yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Venue Pro General] Peew971:
There is a card slot, it's just that we're not supposed to use it. The only phone to accept a card is the Focus (I'm hearing this is not working at the moment) and it's US only. Omnia 7 would be a great choice if the 16GB model was on sale in the UK, not trusting the HD7 after reviews and user feedback.
[Venue Pro General] Monty Burns:
Entirley possible. Been done before many times.

But a PC should still recognise and say "wtf is this? I can format it if you like?". It doesn't. It has no clue a card has been inserted. You need to look down the layers of the software, bios, hardware interaction.

I hope i'm wrong and as there is no forseeable model for me to buy in the near future, I have plenty of opertunity for you guys to do it and it won't cost me a penny! :D
[Venue Pro General] Jim Coleman:
Sources?

I would have thought so too, but it strikes me as more likely that a PC wouldn't recognize the card, than the card is some kind of bizarre new type of SDHC.

Let's remember, the Samsung Focus has been demonstrated as being capable of accepting an SD card and using it fully. If the WP7 SD cards were in some way different hardware-wise, that would not have been possible.
[Venue Pro General] rob_p:
How are you finding the Omnia 7? Given the debacle with the DVP, I thin I'm gonna get either the HD7 or the Omnia 7.
[Venue Pro General] Monty Burns:
Its great! Fast as a fast thing, very fluid ..... feels solid and looks good. Only had it about 18 hours, 8 of those asleep so can't give you more than that i'm afraid. :D

edit: Someone was saying earlier in this thread that the HD7 has been less than great, you might want to google that.
[Venue Pro General] Monty Burns:
So you've never heard of proprietry ram before?

I'm really not going to sit here and google and link dozens of examples but, just for started what about this?

Wiki link

There are many specific examples of companies modding "standard" hardware ever so slightly so that you cannot use generic stuff in it. Can you use a "normal" HD drive in your X360? Technicaly yes, realisticaly no.

Might be a Dell specific mod? It strikes me that Dell can then make these themselves and hike the prices up rather than letting Jo public buy them off the street for a half/third of the price. Seems like good business sense to me.
[Venue Pro General] Jim Coleman:
The SD card in the Venue Pro is not made by Dell, nor is it even rebadged. It's a standard Sandisk class 4 8GB SDHC card.

Microsoft have said a lot about SD card replacing in WP7 - they've mentioned the speed and quality as being important, but at no point have they ever mentioned the pin-outs or any part of the SD card hardware being different. If it was, they'd have said so, it would have been End of Story.
[Venue Pro General] Peew971:
Isn't the Omnia 7 8GB? You could as well swap it for a Venue Pro :D.

Otherwise, if it's a 16GB I'd like to know where you found one :).
[Venue Pro General] Monty Burns:
If its a standard card put it in a pc and FORMAT IT! (Oh wait, it won't RECOGNISE it!

Clearly, its impossible for a manufacturer to agree a deal for a sub-component with a sub-manufacturer. Nope, can't happen. Never. No waaay. Those Apple memory mods are clearly not specificaly made. The X360 drive is clearly a generic item.

OK - we will have to agree to disagree until someone actually makes this work - and as i've said, I hope they do!
[Venue Pro General] Monty Burns:
Sadly it is only 8gb (T-mobile). Actually i've already filled it up and its only got 56meg free! :D Thats why I want a 32gig device ;)

I was only supposed to have it a week...... :(

edit: Sorry, currently have a 32gig HD2 which is running about 95% full. This has combination of Satnav with German, South African, Florida and of course, UK maps - all of which get used - 8gig worth of music, the complete collection of Men Behaving Badly and some other general stuff. THIS Is why I need 32gig
[Venue Pro General] Peew971:
Yeah it's a pain... I have a Zune HD and I'm using 20GB on it, music only is 8GB! I wanted my WP7 to replace both my Zune and phone but I need memory for that :(.
[Venue Pro General] rob_p:
Cheers.

My Wife's got the HD7, and got to say it's a great bit of kit. Of course there will be teething problems - every so often it won't load market place or zune until you reboot the phone (which only takes about 30 secs!), but that aside, it's a great phone.
[Venue Pro General] domineus:
so if anything it sounds like get the devices next week and not in january if you want sd support (even illegally)

but post january that may not be happening. Well I can get the 199 model and upgrade it to a 32 gig card
[Venue Pro General] elyl:
From internal support documents, I would assume this is somewhere in the manual too. Don't know if this counts as hard-reset...

Master Clear/Reset

To reset your phone to the default state:

Touch Start then Applications then Settings

Under system, touch about.

Touch the reset your phone button.

WARNING:

Resetting your phone to the default state will restore your phone to the default state and erase all data and downloaded applications stored on it. Ensure that you back up all the required data before you reset the phone.
[Venue Pro General] Jim Coleman:
Thanks for that, but the problem is, that requires your phone to be working, which it won't be if you've just replaced the SD card with a bigger one. In this case, the phone will just be moaning you've not got the right card in the slot, and you won't be able to boot it properly. That's why we need to know how to hard reset the phone by using the hardware buttons.
[Venue Pro General] kltye:
The phone boots and works just fine - it just runs without any user customization and apps. I received a text message in this mode, but it couldn't resolve the number to a name. The message was gone once I put the original card back inside the phone. Again, it's as if the phone doesn't see the card at all.

Once upon a time, iPods used IBM microdrives for storage. Their drives were hard-wired to work in IDE mode, instead of CF mode. My Dell Axim couldn't make heads or tails of it, but my PC card reader managed to read it.

I've googled SD card standards, and long story short, there are two operating modes of SD cards - native SD mode, and SPI mode. It seems native SD is what cards default to, but you can initialize the card to SPI (which is supposedly a slower mode, but can be more efficient under certain circumstances). I'm not sure if most card readers can deal with SPI, or if it's possible to reinitialize it with standard card readers. I'm not even sure if this is the cause of the "not recognized" problem.

I've put the Dell/Sandisk card in my Canon DSLR using an adapter, and it just hung while starting up, and then said, "Can't read card; try formatting it with the camera". The exact same behaviour was shown when I removed the microSD from the adapter, but left the adapter in the slot (so the camera thinks there's a card physically inserted, but the electronics wouldn't be able to probe anything). If I inserted a completely blank unformatted and unpartitioned card, the camera immediately said, please format card. Once again, it shows that the card wasn't able to be probed electrically by the reader.
[Venue Pro General] ratchetjaw:
Try this

Not sure if anyone has tried, try to reformat the factory installed one via the buttons (just to get the method) then try on the new one. Anyone tried that? I have read most of the thread and didnt see that mentioned
[Venue Pro General] shu8i:
Yay for nand later this year :) would be more yay if there would still be sdcard support but the speed improvements make me want nand :)
[Venue Pro General] kltye:
It didn't work.
[Venue Pro General] Jim Coleman:
Did you try a hard reset using the hardware buttons on the sides of the phone? Did that make it recognize the new SD card?
[Venue Pro General] ratchetjaw:
When you say it didn't work, did it let you format the factory but not the new? Or wouldn't let you format either via hardware buttons?
[Venue Pro General] kltye:
Did you read the thread?

http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=9123858&postcount=42
[Venue Pro General] matthewhypolite:
when u inset the new card, is it posible, to get into - > about->reset ?
[Venue Pro General] Peew971:
You really didn't read the thread. You can't do anything with a new card in!!!!!

Now go back and read the previous pages to avoid asking another covered question.
[Venue Pro General] matthewhypolite:
take it easy guy, i have read the entire thread.

and ive seen reports of limited functionality with the new card.

its why i asked.

And i asked for a reason.

Since nothing can be done with the new card.

Has anyone tried.

Initating the about-reset process with current card, and on phone reboot, before it starts bottin back up, remove the battery, swap card, and insert new card.

Then let the phone finish the boot process ?
[Venue Pro General] Adam86:
I was just thinking that and about to suggest it! Don't see any reason why that wouldn't work really.
[Venue Pro General] Jim Coleman:
Yes I read the thread but didn't see anything showing that anyone had performed a proper hardware button-initiated hard reset.
[Venue Pro General] fallenczar:
Powerdown your phone.

Press and hold camera + volume down.

Press power button till the phone starts booting, then let go of it.

You should be presented with a format phone screen.

To select yes - press the windows button.
[Venue Pro General] matthewhypolite:
A hardware initiated reset was not performed becasue the key combination to do so is not known. The combination used on the Samsung Focus doesnt seem to work, and other combinations has been tried with no luck.

which is why i suggested softreset into sd switch method.

Hopefuly someone tries it soon and let us know the results.
[Venue Pro General] JoeTheFro:
for those talking about wierd SD cards and other types of stuff like that.

On the left is the SD from the phone, and on the right is a basic from the store type.

Both look identical. One is class 4 and the other 6.

SUCCESS!!!!

The brilliant idea from someone said to reset phone with original card, then while the phone is rebooting ( goes completely black ) pull battery and replace card.

This method did the trick for me. I however do not have access to any card higher than 8gb, so i cant test with more space... just a faster card.

Also, all built in apps were reinstalled, so you dont have to worry about losing those.

BIG BEWARE - Working on it, but i took the SD out to run some tests and when i put it back in, the phone no longer acknowledges it..... and same goes for the stock card.... fun times!

Ill fill you in if i get it working again.
[Venue Pro General] ratchetjaw:
Awesome news indeed. Got a 32gb sitting here waiting on the phone
[Venue Pro General] kltye:
16 GB SanDisk Class 2 card working:

http://twitpic.com/35n8ii
[Venue Pro General] citrix80:
DON'T OPEN IT. OPEN IT WILL VOID WARRANTY. I talk to dell support today, that told me the phone is designed to have internal storage, does NOT support external storage. the slot is used to internal stoarage, not removable.
[Venue Pro General] efjay:
The only question I have now is, is the card slot covered by a sticker only on the eng samples or retail units as well. Lost track of who has an eng sample vs retail unit.
[Venue Pro General] Peew971:
Good it's sorted... Now to actually find one and void the warranty :(.
[Venue Pro General] Monty Burns:
Ya know, sometimes I love it when i'm wrong......

off I trot to Expansys now ;)
[Venue Pro General] domineus:
so all you have to do is grab a card the 8 gig version hit reset option with initial card, when the screen turns black, pull out the battery, put new card in, replace battery, and the format will take place

That's all...
[Venue Pro General] Peew971:
Apparently Expansys got it delayed too, that's really bad. 2 months to wait but then it will be CES and maybe not worth buying it anymore :(.
[Venue Pro General] Monty Burns:
Appears Clove are not the only ones affected:

Expansys -
[Venue Pro General] ratchetjaw:
is this expansys UK and US?
[Venue Pro General] Monty Burns:
Agreed. Oh well. sticking with the full-up Omnia for a few months then. Prolly have to wait for the next wave of phones :mad:
[Venue Pro General] Peew971:
Ok, for a bit there you were annoying :D. But at the end it paid off since you're the one who found the trick... kudos ;).
[Venue Pro General] Peew971:
UK. Don't know about US.
[Venue Pro General] ratchetjaw:
man this is going to end up like the white iphone 4 lol. I will say again nice Cluster puck dell
[Venue Pro General] Peew971:
Unless the US model works in the UK :rolleyes:.
[Venue Pro General] ratchetjaw:
Just got off the phone with Dell USA and they have no confirmed launch date. Guess we cant count on th 15th either
[Venue Pro General] Monty Burns:
I can speak from experience with Expansys. I've ordered products before which have been delayed, other sites say for exampl January but Expansys have said December. As December date approached they delayed again until January to match the other suppliers..... work out from that what you will but to me it seems like a good way to snare customers.;)
[Venue Pro General] ratchetjaw:
oh okay thanks for the reply. I emailed them they just said no confirmed date
[Venue Pro General] kltye:
For those of us who aren't registered: http://twitpic.com/35n8ii

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weOg1dzPmU0&feature=player_embedded
[Venue Pro General] Jim Coleman:
That was very humble of you sir ;o)
[Venue Pro General] rruffman:
Samsung Method

Hi

I did not read through all post here but did anyone just try to install card bootup go to settings , about, the reset my phone? i have a samsung focus and installed a 32gb card booted upi the phone for first time it did not see the card then i went to settings about and hit the reset button and after the phone reset the about screen now showd the total storage...
[Venue Pro General] Se4nH4x:
Read up. kltye figured out how to install a new sd card.
[Venue Pro General] kimck99:
Hi Klyte,

Two questions for you.

1) Was your DVP an engineering unit?

2) Can you provide the steps you took? (I've been following the SD card issue on the Samsung Focus thread and some have it working with soft reset and some have been successful with the hard reset - albeit, jury is still out on both methods as some are losing data after about a day or so.)

Thanks and my apology if the steps have been posted. (Getting lost between this thread and the Focus SD thread.)
[Venue Pro General] matthewhypolite:
Juss glad i coudl help get the issue sorted, now waiting for dell US to go on sale to get my own device.

And to the guy asking about the procedure, juss read the previous page, the answer is there. The samsung solution does not work with the dell, so we had to work around it :)
[Venue Pro General] kltye:
I wish I could take credit for it, but it was @matthewhypolite who figured it out, and I just took the plunge because I have the phone.

I have an engineering sample.

The steps are easy:

1) Go to Settings, about, reset your phone. Confirm the prompts

2) When the screen turns off, pull your battery.

3) Peel off the sticker covering the slot - a small knife would do.

4) Remove SD card with a small flat screwdriver.

5) Insert new card.

6) Power on phone. Cross fingers.

7) Finish the first-time setup wizard, and confirm storage increase by going to Settings, about.

I just realized that this will probably render your SD card unusable to other devices.
[Venue Pro General] Se4nH4x:
Now the final question: will it only work with a Sandisk Class 2 Micro SD? Or will it work with any other micro SD.
[Venue Pro General] matthewhypolite:
Dont think there is any sure way to know unless someone tries it, but, i dont see why it shouldnt, worse case i think you may expereince performance issues.

But if u have to buy SD, be safe and get the class 2 :)
[Venue Pro General] cPT.cAPSLOCK:
I don't think so - the default 8GB is class 4, so I suppose different speeds work. Pure speculation until someone tries out though.

On a side-note, maybe it's good to put some common information (like the steps to replace it) in the original FiPo so that it's less important if people read the whole thread. After all, it's getting pretty long.

Just my $0.02
[Venue Pro General] ericc191:
I just said F*** it and picked up an HD7. I'm going to return it before my 30 days are up.
[Venue Pro General] Se4nH4x:
TBH...the only other WP7 phone that I like is the LG Optimus 7. The build quality looks solid, more so than any of the other phones.
[Venue Pro General] agp64:
Fixed.:o I new it had a SD slot but was hoping it had nand as well,:( nand seams a little quicker.
[Venue Pro General] ericc191:
Some people think the new Venue Pros that get released next year will have NAND and no SD slot. Unless, Dell doesn't think anyone knows about the current VP's SD slot.

EDIT: The HD7's screen is definitely regular LCD.
[Venue Pro General] TriAxisFL:
Thanks for being the guinea pig and testing this out. This process seems fairly quick and painless. If this phone is ever released in the US I will try putting a 32GB Class 4 card in and pray.
[Venue Pro General] Monty Burns:
I think they have just changed the "paper spec" to cover there arses. Under UK Sales of Goods, if it was advertised as having an SD slot then it must be able to be used as an SD slot and of course, Dell don't want you to do this. Simple answer, just say it has "8gb internal ram" when in fact its an SD slot.
[Venue Pro General] Monty Burns:
Noticed a little disturbing behaviour with mine - it could just be my unit, possibly not all of them.

Some times (twice in two days) it will lose signal and not connect back. I've had to reboot it each time. I've not thought about switching flight mode off/on but will let you know how that goes.

Thats the only problem i've seen with it.
[Venue Pro General] Se4nH4x:
Your unit being the dell venue pro? or the LG optimus 7?
[Venue Pro General] Monty Burns:
Ahh sorry, mines a Samsung Omnia 7. Scratch that comment.:o
[Venue Pro General] microhaxo:
So let me get this right, as of now the card has to be a sandisk right? I wouldn't be able to put a transcend class 6 in there?
[Venue Pro General] kltye:
There's no evidence to support a conclusion either way. I just happened to be able to get my hands on a SanDisk.
[Venue Pro General] Sangheili:
Just confirmed that a SanDisk Class 2 32GB card DOES work.

Used the steps above and after rebooting the device has 30GB of space free.
[Venue Pro General] matthewhypolite:
Brilliant!

-

Has anyone compared the Dells screen against the Samsung Focus?

Seeing vids of the Focus screen it looks gorgeous, rather tempting.
[Venue Pro General] kimck99:
I have been following this thread and the Samsung Focus thread on SD card upgrade. At the Samsung thread, there have been several instances where the upgraded SD card (after soft or hard reset method) show the increase in storage. However, after a few days, those individuals are having issues - phone rebooting by itselt to users having sync issues when sync large number of files (say greater than 8 GB of music, etc.)

So, it would be great if folks who have upgraded their MSD cards to report:

1. The make, model, class

2. How long it has been stable (Or not)

3. If stable, any issues with sync'ing large number of files - again more than 6-8 GBs

4. If not stable, what happened.

I am on the fence between DVP and Focus and the tipping point for me is which device supports MSD card upgrade with absolute consistency and no issues.

Finally, perhaps the OP can update the first post with results from this point forward to which cards are stable, not stable, and don't work similar to what the Focus thread has going. If lucky, we might be able to find some similarities to the MSD cards that work for both devices. Just a thought.

Thanks to everyone who have taken it for the team thus far.
[Venue Pro General] matthewhypolite:
the samsung may be expereincing problems after 8gb becuase there is 8gb of internal storage and only after that point will it start storing to microsd.

Since the dell 8gb is being swapped out, you shoudl start writing to the card right away.
[Venue Pro General] kimck99:
Ah, good point. I was wondering about that but didn't have the foresight to comment.

Nonetheless, it would be good to get more information to the card swap experience and sync'ing.

Thanks
[Venue Pro General] Sangheili:
Of the Dell, Samsung, and HTC Surround I rate the screens as such:

Samsung: 9.0

Dell: 8.0

HTC: 5.0

The samsung has a bit better color definition but has the same grainy-ness of the Dell (seems to be an AMOLED issue). The HTC (lcd) screen is just crap in comparison.
[Venue Pro General] matthewhypolite:
Is the extra color def on the samsung worth forgoing physical keyboard on dell?

right now its a tossup between the Super AMOLED screen and the keyboard, cant decide between the 2.
[Venue Pro General] ericc191:
Having owned a Nexus One with regular AMOLED and playing with the Focus in the store, I can tell you the keyboard is the better buy. The blacks are just as black. The only real difference I noticed was the sAMOLED's colors were a little more saturated.
[Venue Pro General] matthewhypolite:
Dell it is then :)
[Venue Pro General] microhaxo:
http://tinyurl.com/2ev3tq4
[Venue Pro General] ericc191:
Link took me here:

http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/12/...focus-customers-not-to-buy-microsd-cards-yet/
[Venue Pro General] kltye:
Ha, I knew I wasn't crazy when I said the phone does something crazy with the card. 16GB SanDisk is still holding up just fine for now.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2450831
[Venue Pro General] TehPenguin:
The reason you don't see anything is that Microsoft is using the "Secure" part of the "Secure Digital" card specification. There is a hardware lock on the card that only your phone can unlock. Technically any card reader should be able to issue a "Force Erase" command, but the format\partitioning tools in Windows (and Linux\Mac I believe) do not support it.
[Venue Pro General] microhaxo:
I bought a 8gb class 6 transcend microsdhc card, it arrives tomorrow. Now the Random Access speed on this card is 0.7ms which is 3 tenths faster than sandisk. I am afraid to put it in my Dell venue pro though. Dont want to break it. Plus next week i'm supposed to get my replacement..

Scratch that

Confirmed Not Working(Data gone after soft reset):

A-Data

A-Data 4GB Class 6

A-Data 16GB Class 6

Lexar

Lexar 16GB Class 6

Transcend

Transcend 8GB Class 6

Transcend 16GB Class 6
[Venue Pro General] nasell:
Instead of a soft reset, have you gone through a complete factory restore? The microsoft article explicitly states that it "integrates" the card upon booting for the first time, or after a complete reset...
[Venue Pro General] Monty Burns:
Oh noes! Shock horror!

NEW delay until 11th January.

Same old trick, up to it again. But i'm sure they were only going by the information they had, just seems odd that I've seen this process before....:rolleyes:
[Venue Pro General] zazierx:
http://pct1.sandisk.com/ProductList.aspx?DeviceID=16435

Sandisk list of SD cards that supposedly work for the DVP (aka Lightning), Though it only lists 4 / 8 gig...

http://www.sandisk.com/products/mobile-memory-products/sandisk-microsdhc

has nearly the same item number, anyone know if this 32gig would work?
[Venue Pro General] RSN5774912:
You missed out, they were selling those on that same website over thanksgiving for 62.99 instead of 200. I got one and it turned out to be a class 4 too.