mpc freezes after autoload only when flash card in inserted

OK so heres the details ill star off with the beggining.

MPC 500 purchased about 9 months ago,
was working fine untill one da i was sampling (mode pad 4) through a dj mixer and went to save. the flash card was already in and it froze straight after i hit mode pad 3.

Since then when the unit is on i can only play what i sample then and there or the auto loaded preset sounds when the card in not in the slot.

WHENEVER I TURN IT ON WITH THE CARD it freezes straight after autoload When theres no card it works normal but no save or load.

i cop trappa errors

the pins do not look broken though there looks to be a strange mark on the green part where you slide the card in.

IM thinking of ordering the cf slot from mpc parts and get a computer tec mate to do the transplant but need advice and help.


please pm me or somthing or reply to this i need big help


ps i lost the recipt

Have you tried other card? The card can also get faulty on the mpc-500 and then needs to be formated. You can do that in the save/load menu, but remember to back up the sounds on your computer first

i tried my friends card and the same thing happend thanksfor the help dude

What size cf card are you using? Anything over 2GB will slow down the 500 dramatically. Also the brands vary too. So far, SanDisk, Toshiba, and Kingston has served me well without problems. Try to format a new card, and if the problem persists I would think the problem is internal.

Are you sure that 2gb cards are that much faster than 2+gb or is it just that the transfer speed is that is the real factor? It's definitely much cheaper to get a slower transfer rate card in the higher GB models. I'll have to do a side by side compare of my slower 2gb card and my faster 8gb card.

check inside the slot to see if you bent any pins.

Sometimes the pins on the 1k push through the back too... might be worth taking the bottom off and having a look to see if you might be able to push it back if this has happened on your 500.

the 500 and 1k have been plagued with this illness

poundaproblem wrote:the 500 and 1k have been plagued with this illness

The parts looked similar, so I figured it was worth a guess. :/

NearTao wrote:Are you sure that 2gb cards are that much faster than 2+gb or is it just that the transfer speed is that is the real factor? It's definitely much cheaper to get a slower transfer rate card in the higher GB models. I'll have to do a side by side compare of my slower 2gb card and my faster 8gb card.

My last CF purchase I went for the 15mbs 4 gig and it was faster than my standard 2 gig. My results were so positive that I'm planning on getting an 8 gig now (just missed them on black friday).
From my experience, I'd say that the transfer speed is more important.

But since the manual suggests Sandisk type 2, those are the only ones I've tried. Kingston doesn't measure speed the same way or use the "type 1,2,3" designation so I wouldn't know where to begin with those without throwing money at guesswork.

@Near-Tao & Robthom

Thanks for that rude awakening in technology. I had no idea cf cards rank in speed nowadays. I had my 500 since '06 so I was speaking from experience from that time on. Mad props, its time to upgrade.

Peace

Ill-Green wrote:@Near-Tao & Robthom

Thanks for that rude awakening in technology. I had no idea cf cards rank in speed nowadays. I had my 500 since '06 so I was speaking from experience from that time on. Mad props, its time to upgrade.

Peace

No prob, its definitely worth it.
I do a lot of spot saving while I'm working on a project just in case, and the faster save speed made a tremendous difference for my work flow.


Near Tao says over on this thread: viewtopic.php?f=26&t=123221 , that he's had no problems with the kingstons up to even 32gb. And they do have their own speed ratings labeled along the lines of 133X up to 400X etc. The 400X is horrendously expensive though, so I figure just get as much "x" as you can afford if you go with a kingston.

Also in my experience CF's will wear out eventually and become basically useless because of constant data loss. In fact I believe that in most standard documentation for solid state memory it usually states how many times it can generally be rewritten before they can begin to falter.
So in other words they've got a finite amount of saves in em!

For that reason personally I wouldn't invest in too high a dollar card because it will go tits up eventually. Better off getting something reasonably fast for a good price and saving some money for a replacement down the line when the time comes IMO.


BTW: Eventually I'd like to find out if the Sandisk Type 3 is compatible. I'd imagine that it might be even faster or more reliable being the newer type and all. I might have to go pimp the walmart return policy one of these days just to find out.

Aha, why didn't I see this a long time ago?!
And I browse wikipedia for hours almost everyday!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cf_card#Speed

Speed
Flash memory devices are non-volatile and solid-state, and thus are more robust than disk drives. Cards consume around 5% of the power required by small disk drives and still have reasonable transfer rates of over 45 MB/s for the more expensive 'high speed' cards.[6]

Card speed is usually specified in "x" ratings, e.g. 8x, 20x, 133x. This is the same system used for CD-ROMs and gives the data rate as a multiple of the data rate of the first CD-ROMs (i.e. the data rate of an audio CD). The base rate is 150 kB/s, so for example, 20x = 20 * 150 kB/s = 3.0 MB/s.

The following table lists some common ratings and their respective maximum transfer rates.

Rating / Speed (MB/s)
6x - 0.9
32x - 4.8
40x - 6.0
66x - 10.0
100x - 15.0
133x - 20.0
150x - 22.5
200x - 30.0
266x - 40.0
280x - 42.0
300x - 45.0
333x - 50.0
400x - 60.0
433x - 65.0
600x - 90.0
666x - 100.0


According to that the Kingston 133X is actually faster than the Sandisk 15mbs.
I think I'll give that a try with my next one.

i have the same problem, i bought my mpc one week ago and it was workin fine the first day. After that i tried to use the cf and the mpc freeze up. What can i do, please help!!!!

robthom wrote:Aha, why didn't I see this a long time ago?!
And I browse wikipedia for hours almost everyday!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cf_card#Speed

According to that the Kingston 133X is actually faster than the Sandisk 15mbs.
I think I'll give that a try with my next one.

Don't forget that those are typically only read speeds and the card could still have a horrendous write speed. Read is always faster than write... so just a buyer beware.

Also, to your post about the number of writes. Most modern flash storage has about a 100,000 re-write before failure for each bit. The cards also have a somewhat larger storage capacity so that in case of a failed block write it still has room to write someplace else without the user seeing a 'smaller' amount of storage.

Finally, a lot of the modern flash has the ability to pretty evenly wear out a card, so that it can be used a LOT. Under heavy load I believe an SSD in a server still has several years worth of use out of it. I'm positive that nobody is taxing a CF this much on an MPC and would be willing to bet that a CF will last or outlast an MPC 500 for any usage scenarios you care to throw at it.

Still... I wouldn't gamble on it... make those backups regularly!