Lost Memory Problem - explained

[Iridium]

In researching lost memory problem I found this email response from a chip maker to a question about this memory issue:

Dear sir

we do apologize for late reply

there may be some fake products using hynix chip in the market

the maker make a software trick so this fake product seemed to have more density than it really should be.

so you'd better contact the mp4 maker for complaint.

we can't help you to recover the initial density because it seemed to be software fake and original chip's density is 128MB.(HY27UF081G2M has 1Gb=128MB Density)

thank you.

regards

hynix semiconductor

This is a beautifully worded comment on this from another site :

......."I think what Hynix meant was that there are manufacturers of "fake" players that use real Hynix 128MB chips, but deliberately spoof the firmware so they report 1GB to Windows. i.e. the Hynix chips are real, but only 128MB.

I don't think this is a mistake on the part of the manufactures of the MP3/4 players - it is a deliberate ploy to rip us off and steal our money.

I say this because, not only does the firmware spoof 1GB, but even when you copy 1GB's worth of information to the player (which I did) it says the copy was successful and shows all of the files in Windows Explorer (i.e. the firmware makes sure the FAT gets populated correctly).

But when you play the music, it gives an error after 128MB, and when you plug it back into the PC the FAT is corrupted.

If you format with the supplied tool, it carefully avoids overwriting the spoofed firmware, and still reports 1GB. But when you format with Windows, it actually formats correctly and from then on reports only the 128 (119) MB.

Even examining under Linux and changing geometry won't make any difference - there *is* only 119MB available.

I checked. Mine definitely has a HY27UF081G2M (1Gb - 128MB) chip in it. So it never was a 1GB player - just faked to make it look like it was.

If you've bought one of these and you know how to contact the seller, demand your money back (or report them on eBay or whatever). Don't let them get away with it! "........

So,' Caveat Emptor' seems to be the lesson here.

IMMEDIATELY upon receipt of your new player, load it to it's capacity, then try to access the last couple of files. If you get ' FORMAT ERROR' format it w/ Windoze. If it shows less memory than what you bought, contact your seller for replacement / refund fast before 3 or 7 day warranty they offer on ebay expires.


Note : Binh is it okay to pull quotes like this, or is it better to give the link? Should this be a sticky?

Thanks,
I

[Iridium]

Here is a quick clarification, I hope :

The issue is BIT versus BYTE. If I remember correctly, 1 byte= 8 bits.
OK, stay with me.

If a chip is stated as having 1gigaBIT (in manufacturer white paper), this is actually = to 128 true mb. 2 gigaBIT=256mb, 3 gigaBIT=384mb, 4 gigaBIT= 512mb, 8 gigaBIT = 1024mb or 1 true gigaBYTE.
So, you buy a 1gb player from honorable Chinese merchant, you load 1 true gigBYTE of data onto it.
A week later you start playing files past about 119mb and BAM!
The dreaded 'Format error' message....
You reformat w/ windoze, which shows true mb info, and you see you only have 128mb -apprx. 9mb for overhead or 119mb. Files placed on chip up to 119mb play fine. After 119mb, 'Format error' !
You cannot get back something you never had to begin with.
But you format, format, and re-re-re format, but oops! Every time windoze will show TRUE MB capacity.
By this time your player is beyond the 7 day warranty given by ' honorable Chinese merchant '. Etc. Etc.
So, go ahead and get the brand new Gazillion GB player ( read gigaBIT ) on ebay from the seller w/ only 10 positive feedback, but read warranty info 1st, and once you receive it, load it to it's capacity, play the last files first, and watch for errors. Reformat, then notify seller that it's really only a 128mb player..... Whew!
I write this to help unsuspecting buyers out there.
If anything I've said here is incorrect, please correct me....

Iridium

[mp4fun]

I am having some what of a problem here. It sounds kind of like what your talking about. When I transfer songs onto the mp4 player, which is supposed to be 8 gigs, it transfers everything just fine, but the 5th or 6th folders are corrupted, or "cannot be read from the source disk" or something. I've formatted it with windows and it still shows 7.99GB, however the problem still persists.

The folders are named with wierd symbols and text and if I click one of them it says it can't read it. If the text reads right, I can click on it but it displays a bunch of corrupted files.

[saher_arts]

hi,
I formated my mp4 using the tools in the cd but it became only 1 giga it was 4 giga ... what shall I do ???

[tadad1]

saher_arts,
Your player is most likely only 1GB. I have yet to see any proof that 4GB players really exist. At the moment the largest capacity player available is 2GB.
The players are hacked so that they read as being larger than they really are so a 512MB or 1GB chip can be hacked to appear as a 4GB or 8GB chip. Ususally the players have problems with file corruption and player restarts when you try to access any of the files that are above the true chip size. When the player is formatted it removes the hack and the true size of the chip is revealed.
To be certain you would need to open the player and note the serial number and make of the memory chip (the largest chip on the board), doing a Google search with this information will find you the chips real specifications.
You should really contact your seller and demand a full refund. If you look through the forums you will find posts by others with the same problem.

http://www.mympxplayer.org/viewtopic.php?t=1323
http://www.mympxplayer.org/viewtopic.php?t=1290
http://www.mympxplayer.org/viewtopic.php?t=424
http://www.mympxplayer.org/viewtopic.php?t=1157

[bibhash]

I have bought a 4GBipod nano clone and having the same problems with file corruption, player restarting etc. I have decided to get a refund. Luckily I got a 6 month warranty from the retailer.

To delete the corrupted files, I found this on wikipedia :

Problem Deleting Corrupted Files
If a player has a corrupted file and one is not able to delete that file then please see the following steps:

1:run cmd in run dialog box.

2:type chkdsk /r drive name

3:it will ask whether to covert lost chains into files,type y (yes).now it will scan your player

4:goto folder option in control panel.enable show hidden & system file and click on show operating system file too.

5elete file or folder named "Foundxx" from your player.
Now your corrupted file are deleted

IT WORKED for me!! I hope it works for you too