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Sound Devices bulletin re approved CF cards


Johnny Karlsson

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So I received an email today from SD about some CF cards being pulled off the list of approved media. Unfortunately for me, I recently bought one of these (yeah yeah I know... crap etc.), but I thought I'd post it here, so others can avoid buying these cards.

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"Important Notice Regarding Delkin CF 500x and CF 700x CompactFlash Cards with 633 and 664 Mixers

Sound Devices has worked directly with Delkin to identify an intermittent media I/O issue experienced when using newer Delkin CF 500x and CF 700x CompactFlash cards. Delkin has confirmed that a recent, internal change to these cards is most likely responsible for the errors. Delkin CF 500x and CF 700x cards containing KZ in the serial number are susceptible to this issue and should not be used. Cards containing VB in the serial number will function properly and may be used. Deklin CF 1000x and 1050x cards do not experience this issue and may continue to be used.

Please review the 633 and 664 Approved Media List for additional information.

Our offices are closed on Thursday, November 27 and Friday, November 28.


Sound Devices Technical Support"

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I'll make the story short because it goes back for months, involving many phone calls, a loaner machine, and new Delkin 700X CF cards. Basically, I was consistently getting a range of errors such as:

 

- Random 0kb files peppered throughout a daily folder.

- Inability to create sound reports from within the 664 to the CF card, but able to create on the SD card.

- Half of the day missing when I mount the CF card on my laptop.

- Upon mounting the CF card on my laptop, all the daily files show up as corrupt files with names that are just strings of characters.

- Only twice, but all the files appear and can be played back from the 664, but when I mount the card on my laptop, the entire day will be gone. Even after putting the CF card back in the 664, the entire day has mysteriously disappeared.

- The occasional I/O errors from within the 664 that other users have mentioned.

 

Fortunately, the SD card has always been flawless. The thing that always made me scratch my head was that I could read and write with zero errors to and from the Delkin cards in question from my laptop and hard drives, etc. This makes so much sense now. 

 

And I do want to thank Sound Devices for the great support along the way of course! Matt Mayer and I were both scratching our heads a lot on this...

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They mention various capacities for other cards but not the one you specifically mentioned, meaning that it is not approved but not necessarily incompatible, just untested. But, of course, I'm not Sound Devices.

 

So, with regards to card capacity, are only the sizes mentioned on SD's approved list (for each card) compatible, or are they only a max limit?

For example, Sound Devices approves a SanDisk Extreme UDMA 60 MB/s 32 GB card, but would an 8GB or 16GB version of the same one be approved as well?

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I finally had a chance to take pics of my CF cards in SD quarantine and lo, KZ was in the serials.

 

Would love to be able to trade them for functional ones... 

 

 

 

So I received an email today from SD about some CF cards being pulled off the list of approved media. Unfortunately for me, I recently bought one of these (yeah yeah I know... crap etc.), but I thought I'd post it here, so others can avoid buying these cards.

---

"Important Notice Regarding Delkin CF 500x and CF 700x CompactFlash Cards with 633 and 664 Mixers

Sound Devices has worked directly with Delkin to identify an intermittent media I/O issue experienced when using newer Delkin CF 500x and CF 700x CompactFlash cards. Delkin has confirmed that a recent, internal change to these cards is most likely responsible for the errors. Delkin CF 500x and CF 700x cards containing KZ in the serial number are susceptible to this issue and should not be used. Cards containing VB in the serial number will function properly and may be used. Deklin CF 1000x and 1050x cards do not experience this issue and may continue to be used.

Please review the 633 and 664 Approved Media List for additional information.

Our offices are closed on Thursday, November 27 and Friday, November 28.


Sound Devices Technical Support"

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I contacted Delkin support on their web site and told them that I had a couple of the cards with the KZ s/n that I had purchased a month or two ago.  Yesterday they got back to me and issued me a case number and told me to send them in for exchange.  They didn't specify exactly what they would exchange them for, but I had included the note from SD and a link to the SD approved media page.  It would appear that they are well aware of the issue and are trying to do the right thing.  I just dropped them in the mail today, so we'll see what I get back in return.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Delkin sent me two replacement CF 700X cards to replace the ones I had returned to them.  The code is neither KZ or VB but it CF16AJZBR-XX000-P  121013 16506.  No info was included to give me any clue if these would resolve the problem that was evident with the returned cards.  I guess I will have to field test these to find out if the problem is resolved.  Did everyone else who returned cards get the same codes in return?

 

Hopefully sound Devices will put them through their test sequence and post the info.  I bought some CF1000x cards to use while the others were being replaced, but it is a little scary and perhaps reckless to use the new ones without more info in a production situation. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Update:

 

I sent my two CF700X 16G cards back to Delkin, and they were very responsive and sent me 2 new CF700X 16G cards back a week or so later.  They were neither the KZ or VB and I asked my contact at Delkin support whether they had the new design architecture or the old.  He said that would send me two new ones, and I should return the other ones.  So, the other day I get 2 32G CF700X cards.  While I am happy about the upgrade to 32G, I am curious to know whether they will be fine in my 664.  SD makes no mention of them in the list.  Curious to know what others have experienced.  Anybody using the 32G CF700X  (code on these are CF32AJZBR-XX000-P)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Update:

Just received a 32 GB UDMA 6 CF700X to replace my 16GB (KZ in serial). So just like Mark S says above, I guess it's nice to see an upgrade in size, but I'm not feeling confident about bringing this card on a job, since it's not on Sound Devices' approved list.

Seems odd that Delkin would do it this way, rather than pick one of the approved list. SD mentions that they have been in close talks with Delkin about this. (I even included the link to the approved media page on SDs website in the first email to Delkin).

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