I’ve been noticing more and more frequently lately that my rPi will crash while running Octoprint. Actually quite often it will become unresponsive (can’t ping the rPi or connect via web) while idle when the printer is not running. I’m starting to suspect that the SD card is borked but I’m not sure how to confirm. Has anyone else had this problem?
Hey Space
I would agree, bad SD cards are causing a few issues lately.
I would pull the card and run a read/Write test on it, If something has gone south it will mark it and skip writing data to it in the future.
However if the card has started to go bad it will not stop, replacement is the only option.
Is there a quick and easy way to copy everything from one SD to another or do I need to rebuild everything? Oh and is there a brand of SD card that’s more reliable than others?
I use “beyond compare” it’s a replication software for copying files, It verifies all files including hidden or unknowns are moved as required.
Oh and is there a brand of SD card that’s more reliable than others?
Sandisk and Lexar are what I would recommend to people. Kingston is problematic because there are so many poor quality copies out there that it’s really hard to know if you have a “genuine” card and, even if you have a “genuine” card, Kingston may have loaded it with a chip they got cheap. All others are a crapshoot.
Can I ask what type of card are you running?
Is there any chance that the connection between the rPi and SD card is poor? A dusty or moist environment and repeated removals can cause problems for you and a quick swab/rinse with isopropanol can do wonders.
Sorry, one more question back - are you shutting down your rPi before turning off the power?
If you just drop the power, you could be interrupting some OS writes which will result in bad sectors for the image.
The good news about this situation is that if you do a full (not “Quick”) format of the SD card, you should be able to restore its functionality.
I’m running a print now so I’ll have to wait til it’s done to check the card brand. I never pop it out of the Pi so that’s unlikely to be the cause, however I will try the isopropyl wipe and see if that helps at all. The only time I ever shut off the power is when I’m cold-booting the Pi because it is unresponsive and I can’t ssh into it. Otherwise I shut it down properly.
I’ll be interested to hear what the card brand is along with any results after the cleaning.
I’ll let you know!
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Long story short I manage a photo department, we have 60 digital cameras and I give 100 sd cards to students a year that all come back to me when there are issues.
In my experience Sandisk, Lexar, transcend. Are reliable brands.
Kodak, no name, Vital, nexbase, Kry, Mixza, and Onefavor are to be avoided.
There are also a TON and I mean that of clone cards that are not to be used. I would recommend buying Sandisk or Lexar off the shelf from local shops not on line especially aliexpress.
There are a lot of cards listed as Sandisk extreme or similar which are not the speed claimed or not even the amount stated on the sticker. these are counterfeit are are old or inferior cards that will not behave as expected. If it looks like a screaming deal it isn’t. It is very common.
I would also avoid micro sd unless your Pi takes micro sd the cards often are good but the adapters are miserable.
I don’t think you can avoid micro SD as the rPi 3 and later all use them.
Yes the adapters are crap (no matter who you buy them from) but, in my experience, it’s hard to find a reliable micro adapter for your PC is even more problematic. At least with the adapter you can replace it easily and cheaply.
You didn’t mention Kingston - I’m curious as to your experience with them. As I said above, I’ve had problematic cards that I’ve bought from Staples and that doesn’t seem to be unique. Some can be fine, others are poor.
It may cost a bit more, but only buy your SD cards from established retailers (Staples, Henry’s, Canada Computers, maybe Best Buy and The Source) and definitely not online from Amazon or AliExpress.
So the card is a SanDisk Ultra 32GB. I removed the card, cleaned it , and reinserted. Seems to be working ok but time will tell. I was finding that when I tried loading octoprint before it would be missing icons and behaving weirdly implying things didn’t load properly. I’ll see what happens over the next while and if it doesn’t improve I’ll get a new card and rebuild.
The micros are fine if you don’t need an adapter. All the adapters are junk as far as I can tell. It makes the micro with adapters troublesome. Even the retailers agree with that.
Kingston I have never purchased. I buy a lot of cards to be really blunt sandisk are the most reliable I poked at my records and 600 sandisk cards and 1 doa and one fail in 6 months. The Kry cards of 100 I had 9 DOA and 12 more fail in 6 months. Not one was close to the speeds claimed and the volume broke on 2 and became multiple small chunks.
These days I try really hard to only buy Sandisk from Canadian suppliers.
@SpaceMoose just thinking out loud the format on it could be sour. I have had cards become odd and reformatting helped. If you use a mac to add files it can go funny. You can reformat the card but apple preferences large block sizes printers are older tech often can’t read large block files. DO NOT USE DISK UTILITY. It only works with small size cards.
You need to change the default block size and use terminal to do so.
I would always reformat a card the was temperamental.
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Hmm I do use a mac and I did reset the block size when I formatted the card but then everything pi-related I do is by SSHing to the terminal. It seems to be behaving at the moment - maybe the card got slightly loose or something and re-seating it helped. We’ll see…
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interesting to see the numbers in your situation to find out the best ones. Never really thought of it before but I guess cloning or “faking” is going on everywhere/anything.
Counterfeit SD Cards have been around for at least 10 years.
I’ve been told that that the “industry leaders” don’t do more about the problem because they are part of it. In the case of Kingston, to keep product prices down, they do buy from marginal sources and the other big houses sell their defective chips to minimize their losses.
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I can’t say about complacency. At the end of the day the only obvious way to tell one card from a different one is the sticker. It is not difficult to remove and replace a sticker. A slow old card that is basically valueless becomes a 40$ card with the addition of a 3¢ sticker. I have seen a sticker on a sticker once or twice. Amazon, aliexpress, bulk card places, are selling counterfeit cards. After being burnt off Amazon a handful of years back (SD cards and usb card readers…) I buy very little from them.
there are scams around every corner, sadly.
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You can start see rPi with a USB key. Much less problematic than a long-term micro SD card. Searching the internet for the procedure is not that complicated.
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I might have to do that. Thanks!