Solved the "Not Allowed" Problem with my memory card! Using the FULL RESET command.

Ahh it feels good when you beat your head against something for a long time and finally research and troubleshooting-thinking solves the problem.

The problem, as described in the previous post, was that whenever I steered the phone to show me the files that were available on the microSD card, the thing would simply give the lovely "Not Allowed" message. No way to access the movies, pix, whatever I had on my card. NOTE that this was not the regular, predictable "Not allowed" message that accessing the microSD would give you if you had just recently inserted the thing but not followed it with a turn-on-and-off. This problem was different -- it was persistent and couldn't be resolved at all. Simply put, it sucked. My 1 gig microSD was the source of most of the fun on my T809.

About the fix: It's pretty simple. The general principle in troubleshooting things that don't respond to most of the simpler solutions eventually becomes: RESET the damn thing. However, I found that the normal reset command was not strong enough. To give the full history, My first attempt at this "reset" philosophy was to initialize the memory chip (after backing up its contents to my computer through a microSD card reader.) Well, this was not possible because the Format command for the card is actually inside the part of the phone's commands that was out of reach because of the "not allowed" command. My second "Reset" attempt was to use the phone's built-in "reset" command that is in the settings section, under Reset Settings. Well, that reset all of the cosmetic customizations that I had set on the phone -- key tones, wallpaper, but the "not allowed" problem continued. Argh.

The ultimate answer: I did a google search on the net, and found a user forum on HowardForums (one of the excellent phone enthusiast websites along with phonescoop and mobiledia) where a guy told someone else of a FULL RESET command on the phone. Simply put, this worked. Here is what to do: (1) Back up your data, pictures, movies, etc., by using the samsung PC Studio software that comes with the phone (or is available from samsung's site.) (2) issue the full reset command, which is to enter the following code on the phone's keypad: *2767*3855# and be very patient while it resets the phone. It tells you to NOT turn off the phone or do anything until a full minute after it turns itself back on. So, obey that instruction and wait like five minutes or something. and lastly, (3) insert your microSD (if it wasn't already in the phone) and then of course turn the phone off and on again.)


Problem solved! you can visit your chip's files. Thank god. I bet that full reset command would fix the annoying "Bluetooth Activate" error problem... but it's a pretty drastic solution when that problem will just fix itself automatically after a couple days anyway.

When T809 gets impish

If there's one thing I'd like to get across in the messages in this blog, it's that the T809 (yes, in other words, the D820) is the one of the very best damn cell phones out there. It blows the mind long after purchase with its insane crisp screen, sharp features, design, etc., and when you start doing cool stuff with ringtones, movies or tv episodes, etc., it goes beyond cool.

However, this post will be about when the thing misbehaves. Leaving aside the initial large disappointment that Samsung's packaged Windows software does not supply Outlook syncing for the T809 (while it does for the other phones that the software works with-- this problem I addressed, less-than-ideally, by buying Data Pilot, described in an earlier post), I can point to two damn annoying bugs that the thing has been zapping me with recently. Both I have mentioned obliquely in previous posts below, but neither one have I really crabbed about.

First bad behavior: [NOTE: This problem was solved in the January 21 blog entry.] We have always known that when you insert a microSD card, it accepts it nicely but then if you try to navigate to the files on the chip (for instance by using one of my more common key shortcuts, Menu-6-1-6) then it yells out a "Not Allowed" error message. To get it to be actually accessible, you need to turn the phone off and then on again. OK, that's not a big deal at all. BUT, recently, I've been just getting the Not Allowed EVERY time I navigate to the files on the SD card. Say What??? I can't watch any movies etc. that I have on the chip until I fix this. I've turned it off, on again, removed and reinserted -- no luck. Maybe this weekend I will sit down with it. HOWEVER, I have found that the files and file structure are still there on the memory card -- I put the card in my computer's card reader, loaded it up, and there they all are. I even took some movies off of the chip to see if it was just too close to totally full. No luck.
If I have no more luck in getting it to open up through the phone, I will (1) copy all of its contents to my computer, and then (2) re-initialize the chip, I recall there's a command for that somewhere on the phone. Then copy back. My guess is that that relatively dire step may do the trick. Hmmm. [See January 21 Blog Entry for the problem's solution.]

Second bad behavior -- The occasional error that happens when you try to turn on bluetooth. What is that error message that comes on again? something ungrammatical like "Bluetooth Activate Error." As I've said earlier, this one is simply erratic, but it does SOMEHOW seem to rear its head when the phone has dipped into a relatively l0w-battery period. However, unlike what I've read elsewhere on the net, the problem isn't solved by just totally charging the phone and then turning it off and on. It just has to arrive back at its sanity on its own, perhaps when you have waited 2 days and then decide to try to start up bluetooth again. ERGH. Annoying.

Post your T809/D820 comments or questions here!

I thought I'd make one blog entry specifically to invite people to press the "comment" button below and make any comments or questions. Digging your phone? By the way, if something's critical, you can email me directly, the email address is estephan followed by an "@" sign, and then fastmail.net. No huge news to report at the moment. I've been putting episodes of a beloved animated tv show on the phone (again, the put-movies-on-your-phone process is described here) ... and had the wonderful experience of acquiring a set of avi files of the show that had the commentary track built in -- the result being that my conversion had ONLY the commentary track. Love commentary tracks, but not ONLY commentary tracks. yeesh... only motto to that one: acquire different avi files...

Anyway, post any comments as by hitting the comment link.

The T809 error messages that sometimes pop up...

There are a couple error messages that have raised their heads at odd times as I've set about putting the T809 to use. Here are a couple of them, along with what I have learned about getting around them.

Bluetooth Activate Error. This one is a bit of a drag. I've seen other folks complain of this on the net. I make use of bluetooth both for syncing with outlook and for occasionally using a wireless headset. I went months without this showing up, but suddenly one day when I went to turn on bluetooth, there it came up: bluetooth activate error. And wouldn't let me turn on bluetooth. Someone on an online forum said "this happens when the phone is not fully charged. So not only charge the phone but also try activating while the charger is connected. This didn't work, and neither did taking out the battery. The only thing that resolved this one for me: Waiting a day or two and trying again. Because later on when I tried, it started bluetooth fine. Another possiblity is finding whatever "master reset" command is in the phone. I could imagine that would work but it would likely nuke my settings and maybe my contacts list. So that's the best I can do on that one.

"Not Allowed" error when going in to your SD memory chip. This one is easier. Let's say I remove my microSD memory chip from the phone, perhaps to put it into my computer and plunk a movie on there. Then say I put the chip back into the phone. And I navigate to go look at the contents of the memory chip (keyboard shortcut Menu, 6, 1, 6). And it gives a Not Allowed error. Whaaat? Did my memory get nuked? No, it's just that if you remove and then put the memory back into the phone, you have to turn the phone off and on again in order to navigate in there.

Content Not Supported error when trying to watch one of your movies. This one pops up sometimes when I'm trying to watch a movie that I imported to the phone, but which isn't quite to the specifications that the phone needs -- it's the correct format (mp4 or 3gp) but either its bitrate, frame rate, or something is wrong with the file -- OR, the file is just too damn big (say something like 140 megs, at which point many of my movies start to choke. I just chalk this error up along with the other symptoms of a "movie not converted correctly." Check out the full movie converting and viewing instructions and read them carefully about the configuration and file/movie size.