PONO Feedback? Anyone have one yet?

I had a SanDisk 200gb card fail on me and Sandisk warrantied it and replaced it for free. SanDisk will ask for a photo of the card (front & back) to guarantee it is not counterfeit. New card is working fine with no extra format needed for my Pono. The old card just died after about a year of use and would not register on my computer or the Pono. Moral of the story - BACKUP, I did!

 

I only buy from Amazon, B&H, Adorama etc.

 

I can understand that happening, which is what I figured happened with my 128gb disc. But then to have a new 200gb do the same thing? Both were purchased new thru Amazon.

I just don't know if the PONO is in some way doing something to the disk, but since others I have work just fine that doesn't seem to be the issue. Even a corrupt file can't be the problem if a brand new card fails to work.
I'm stumped and get no help from PONO.

 

So I formatted the brand new SanDisk 200gb card on my Mac, this time in FAT32. Loaded a couple audio files.

Same issue.

I also loaded a 64gb disc that always worked fine. Now it does not. Acts like the 200gb does.

The 128gb disc works just fine.

Makes no sense to me that one card works just fine. The others are suddenly not.

 

Have you done a reset on the Pono? While the unit is on, hold down the "0" button until it turns off and then restart.
Can't hurt!

 

I have to do that each time I try to use the 200gb card.

Stumped.

Can a corrupt file cause the card to act this way? Of course that makes sense with an old card, but not a brand new card with no files on it.

 

Maybe the PonoPlayer has a bad entry in it's cache. The player caches four (or is it three?) different SD cards. Perhaps the 200GB card is getting the player confused due it it matching or trying to match something that is already in the cache? There is a way to flush the cache by inserting 3 (or 4?) different SD cards. Try flusing/clearing the cache like that and then try the 200GB card again.

 

It remembers 3 cards so the 4th card would clear out the cache of the 1st card etc. That does sound messed up @D10S. Just curious what types of files do you have on it, are there many different varieties? Given you are not getting any help on this and it sounds like the Pono does not like something if it isn't acting up on its own, maybe @Ham Sandwich is right about clearing out all the cache; perhaps starting from scratch with just a few consistent files types each card to get the ship steadied hopefully.

 

Does this make sense from a comment on another site:


Are the cards that work unchanged?

I'm just guessing, but it sounds like you have a hardware problem. The Pono Player maintains a cache of 3 cards (internal + 2 MicroSD) so that it does not have to scan when a new card is inserted. If you change a card or add an additional card, it causes a scan of the music. If my theory is correct, the MIcroSD cards that work are unchanged and are not causing the scanning. New cards or changed cards cause scanning and expose a hardware issue.

 

I also noticed these odd files on my PONO HD, could this cause issues?

 

I have a variety of file formats on the cards, mostly FLAC, Apple Lossless and mp3.

Shouldn't the new 200gb card have cleared the cache?

I'll have to try another card maybe.

 

Just going to spitball a few things. I have had my player for a couple of years. Fairly regularly I have hang ups when using a card I loaded new music onto.

1. You say you got the cards from Amazon, from Amazon or on Amazon from a third party seller?

2. I thought the Pono handles 3 cards not including the internal? I could be wrong. I have been using 4 cards regularly and wonder if this is part of my semi-regular hang ups. Sometimes the corrupt file comes up and some times it doesn't though. It will be hard to pare down to 3 cards but I am going to do it.

Is it possible that fingerprints cause corrupt files? The damn cards are so small it is hard not to touch metal.

 

I can't see your picture, but there should be some odd looking files, android ones I think, on the Pono HD. The Pono remembers up to three SD cards, so I would not say any one card clears out the cache entirely. This is what the Pono site says "The PonoPlayer keeps a cache for 3 microSD cards, so if you use no more than 3 cards you can swap the cards and the media scan will be quick. If you then insert a fourth card one of the existing 3 databases will be deleted and a full scan is done on the 4th card. That 4th database is then cached. So, if you then insert the card whose database was removed, the player will do a full scan on that card again (and remove the oldest database)."

I flushed the cache of one card, but I had 4 cards, the 4th being one it did not previously know, so I cycled through and sure enough the card I wanted to fix got fixed where previous changes to the tags were not sticking (I could not remove The from The Faces artist name without clearing the cache).

Regarding your other suggestion from another post, I think the Pono scans every time looking for anything new, if it remembers what was on a card's cache it just minimizes the scan time, but it is still scanning. Now the issue may be when it actually finds something new. You said the Pono flashes around between different screens erratically right, instead of doing the scan? That sounds more like a Pono thing to me but I really don't know.

How many cards have you tried on it so far? If you had spare cards laying around so that you could clear out the cache, you could give it a go, say with just one album on each card. Then as you add the cards you have used previously do so with say just one album on them this time. If you could get through to then just have Pono cached with three cards each with just one album on it, maybe you could cut down if this is a file issue. I suppose you may have to think about getting the internal drive down to an album. MAKE SURE you have everything backed up of course. Maybe this is too severe an approach, but the only way I can think of to see if it is a corrupt file issue. I don't know of any faster way to delete a cache, maybe there is one however.

 

Yes I think each time you put that 4th card in, no matter the actual card of course, just putting back in whatever card was last kicked out of the 3 card cache, it is going to do a full card scan on it, so maybe 15-20 minutes.

 

Nope. So I just tried loading a 64gb card that has music on it that has played fine in the past.
Once I put the card in it won't even get to the scanning mode, it immediately begins spinning the screen and then goes to black. Just like with the 200gb card and the others I've tried to load.
I put the good 128gb card back in, it scans for a second and then loads just fine.
I've been listening to it most of the day, the files on the PONO and the SD card all play and sound fine.
It just will not allow me to load any cards other than the one 128gb card.
I hate to mess with that one or the PONO as they both seem to work OK.

 

Yeah that is a brain teaser for sure @D10S. Not that it is important, but what you last quoted from me was meant for @LEONPROFF, I think that is why he occasionally has long scan times as he is using 4 cards assuming they are fairly full or large.

 

So I just tried loading a 64gb card that has music on it that has played fine in the past.
Once I put the card in it won't even get to the scanning mode, it immediately begins spinning the screen and then goes to black. Just like with the 200gb card and the others I've tried to load.
I put the good 128gb card back in, it scans for a second and then loads just fine.
I've been listening to it most of the day, the files on the PONO and the SD card all play and sound fine.
It just will not allow me to load any cards other than the one 128gb card.
I hate to mess with that one or the PONO as they both seem to work OK.

 

Have you tried having the bad cards in the pono when you hook the pono into the computer?

 

I have not, only because the PONO screen goes to black once it stops spinning a couple times.

I may have found someone on the PONO site who has had the same issue. PONO replaced the board for them to fix it.

 

I have not. Only because the PONO goes black shortly after loading the card(s). I have with the good card. All "looks" good. I think I may have a hardware issue. I found another PONO owner who had the same issue. PONO replaced the board.

 

Has anyone discovered a hard reset for the player? Mine died last night and I am trying to see if there is any way to bring it back to life. It was working and I shut it down and it will not turn back on.

 

Sorry about the double posts. I didn't see the first one post.

 

The only reset I know of is to press the "0" button for 15-30 seconds or so while the player is plugged into the wall, not a USB port. If it doesn't start up you'll probably have to call Pono (good luck with that!).

 

From what I gather on the hard reset, it doesn't result in booting up after the pressing for 15 or so seconds. So I think you have to do the hard reset, then release, then hit the power button like normal.

 

Has anyone had or no of issues running Antivirus software while transferring files to the PONO?