Jelly

Hiya,

First post, something always gets me excited enough to stop lurking and bugger me if its not something cool like cheap SD cards.

As resigned as I am that SD over 128Mb just ain't gonna work without a patch and that both my Sandisk (256Mb) cards are now in the hands of UPS as I get a refund from Pocket Solutions (Real nice about sending them back for refund, most US companies seem this way). Well I need some storage space so thought I'd try and source another make.

Lexor seemed popular but other than via Ebay getting them in the UK is pretty expensive. So I went on [url]www.pricerunner.co.uk[/url] and did a search and came up with this.

Dane-Elec SD Card 256Mb at 65 quid inc Vat

Skeptical of good old British up yours, tough, customer care I emailed first regarding compatibility, here's their reply:

[quote] Thank you very much for your recent email and interest in ordering product from us.
All our Dane-Elec memory products come with a lifetime guarantee and so as long as the product you have works with standard secure digital products it should be fine.We have thus far not had any Dane-Elec products fail as it is very reliable.Should the secure digital card prove faulty in any way and you need to return the item to us we will refund you in total for the item.

However the particular version you require the 256MB is currently not in stock and we do not expect to have stock for another week.[/quote]

So with that I ordered one today and will see how it goes, Dane seem to be a proper mfr rather than rebadger so I'm crossing fingers it'll at least be better than the sandisks.

Oh website. :) [url]http://www.computerwebstore.co.uk/[/url]

I'll report back on the service, performance etc later if anyone is interested. Till then, first post out. :hide:

Jelly

pawhe

Looks like a good call on the Dane-Elec memory - couldn't find any negative comments about them in a few web searches. But had a quick look around for alternative (UK) suppliers - and came up with ValueMedia ([url]www.valuemedia.co.uk[/url]) - couple of GBP less than ComputerWebStore when I looked - and they had some other stuff I wanted (and all in stock - purportedly). So a couple of 256Mb SD's and bits ordered. I'll also post back on service, delivery, etc. for comparison.

By the way, Jelly - was it the supplier or Dane-Elec directly that you emailed/got the response from? (Just wondering whether it was Dane or ComputerWebStore that are offering the lifetime guarantee - it's quoted as "only"<!> 10 years via ValueMedia!). Thanks.

P.

AxToTheMax

I've just got the Dane-Elec 256Mb CF card and it's great, i allways use Dane-Elec memory for everything and was really happy the've started making CF cards as well. I paid some more money because i bought it in a photoshop so not the cheapest way but couldn't resist it :laugh:

Thinking of also buying the SD card, the more the better :D

__________________
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Axim 400 - 256CF - Linksys Wireless CF
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Jelly

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by pawhe [/i]
[B]By the way, Jelly - was it the supplier or Dane-Elec directly that you emailed/got the response from? (Just wondering whether it was Dane or ComputerWebStore that are offering the lifetime guarantee - it's quoted as "only"<!> 10 years via ValueMedia!).
P. [/B][/QUOTE]

Was the supplier that sent the email, I was just concerned they'd get funny if I tried to return it after the 7 days and not give a full refund.

Didn't think to contact the manufacturer, might send them an email while I'm waiting for mine to arrive, see what happens.

Bit off topic but I still think this will be improved only with a patch from Dell, this SD stuff is a bit of a p*sser really. Wifi in one slot and megs of ram in the other was why I got the axim.

Jelly

simonk

Hi, look forward to hearing how you get on with the SD card, I,m a new axim owner looking to source just such a deal, first reply to a post out!:D

Jelly

Well despite what they said in their email about it being a week plus till they get stock I've had a Citylink card posted through the door on Wednesday and Thursday. Initially I thought it was my PDA mount but the post office card asking for 10 quid customs charges says otherwise. :mad:

Anyway, means Citylink have my SD card and hopefully they'll be open tomorrow so I'll post something soon after I've done some file transfers etc.

Jelly

pawhe

Just an update for UK buyers that might be interested -

Placed order with ValueMedia ([url]www.valuemedia.co.uk[/url]) at 08:45 Wed. 16th. I could not confirm that I'd got the order confirmation email (webmail problems), so emailed ValueMedia from work at 15:45. Got a reply WITHIN 10MINS, confirming order 'had been scanned out of warehouse'. Received another (this time unsolicited) email from them Thu. morning, again stating that the order was on it's way, should be in my possession by midday (Royal Mail Special Delivery).

Sure enough - whole order (2 x 256Mb SD and a 6-in-1 card reader) arrived 11:00 Thu 17th. Impressed - in stock, delivered within promised time, and fast reactive, as well as pro-active, emails.

TECHNICAL SIDE - the 256Mb SD seems to be working fine - AT THE MOMENT. At insertion, Axim reports 233Mbytes available (is this about right?).

Downloaded a reasonable amount of MP3's onto card via activesync - no problems (into root of a newly created "My Documents" on the SD - 5 files, sizes of 2, 3, 7, 7, 8Mbytes). But it's slow - so then used PC USB card-reader to create sub-directories for other music - now have further 2 sub-dirs, and a total of around 150Mbytes in use. Windows Media player sees all files and plays fine. Now to load up critical data onto the other SD card, and see what happens....

One thing doesn't seem to add up though - Dane-Elec's website talks about manufacturing in US and Ireland. But SD card states "Made in Japan"!!!

Cheers,

P.

P.S. Just to confirm - I have no affiliation with ValueMedia - had never used them until this order. And is often stated - the real test with a supplier is of course when something acually goes wrong in the [order] process....

hambalan

FYI, I have two Lexar 256MB SD. One reports 243MB while the other gives 241MB. However, I have seen elsewhere in the forum where people reported that their 256MB SD gives 233MB, similar to your, then.

__________________
Palmax PD500C >> Axim 400MHz
2 x Lexar 256 SD; 1 x Integral 64 CF
Krusell case with slide swivel clip
Lowe Pro D-Res 120 pouch

Jelly

I think the size reporting issue on the cards is probably due to how its formatted and the resulting filesystem overhead. IIRC FAT filesystem uses larger chucks to identify where the files are whereas FAT32 is a bit more economical. Either way its no different to hard drives being smaller than they are sold for.

(still I'd gladly have a 233mb working card than a 240+ non working one so I wouldn't think of formatting it different until forced to).

Anyway, my update, popped over ot Citylink this morning to pick up my parcel which appears to have been shipped direct from Dane. Only to find out that Dane (not the place I ordered from), had requested it get sent back. To say I was upset I'd wasted my time and money going to pick up something that wasn't there is an understatement. Fired off an email to computerwebstore and see what they come back with. Failing that I think valuemedia are gonna get some business.

Jelly

pawhe

Might want to check this out - the two cards that I got (that I must say that I have not yet had any problems with - but still expecting....) - looked different. So I pulled the Dane-Elec sticker off both, and one is SanDisk (Made in Taiwan), the other 'non-branded' (Made in Japan).

Perhaps Dane-Elec are not the manufacturer they say they are...????........

FYI , these were both in plastic pre-formed, selaed Dane-Elec packages - must be direct from them......

Now I'm worried.......

P.

Jelly

Well if its any consolation the two sandisks I had were both made in China. Still waiting on my email regarding what happened to my new one though, I'll do the label peel when I get it.

More and more I read the Dell forum though more it seems all SD is affected to some degree. I'm just praying for that news item to appear with a miracle patch being released.

Jelly

Well I got the card today. Turns out it shipped direct from Dane and it was their policy to return any undelivered parts straight away (bare this in mind if you won't be around to accept delivery).

Luckily computerwebstore were on the ball, offered to reship it straight away via royal mail or city link (formerly shipped city link). As I never got their email till late in the day by the time I had replied they'd already taken the initiative to ship it royal mail and avoid another days delay. Bit risky of them but I appreciate them shipping rather than holding it.

Anyway back of the card is marked 'Toshiba' date code of 0313 so thats about mid april and it was made on Japan. I so far copied 90+ meg of maps to it which load fine, 80 meg of mp3 both to the root then cut and pasted to an mp3 folder. No errors as such yet, I even did a backup which fried my sansdisk card and that worked okay. Will try later tonight the many small files in one folder trick see if that makes it go gaga.

Few points. All transfers were done via wireless connection and explorer browsing a networked drive.

When trying to transfer the MP3s via USB activesync it bombed out on the first track. I'm not sure if I lost space because of this but the file still showed and deleted fine. Think I read that there was a buffer issue with activesync anyway so I try and avoid using it for anything other than syncing (duh!) and installing.

More later. hopefully good.

Jel

happycheesecake

I got my Lexar 256 SD card from ebay for around 70 quid - came from Germany in the end but they were very quick to deliver.

Of course that didn't stop the Lexar SD from corrupting my data did it? (see [URL=http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=dellpda&message.id=16086&view=by_date_ascending&page=15]Dell Forum SD cards[/URL] for details)