Nearly constant format requests

[packrat1969]

I have an A119S running firmware v4.0 that, nearly every time the camera starts, requests to format the SD card. If I allow it to do so, maybe one or two boots later, it asks yet again. If I choose NO, and then go into the menu and format the SD card manually, the camera will often go weeks before asking again. I do have the automatic format option set in the menu, and I have it set to the largest interval (which I believe is one month, but can't get to camera at the moment to check). This behavior seems to have started with the v4.0 firmware, but I cannot confirm this. Is my flash card taking a dump? I have two 64GB cards that I exchange every couple of months or so, or whenever I need to pull video from the camera, and the camera seems to do this wit both of them. I am using high-endurance camera-recommended SD cards, though I do not remember the names at the moment.

Anyone else experiencing this?

packrat

 

[Capture Your Action]

What brand and model memory cards? This is normally an indication of a memory card issue.

Are you powering directly into the side of the camera or through the GPS mount? If GPS mount, try directly into the camera.

Did you manually default the cameras settings in the menu after updating? If not, do so.

 

[packrat1969]

One memory card is a Lexar, and the other one is a Transcend. Both are of the “High Endurance” variety. I think I’ll try formatting them on a PC and see what happens. As for the camera power, I’ve got it coming through the GPS unit, as that’s permanently mounted to the windshield. I’m not noticing any power issues with the camera. When it’s on, it’s on. No random reboots.

The camera hasn’t been defaulted it since I put the 4.0 firmware in back in March or something. I can try that. I reformatted the Lexar card last Thursday, and the camera didn’t ask for formatting the 20 or so boot cycles it experienced this past weekend. Seems to be kind of hit or miss.

 

[Capture Your Action]

One memory card is a Lexar, and the other one is a Transcend. Both are of the “High Endurance” variety. I think I’ll try formatting them on a PC and see what happens. As for the camera power, I’ve got it coming through the GPS unit, as that’s permanently mounted to the windshield. I’m not noticing any power issues with the camera. When it’s on, it’s on. No random reboots.

The camera hasn’t been defaulted it since I put the 4.0 firmware in back in March or something. I can try that. I reformatted the Lexar card last Thursday, and the camera didn’t ask for formatting the 20 or so boot cycles it experienced this past weekend. Seems to be kind of hit or miss.

I would first try the default settings step as this should always be done after a firmware upgrade.

If that does not work, I would try powering the camera directly. I have seen this behavior with the old GPS mounts, but not with the new (redesigned) ones. Not sure which you have.

Lexar cards are no longer recommended in dash cameras. They were bought by a Chinese company a few years ago and quality has taken a nosedive. Users have seen many issues when they are used in dash cameras.

Some of the newer Transcend cards have also been troublesome unfortunately, though their High Endurance cards may be unaffected, but not sure.

Don’t use the PC to format the card as it won’t do it to the cameras liking. Using SDformatter on the PC should OK as that program will bring the card back to factory specs. You still need to format the card inside the camera before using it though. This should always be done.

 

[packrat1969]

I will try defaulting the camera. I thought this was done when the new firmware was loaded, because I had to go through the menu and reset all of my choices, but maybe not. I have the GPS mount with the gold-plated leaf-spring-like contacts, not the spring-loaded studs. I think this is the second generation style. Correct me if I'm wrong. I bought the Lexar and Transcend cards about two years ago, probably about 3-4 months apart. As for formatting them in the PC, the intent wasn't to format them and then expect the camera to use that formatting. I just wanted to run a full format cycle to see if the PC would come across any bad cells or errors and remap them. I don't know how much provisioning the SD cards have internally, nor do I know exactly what the camera is doing when it formats a card. Methinks the camera is performing some kind of "quick" format, as it only takes seconds to complete. Bad/weak cells could be missed. So far, the camera has not choked on either of the cards. What would the screen display if the camera couldn't write to the card? Would it just lock-up or reboot? You mention a utility called SDformatter. Where can it be found? I'd hate to find malware pretending to be something it isn't.

 

[Capture Your Action]

The camera does default the settings, but sometimes previous values from the past firmware remain. Manually defaulting the camera in the menu get rid of them.

You have the newer style GPS. Probably no the problem, but couldn't hurt to try and power camera directly.

If you want to test the cards to make sure they are OK, I would test them with a free program called h2testw. It will let you know if there is an issue. see link below. Be sure card is empty before testing. No malware in these links.

Download H2testw 1.4

Download H2testw - Get detailed info on how well various storage devices perform at reading and writing data with the help of this lightweight application

www.softpedia.com

To format on the PC, use SDFormatter from the link below.

SD Memory Card Formatter for Windows/Mac | SD Association

www.sdcard.org

 

[packrat1969]

Ok, sorry for taking so long to get back here. Darn job seems to interfere with my hobbies and social life. Anyway, I did a full (as apposed to a quick) format of the card via the camera connected to the PC. This seems to take forever, but then it does with all of my SD cards. Even if it did take an exceptional amount of time, the formatting (as NTFS) did complete, and I fired up the camera with the freshly-PC-formatted card. The camera complained about the card's format, which was expected, so I then formatted the card in the camera. No problems. I went through the camera's menu and took note of all of my settings, then factory-defaulted the unit via the menu. On reboot, I went back and reset all of the parameters that i did not want at defaults. No issues with any of this process.

I put the camera back in the car, and within two days, I was already getting prompts to format the SD card. Even if I selected yes, and allowed the camera to do so, I was still getting this request nearly every time the camera powered up (while starting the car). I even had the format reminder set for the 60 day interval. So, is this a bug in the v4.0 firmware, or am I experiencing hardware failures. That's a difficult pill to swallow, as the problem only started after the v4.0 upgrade and I've used two different SD Cards. For the time being, I have turned off the format reminder. Is there anyone from Viofo who can look into this?

 

[Capture Your Action]

Downgrade the firmware and see if it still happens. If it was a firmware bug, everyone would have the issue.

Have you tried leaving the camera in it’s default setting and see if you still have the issue?

I would try a different brand card.

 

[packrat1969]

Well, I cannot say the problem is actually fixed. For the time being, I've just turned the auto format reminder off. I will set a calendar event in my phone and do it manually. So far, a week's worth of camera startups hasn't brought the problem back, so at least the off setting works. Maybe if I get bored later, I will try some of the other interval settings.

packrat