB.
On internal memory everything is fine. Albums and Covers are generated using MP3tag.

On my SD Card the covers don't show up, is this an issue or just does not work on that player?

If there is a workaround please let me know.

Best regards

Dummdoedel

[BobbyRS]

Welcome Dummdoedel. I merged your thread with the main SD card thread. You may want to have a look at this thread.

The Zen treats SD cards just like a card reader. There is no additional features that will work on the SD card while in the Zen like album art. It is one of the biggest complaints about the Zen.

[chaosdivine]

This is sort of off topic but not really...I mean I too want to get a hold of some SDHC cards for my Zen but before I did I wanted to research if my home computer's 15-1 card reader could read/write SDHC cards. I want to break free of the player's USB cord as much as possible so I went online at HP and asked them if the part I have in my Media Center would work or if I would have to bring with me the Zen's USB cord once more to transfer files to the memory card. It turns out that the card reader in my computer does not support SDHC cards...kind of a bummer considering it's a new'ish computer (2007 HP Pavillion a6077c)

We could almost break this reply off into it's own thread because I would like to know if there are card readers that the rest of you use that support SDHC's too?

I was told that standard SD cards can support capacities up to 8 GB and beyond that you need SDHC. My memory card reader will work with standard SD cards up to 8 GB apparently but then I am S.O.L. Of course we all know the Zen can use larger cards obviously (16 GB & 32 GB as of when I write this). So what kind of experiences have you all had with your high capacity cards and do any of you use separate readers for them or do you use the Zen + USB cord to transfer files to the memory card?

[BobbyRS]

Moved to the Zen and SD Card/Slot thread.

Originally Posted by chaosdivine

We could almost break this reply off into it's own thread because I would like to know if there are card readers that the rest of you use that support SDHC's too?

Most new card readers do these days. I use the one built into my laptop.

Originally Posted by chaosdivine

I was told that standard SD cards can support capacities up to 8 GB and beyond that you need SDHC.

SDHC cards begin with 4GB capacity. Not all 4GB cards are SDHC though. There were a few non-SDHC 4GB cards. Anything above 4GB is considered a SDHC.

Originally Posted by chaosdivine

So what kind of experiences have you all had with your high capacity cards and do any of you use separate readers for them or do you use the Zen + USB cord to transfer files to the memory card?

The Zen can be used as an SDHC card reader when put in Removable Disk Mode, so you don't really need a seperate card reader.

[chaosdivine]

Thanks BobbyRS! I appreciate your response and for moving the thread.

I did read the Wikipedia article on SD and SDHC and it explained a lot. Here is the URL for curiosity sake: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital_card#SDHC

I knew the Zen could read/write to SDHC but then you were tethered to the USB cable and had to bring that with you in your travels. Mind you I know at my local dollar store I can buy an even smaller adapter (no physical cord - just mini USB plug on one end and regular USB plug in the other end) for a dollar so having an extra one in your back pack isn't that big of a deal - just a pain.

Oh one more thing just to avoid confusion...sorry, not meaning to be a pest but I just want to have the most correct information out there. You mention that

Anything above 4GB is considered a SDHC.

is not quite correct. According to the above URL on Wikipedia

Standard SD card capacities range from 4 MB to 8 GB, and for high capacity SDHC cards from 4 GB to 64 GB as of 2008.

so there is a bit of an overlap there in capacity between the formats.

Anyhow, thanks again for your feedback.

Cheers!

[BobbyRS]

Originally Posted by chaosdivine

Thanks BobbyRS! I appreciate your response and for moving the thread.

No problem.

Originally Posted by chaosdivine

I knew the Zen could read/write to SDHC but then you were tethered to the USB cable and had to bring that with you in your travels. Mind you I know at my local dollar store I can buy an even smaller adapter (no physical cord - just mini USB plug on one end and regular USB plug in the other end) for a dollar so having an extra one in your back pack isn't that big of a deal - just a pain.

Yeah, I have a few of these adapters. They work good.

Originally Posted by chaosdivine

is not quite correct. According to the above URL on Wikipedia so there is a bit of an overlap there in capacity between the formats.

Well technically anything that falls within the SD 2.0 standard is SDHC regardless of size, but SDHC didn't really hit mainstream until 4GB. There were only a hand full if only a few 2GB SDHC cards to exist. They really began picking up their presence with 4GB releases.