Hi, I'm new to this site. I have been using my Axim since the end of January and I am still trying to figure out a lot of things. I have not previously owned any kind of Handheld, Palm, or Pocket PC so this is all new to me! I purchased a 512 MB Viking compact flash card a couple of weeks ago. I correctly created a My Documents folder on it and loaded some music, video, and text files through ActiveSync. Everything was fine for several weeks. Yesterday, I started getting a message:
CF Card Warning
Would you like the system to format the CF Card folder so that the system can use it?
WARNING: If you select Yes, any files in the CF Card folder will be erased!
Yes No
I clicked No because of course I didn't want to lose any of my files. Later, I opened up the CF Card folder through ActiveSync to put something in it and everything was gone! It was completely empty. When the CF Card Warning message came up again, I figured, well, I might as well format it now. When I clicked Yes, I got another error message:
CF Card Warning
An error occurred while formatting the CF Card folder (error code 31)
I searched this site for any information on this error and couldn't find anything. Does anyone know what this error means? Can anyone help me? Please help, I am desperate. I hardly have any memory left on my main memory. Thanks.
Well, I contacted technical support at Viking and they told me that I probably have a defective card. They gave me instructions to return the card and they will replace it with a new one. All's well that ends well I guess.
Just kidding, I know, 1 Viking vs 1000 Sandisk problems. Well, I would like to hear if anyone else is having CF problems with their Axim on CF cards other than Sandisk.
__________________
If the character of a man is unclear to you look at his friends.
I can't believe it. It is so routine now to open up these threads and almost invariably the person after explaining their problem will say something like "by the way, I have a 128 mb Sandisk SD".
Pretty much insert any size, or type of card (Cf or SD) as long as it says Sandisk at the end of it and you have the norm. It is somewhat surprising to see this type of problem applied to a Viking card but as we all know no company or technology is perfect.
But my purchases will still remain all Viking, or actually any card besides Sandisks now that I think about it.
bad news for me. I have an error similar to the one before. I've had my viking cf for about 2 weeks. loaded some mp3's on and it ran fine. Well this morningI try and add some more mp3's and it says that there isn't enough memory. I'm confused because I know i had 20-30 mb free. Anyways, my axim hangs so i do a soft restart and and low and behold it asks me if I want to format my cf2 card and of course I say no. Then i look in my cf folder and everything is gone! Ok, so I thought to myself, i'll just have to put everything on again, no biggie. Well in the middle of transferring it says it has run out of space again! This time I know it's wrong since I added up the total and it summed up to 30 mb (on a 256mb disk!) Well anyways, now I'm utterly confused, I figured i could just leave what stuff I have on before i leave for class and listen to them. But no, about 4 minutes later it asks me again if I want to format my cf2 card. Now everything is gone again, and basically it's a useless cf card. Hopefully i can get this one replaced for free.
I have just bought a TwinMos 512MB CF card and initially for the first few mins, it work well but I decided to transfer some movie files to it and so I took it out of my Axim and put it in my Card Reader. The strange thing is my PC can see it and I can copy files to it after I reformat it but when I bring it over to my Axim, it would alway have Error Code 31. Initially I tried putting it into my camera and it does not work at all. The camera keeps saying card error.
I guess if anyone out there with such error, it would most likely mean the CF card has gone bonkers but what I don't understand is why is it that on the PC side, it works and yet not on the PDA or my camera?
Well, I have (had) a 256MB CF card (Robanton - ??), which has worked fine in my digital camera for about a year. Once I received my Ax, of course, I stuck it in and away we went. About 2 weeks later, I had a similar experience where it asked to format the card. I said no to not lose the goods but then would only receive the Error 31.
I jumped right on the phone with Dell support and we ran through all the steps and concluded that the card was dead. It does not work in my PC or camera now either. The card is dead.
It would be nice to find that the CF card could be reset or something, leading to a fixed, working card.
I thought the Ax broke my card and was not happy with Dell support because they wouldn't replace it since I bought it on ebay and not Dell. I don't blame them, it could be the card had a 1 year life, after all, it was a Robanton??..
My conclusion, I bought a 256MB CF from Crucial (The best memory company on earth!). If you navigate their site to the card by choosing Axim as the system, they guarantee their card will work.
I have only had the card for two months, but it 'feels' about 10x faster than the Ro#!$%% card.
I bought a 128MB one for my camera and it is very noticeably faster than that old Ro!@#$%.
Anyhoo, I am still wondering if there is some sort of compatibility issue with the Axim that breaks certain CF/SD cards???
Dell.... have any comments we want to hear?
(PS - I don't work for Crucial or get anything if you buy their memory, I am just very happy with it.)
Thanks for sharing your experience. Guess what, it works again! I really don't know what happen but this is how the story goes.
When I posted on this website on the experience which I had, it was way past midnight local time after 3 hours of troubleshooting. I just give up and decided to call it a day. So before I tuck in, I called my friend who also bought the same CF card as mine to feedback to him that the CF card deal may not be as good as it seems. Guess what, he told me it works on his camera. He tested on his Canon camera and apparently it does not give him any problem at all.
Well, during my testing phase, my subject was a Fuji camera. I also have the same Canon camera as my friend but because my friend took my battery, i can't test it on the camera. Furstratred, I decided to get a replacement the next day from the manufacturer.
When I went back office, I decided to test it out on the Canon camera so i asked my friend to bring the camera along. When he plug it into his camera, everything went smoothly. Thinking my luck has to be worse than that, I asked him to try on his laptop, (I tried mine, it does not work saying manufacturer unknown). His laptop is running Windows XP, while mine is Windows 2000 SP3.
When he plug it into his laptop, it works beautifully! Imagine my frustration! If I would to return to the manufacturer, they will defintely refuse to replace it since it works. So to make sure, i tried inserting it into my Fuji camera again. It prompt me saying that the card is not initialize, do i want to format it.... Hmm same error again so sure I would go for yes thinking it would prompt me back saying Card error but instead, it went through successfully! After that no matter what I tried be it on the Axim, laptop, PC or camera, it just refuse to fail on me! So I guess it is false alarm afterall but it is definetely strange.
I have a feeling that maybe the header on the CF card got corrupted in the process of me playing with it.... I don't know how to explain why it works again.
Anybody who has similar experience care to explain?
I've noticed that on some random occasions, when i open my axim, it pops the dialog box:
"Would you like the system to format the CF Card2 folder so that the system can use it?"
When i tap no and then check the contents of my CF card, the contents have disappeared. But one thing I've noticed is that after soft-resetting the device, the files on my CF card have all gone back.
Everytime this happens, I just soft-reset my axim and i get back all the files that seemed to have lost. I don't actually lose data but the fact that this happens randomly (I've tried pinpointing the cause but failed) annoys me to death.
I have been reading a while ago almost all of the posts here concerning CF/SD warnings. I've observed that this anomaly seems to happen among all SD and CF card users, regardless of brand (though the Sandisk cards seem to have the most problems, Lexar, PNY and Viking card problems have also been reported). Therefore, I've come to the conclusion that perhaps it's the axim unit itself or perhaps it's the OS (PPC 2002) which causes these problems.
Many people might contend this. What do you guys think?
I think you should get your Axim checked. Mine only killed the one CF card dead. I currently use a CF card and SD card in mine. They are always plugged in and I run programs straight from each card. I never have had the 'format...' error after the one Ro#!@$$#% card.
Sounds like your Axim is having issues and could get worse.
Yesterday, after two months of use, I had the same experience with my Viking 256 Mb CF card. The Axim po-up the dreaded dialog asking if I wanted to format the card. I answered no and checked the card. Everything was gone on the card.
Then I removed the card and noticed that it slid-off somewhat easier than normal. After reinserting the card I checked it again and all programs and data was there. It's been ok since.
That further supports my theory that it's the axim itself or the OS which causes these F/SD card problems...
By the way, KnipKnup, I wish I could send my unit to Dell. But I'm here in Manila. There's no Dell support here. Heck, they aren't even selling the axim here. FYI, I got my axim from a friend working there in Chicago.
Follow Us
RSS Feed
Follow on Twitter
Facebook
YouTube
HELP!! Compact Flash Card Error 31
Getting a replacement
Uber Member
