"Drive Busy" errors and misaligned tracks after Firmware 1.04 upgrade

[SpikeVelvet]

I upgraded my firmware to ver. 1.04 and I'm still getting "Drive Busy" errors. I got tracks out-of-sync on a bounce I did with battery power but when I bounced again w/ the A/C adapter it was all fine. Could the solution to the tracks being out-of-sync be this simple?

Could it be that I'm using a 2GB card?

Any ideas?

[Geir]

I upgraded my firmware to ver. 1.04 and I'm still getting "Drive Busy" errors. I got tracks out-of-sync on a bounce I did with battery power but when I bounced again w/ the A/C adapter it was all fine. Could the solution to the tracks being out-of-sync be this simple?

Yes .... see here (I just realised I've had the same problem even with good batteries, tho batteries running low is the most frequent reason for sync-problems to apper, ... at least to me):
https://songcrafters.org/community/index.php?topic=7352.msg101893#msg101893

Could it be that I'm using a 2GB card?

Any ideas?

I doubt it ...

[64Guitars]

The sync problems were most likely caused by data corruption, possibly due to low battery power.

The BR-600 and other Boss recorders specifically state in the manual "Do not use rechargeable batteries". I couldn't find that warning in the Micro BR manual but it does state several times that they recommend using alkaline batteries. I think the reason for this may be the voltage. Standard dry cells or alkaline batteries are 1.5 volts. But rechargeable batteries are usually only 1.2 volts. Since the Micro BR takes two batteries, you're only getting 2.4 volts with rechargeables instead of the required 3 volts. According to the Wikipedia page on Secure Digital memory cards, "All SD card families must power-up at 3.3 volt and use 3.3 volt logic electrical interface, though SDHC and SDXC family cards can step down to 1.8 volt after receiving specific commands". I'm not sure how the Micro BR can work properly on 3 volts when the SD card needs 3.3, but you can see why there'd be problems when you're starting out with only 2.4 volts. And the voltage will drop even lower as you use the Micro BR.

So my advice is to use the Boss PSA adapter whenever possible. If you must use batteries for an important recording, use fresh alkaline batteries. If you must use rechargeable batteries, be sure that they're fully charged. If you use weak batteries, you risk corrupting the data on the memory card and possibly losing a song.

It might be a good idea to backup your memory card to your computer, then initialize the card.

Roland says that 2GB cards will work in the Micro BR, although they've only tested two 2GB cards that worked (Lexar SD2GB-60-810 and Lexar LSD2GBDRBJP133). They found that the Lexar LSD2GBACJP did not work properly with the Micro BR. They also tested three 2GB cards by HAGIWARA SYS-COM which didn't work. So it's possible that other 2GB cards might not work properly in the Micro BR. If you continue to have problems with your 2GB card while using the AC adapter, then perhaps that card is not suitable for the Micro BR. On the other hand, if using the AC adapter instead of batteries solves the problem, then I think it's safe to say that your 2GB card is just fine.

[Oldrottenhead]

The BR-600 and other Boss recorders specifically state in the manual "Do not use rechargeable batteries".

i have the microbr and only use rechargable baterries. i have never had sync errors or misaligned tracks, drive busy yeah but usually when either card has a lot of songs on it or batteries are low in power.

[Oldrottenhead]

and i use 4gb unbranded sd cards, microbr uses only 1gig of them but they work a treat and are cheap as chips.

only time i have problems with sd cards is when i bought branded cards that where sandisk "ultra" so supposed to be fast. mbr didnt want to know, luckily my camera was cool with them.

[SpikeVelvet]

I have been using rechargeable batteries but they weren't especially low. As far as backing up the card and initializing again is that something like Defragging a HD in Windows? Because even though the card I'm using had about 300 megs of space left it had been nearly full and I erased some live recordings I wasn't happy with.

When I back up the SD card does it make a difference if I keep it inside the BR or if I use the internal card reader of my PC?

BTW 64, I'm using BR Explorer and it really makes things easier. Roland/BOSS should be giving YOU free stuff because I'm sure this site has increased their bottom line.

[64Guitars]

As far as backing up the card and initializing again is that something like Defragging a HD in Windows?

Not exactly. To use another hard drive analogy, it's more like marking the bad sectors on a hard drive so that the operating system won't try to use them. At least, that's what I was thinking. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure that bad cells can be marked in flash memory. But it's worth a try.

The other thing I was thinking is that you probably have some currupted files on that card now, based on what you've said. As long as those files are on the card, there's a chance that they could cause more problems and possibly more data corruption. So I think it might be best to initialize the card and start fresh. Of course, if some of the songs on the card are unfinished, then you'll want to restore them to the initialized card so that you can continue working on them. But then you might be putting the corrupted files back on the card. So maybe you'll want to wait until you've finished working on your songs before you backup the card and initialize it.

Another thing you could try is to optimize the songs (see page 61 of the Micro BR manual). That is something like defragging a hard drive. It re-builds the event table, purging any deleted tracks and freeing up space. But before you try optimizing a song, be sure to backup the card. Since you probably have some data corruption, it's possible that optimizing could make things worse because the event table could contain bad data.

When I back up the SD card does it make a difference if I keep it inside the BR or if I use the internal card reader of my PC?

The only difference it makes is the transfer speed. The Micro BR uses USB 1.1 which is much slower than USB 2.0. So, if you have a USB 2.0 card reader attached to your computer, the backup will go much faster.

Better still, if your computer has USB 3 and you have a USB 3 card reader, your backups should go very fast.




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hvu3UstOIuE

The file he transfers in that video is 7.41 GB and it takes just over a minute to transfer. So you should be able to backup a 1GB memory card in about 10 seconds with a USB 3 card reader.

BTW 64, I'm using BR Explorer and it really makes things easier. Roland/BOSS should be giving YOU free stuff because I'm sure this site has increased their bottom line.

Thanks. The only BR I've ever used is my BR-864. So I wish Roland would send me some free recorders. It sure would make it a lot easier for me to support the newer BRs in my software and here at Songcrafters if I actually had access to them. I think that would be in Roland's best interests.

[Prive]

The same here, i use Rechargeables Sony Cycle energy 2100mah and everything is ok, drive busy when card is really charged and ORH kingston 50x cards with 1gb are slower than a ceap one but i have several so i wait more jajajaja.
What upgrades means the firmware???

[64Guitars]

What upgrades means the firmware???

The firmware is the BR's operating system which is stored in its internal, non-removable flash memory. Roland occasionally posts free updates to the operating system on their websites to fix bugs in the original firmware. The latest version for the Micro BR is version 1.04. To find the latest version for other Boss recorders, see this page:

https://songcrafters.org/64guitars/BR/Updates.html

To find out which version you currently have, see this page:

https://songcrafters.org/64guitars/BR/Tutorials/FirmwareVersion.html

Here's the "Descargas y Actualizaciones" page at Roland Latin America:

http://www.rolandlatinamerica.com/soporte/descargas/

Unfortunately, they don't seem to have any updates for the Micro BR. It seems that only Roland Germany has version 1.04 for the Micro BR.

[SpikeVelvet]

I actually have an internal slot on my PC. I only need to insert the card into the slot