Due to an increase in the number of Error C4 ‘SD Card not found’ in EverDrive flash carts, we’ve decided to switch from SanDisk to a new brand for all of our 32GB MicroSD cards; we’ve started moving to Kingston Canvas for 32GB. (Larger capacity cards will usually still be SanDisk, as they have no issues, though Samsungs do get used as well.)
While this error is still quite rare (only a few percent of cards/EverDrives seem to have this issue) it’s enough of a problem that I’m doing this half as an experiment, half as a solution. No one, not even Krikzz, has a technical answer as to why it happens. The problem, when it manifests, also seems to be extremely specific; a microSD card that refuses to work with one EverDrive almost always works in another if you swap them around. It makes troubleshooting a real challenge, that usually isn’t worth it when the fix for these odd edge cases is just “return the card and buy another one.”
Numerous discussions on various game forums are convinced it has something to do specifically with SanDisk cards. (And maybe it does.) There are examples of people trying 2, 3, 4 SanDisk cards in a row without any luck only to have their EverDrive begin working happily with a PNY or Samsung. The read errors seem, at least anecdotally, to only involve SanDisk, and only the 32GB media. Maybe this is the case, maybe it’s just a statistical bias because so many people pick SanDisk as their card of first choice. Though even when we send out exchanges for problem cards, we often swapped brands too just in case.
So, we’ve completely switched over to Kingston for all collections that ship on 32GB media. (A few SanDisk will remain until stock is used up, but there aren’t many left.) Will this completely eliminate the SD Card Not Found errors? Well, that’s what we’re going to hopefully find out!
