Like a few others, I just joined the site to relay my experience.
My Note 2 had the "SD card blank or ..." message about a month after purchasing it. My wife's Note 2 had the same message about 2 weeks after it occurred on mine. Both SD cards were PNY 16GB class 4. I tried a SanDisk 8GB class 4 later and it died also. As with others, the card is no longer readible or recognizable via any device. I researched this issue it found on several forums where S3s and Note 2s were both experiencing this problem. On every forum, there are those that blindly argue "my phone is fine, so it cannot be a phone issue". To contrast that, there are those who also make it seem like every phone has an issue. This appears to be a design problem either in the hardware or the firmware or a combo of both. Regardless, it IS an issue that happens to both the S3 and Note 2 and likely to due HW/FW problems that are marginal in their design/performance, thus not all phones are/will be affected.
I both called Samsung tech support and chatted with an online tech support. Neither were helpful (the phone one was less helpful and provided an attitude to my questions). I offered to provide links to various sites where other owners were experiencing the same problem and was ignored on those statements. I was also told Samsung has not received ANY notification from other owners of this issue (even though others have stated on the forums that they contacted Samsung tech support about this prior to my doing so) and that my issue would be reported back to Samsung people that can do something. It is apparent based on the identical responses that customer service / tech support is saying now that they will not admit an issue since I reported my issue yet they still state to others that they have not been made aware of this issue before. It also seems that they are aware of this issue being reported on forums since they now know to advise against info found on the forums. My conversation with the online tech was about the same as others. He could tell I was frustrated, but I continued to be courteous. I was offered to send in my phone for evaluation, but I'm quite confident nothing would've been found or done to my phone and didn't feel like going through the trouble and having a lack of a phone for the weeks period that it would be out. I did not bother to save my chat conversation as it was not fruitful in resolving anything nor did I get the impression that Samsung was willing to admit or help the issue.
To provide members of androidcentral some additional info on this problem that does not seem to be known here yet, this is a summary of what I've found from research on various sites/forums:
Problem occurs on both S3 and Note 2 phones
Once it has killed one card, it is highly likely to continue doing so (new cards) based on what other owners have reported on their success of replacement cards
Someone returned a dead SanDisk and asked for a failure analysis (from SanDisk). SanDisk found the "dead" card was due to a writing problem where certain cells did not receive adequate voltage during a write command resulting in the card becoming unreadable/undetectable to any device. There is no fix for this. (I offered this failure analysis to Samsung online tech and was ignored)
No brand, speed, etc. type of SD card has thus far been immune to this problem (people have reported online the same problem with Samsung cards in their phones). Issue is independent of brand (cheap, expensive), speed, capacity.
Carriers will deny knowledge of the issue also (I spoke with my carrier, Sprint and they were "not aware" of any issue, and others have spoken to their respective carriers with the same response)
My impressions:
As I mentioned, this appears to be a hardware and/or firmware issue due to marginal design/performance. The inability to bring voltage up to adequate levels during a write command can be due to either hardware or firmware (including stack up of tolerances that were inadequately accounted for, including over temp and service life and also may be due to variances in different supplier parts). Samsung is aware of the problem, but will not admit to it due to it not being widespread enough (just because it affects a few hundred out of tens/hundreds of thousands sold doesn't mean it's widespread enough for a large corporation to take action and the resultant consequences) and the fact that it would impact the reputation of the product and brand. Those that do not experience problems may never experience them in which case they are lucky. Those that have it will likely always have it if there is any contribution from the hardware to the issue. Those that have the problem will have to live with it as I am confident there will be no addressing of the issue from Samsung.
My Note 2 had the "SD card blank or ..." message about a month after purchasing it. My wife's Note 2 had the same message about 2 weeks after it occurred on mine. Both SD cards were PNY 16GB class 4. I tried a SanDisk 8GB class 4 later and it died also. As with others, the card is no longer readible or recognizable via any device. I researched this issue it found on several forums where S3s and Note 2s were both experiencing this problem. On every forum, there are those that blindly argue "my phone is fine, so it cannot be a phone issue". To contrast that, there are those who also make it seem like every phone has an issue. This appears to be a design problem either in the hardware or the firmware or a combo of both. Regardless, it IS an issue that happens to both the S3 and Note 2 and likely to due HW/FW problems that are marginal in their design/performance, thus not all phones are/will be affected.
I both called Samsung tech support and chatted with an online tech support. Neither were helpful (the phone one was less helpful and provided an attitude to my questions). I offered to provide links to various sites where other owners were experiencing the same problem and was ignored on those statements. I was also told Samsung has not received ANY notification from other owners of this issue (even though others have stated on the forums that they contacted Samsung tech support about this prior to my doing so) and that my issue would be reported back to Samsung people that can do something. It is apparent based on the identical responses that customer service / tech support is saying now that they will not admit an issue since I reported my issue yet they still state to others that they have not been made aware of this issue before. It also seems that they are aware of this issue being reported on forums since they now know to advise against info found on the forums. My conversation with the online tech was about the same as others. He could tell I was frustrated, but I continued to be courteous. I was offered to send in my phone for evaluation, but I'm quite confident nothing would've been found or done to my phone and didn't feel like going through the trouble and having a lack of a phone for the weeks period that it would be out. I did not bother to save my chat conversation as it was not fruitful in resolving anything nor did I get the impression that Samsung was willing to admit or help the issue.
To provide members of androidcentral some additional info on this problem that does not seem to be known here yet, this is a summary of what I've found from research on various sites/forums:
Problem occurs on both S3 and Note 2 phones
Once it has killed one card, it is highly likely to continue doing so (new cards) based on what other owners have reported on their success of replacement cards
Someone returned a dead SanDisk and asked for a failure analysis (from SanDisk). SanDisk found the "dead" card was due to a writing problem where certain cells did not receive adequate voltage during a write command resulting in the card becoming unreadable/undetectable to any device. There is no fix for this. (I offered this failure analysis to Samsung online tech and was ignored)
No brand, speed, etc. type of SD card has thus far been immune to this problem (people have reported online the same problem with Samsung cards in their phones). Issue is independent of brand (cheap, expensive), speed, capacity.
Carriers will deny knowledge of the issue also (I spoke with my carrier, Sprint and they were "not aware" of any issue, and others have spoken to their respective carriers with the same response)
My impressions:
As I mentioned, this appears to be a hardware and/or firmware issue due to marginal design/performance. The inability to bring voltage up to adequate levels during a write command can be due to either hardware or firmware (including stack up of tolerances that were inadequately accounted for, including over temp and service life and also may be due to variances in different supplier parts). Samsung is aware of the problem, but will not admit to it due to it not being widespread enough (just because it affects a few hundred out of tens/hundreds of thousands sold doesn't mean it's widespread enough for a large corporation to take action and the resultant consequences) and the fact that it would impact the reputation of the product and brand. Those that do not experience problems may never experience them in which case they are lucky. Those that have it will likely always have it if there is any contribution from the hardware to the issue. Those that have the problem will have to live with it as I am confident there will be no addressing of the issue from Samsung.
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