Pcmcia
Thread Starter
Member
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 140
Likes: 0
From: Vancouver, BC
W221-S550
Pcmcia
Can someone tell me why a high tech car my 2007 S550 has such archaic trechnology like a PCMCIA card slot? Most PCs and laptops are moving away from this technology. I spent nearly 4 hours on Saturday to track down a PCMCIA card adaptor for SD card media. So I proceed to load about 300 MP3 on the card. Well, it play OK. Again, no Chinese chararcters were display on the COMAND (I already gripe about this on another thread) Anyway, after it play once, I keyed off, come back and the whole COMAND audio segment crashed and froze up, like your computer, except there is no reset button. Basically, I have to turn off the car, wait about 15 mins, retstart and the screen and audio unit works again. But on retstart, it gives an error message that it does not recognize the media format on the SD card in the PCMCIA slot. I took the card out, scan it with Norton antivirus thinking it may be infected but it was clean. Put it in and the whole thing happens again. very frustrated. Could not wait for the iPod adaptor to be available.
Anyone out there try their PCMCIA slot yet??
Any advice??
Anyone out there try their PCMCIA slot yet??
Any advice??
Newbie
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 7
Likes: 0
Works fine BUT every now and then must eject card and reinsert for card to be recognized. This happens upon ignition.
Best feature is the number of songs held on a 2 gig card. Unfortunately, this pales in comparison to Ipod.
Best feature is the number of songs held on a 2 gig card. Unfortunately, this pales in comparison to Ipod.
Senior Member
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 301
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From: Atlanta
2004 S55
4 hours? Really? This took me 5 seconds to find on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...Fencoding=UTF8
I could order and have it in hand tommorrow if I wanted.
Jeff
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...Fencoding=UTF8
I could order and have it in hand tommorrow if I wanted.
Jeff
Member
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 87
Likes: 2
From: Singapore
Bentley Continental GT 2004
Originally Posted by flaw
..gives an error message that it does not recognize the media format on the SD card in the PCMCIA slot. I took the card out, scan it with Norton antivirus thinking it may be infected but it was clean. Put it in and the whole thing happens again. very frustrated. Could not wait for the iPod adaptor to be available.
Anyone out there try their PCMCIA slot yet??
Any advice??
Anyone out there try their PCMCIA slot yet??
Any advice??
I took the card out and did a clean reformat, loaded it once again with some MP3 files and still got the 'format unrecognized' message. Decided not to bother and stick with my home made MP3 dvds.
Obviously some people out there have had better luck with PCMCIA cards, any tips?
Last edited by hcwong; May 18, 2006 at 02:53 AM.
Member
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 87
Likes: 2
From: Singapore
Bentley Continental GT 2004
Originally Posted by Gebop
Best feature is the number of songs held on a 2 gig card. Unfortunately, this pales in comparison to Ipod.
Last edited by hcwong; May 18, 2006 at 02:55 AM.
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Thread Starter
Member
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 140
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From: Vancouver, BC
W221-S550
Ok, here is an update. I got a new SD card and it is working much better with no freeze up. So I think its working much better. One observation. I have a bunch of MP3s Chinese songs and titles in Chinese (yes, I am a Honger) When these songs are loaded on DVDs in the slots, the titles do not show up-either on the Comand screen nor the dash display. But in the PCMCIA slot, the titles show up in the dash display but not the COMAND. What gives???
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MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Aug 2004
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From: Tallahassee, Florida
2006 SL600, 2001 S500, 1996 SL320
Software
What software are you using for this?
Originally Posted by hcwong
As I mentioned in another thread I am playing home made MP3 dvds which hold about 600 MP3 songs on a standard dvd-r with a capacity of 4.7Gb, arranges them nicely in folders within folders and cost pennies for blank media, so you may want to consider going this route as an interim measure till the iPod integration kit ships.
Senior Member
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 301
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From: Atlanta
2004 S55
Originally Posted by flaw
Ah yes 4 hours to find but I got it immediately. Ordering from Amazon for us Canadians mean a two week hold up at the customs. No instant gratification there!! haha!
Member
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 102
Likes: 6
From: Atlanta, GA
2018 S560; 2021 C300
Originally Posted by hcwong
I loaded up a CF card with some MP3 files and inserted it into the reader. Got the same 'format unrecognized' message.
I took the card out and did a clean reformat, loaded it once again with some MP3 files and still got the 'format unrecognized' message. Decided not to bother and stick with my home made MP3 dvds.
Obviously some people out there have had better luck with PCMCIA cards, any tips?
I took the card out and did a clean reformat, loaded it once again with some MP3 files and still got the 'format unrecognized' message. Decided not to bother and stick with my home made MP3 dvds.
Obviously some people out there have had better luck with PCMCIA cards, any tips?
Member
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 87
Likes: 2
From: Singapore
Bentley Continental GT 2004
Originally Posted by StephenK
What software are you using for this?
I just create playlist in the normal fashion, click burn, and when prompted to insert blank media I insert a DVD-R disk and burn as usual.
A standard DVD-R has 4.7GB capacity, easily good for well over 500 pop songs. iTunes will arrange them in folders so:
Artistes -> Albums -> Songs
so managing this massive amount of music is a breeze.
Member
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 200
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From: Southern California
'07 S550, '03 FXDWG
I burned an amazing amount of MP3 songs on a DVD, and it plays wonderfully-- no flaws, skips, and all the titles displayed clearly. I was excited about having a PCMCIA option, but considering that sn SD card holds 2Gig max, and a DVD holds 4.7gig, it was a no brainer. With about three or four of those discs, I think I can have my entire MP3 collection on board!
Member
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 179
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scared of being stalked
Originally Posted by JAdmiral
I burned an amazing amount of MP3 songs on a DVD, and it plays wonderfully-- no flaws, skips, and all the titles displayed clearly. I was excited about having a PCMCIA option, but considering that sn SD card holds 2Gig max, and a DVD holds 4.7gig, it was a no brainer. With about three or four of those discs, I think I can have my entire MP3 collection on board!
Member
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 200
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From: Southern California
'07 S550, '03 FXDWG
Originally Posted by Mrkhan347
do i need a DVD-RW? and do you need any specific software to burn it to a dvd r?
If you're looking for good burning software, I recommend NERO, found at www.nero.com, or your local software retailer.
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scared of being stalked
Originally Posted by JAdmiral
If you know how to burn a CD, then you know how to burn a DVD. The only difference between a DVD-R and DVD-RW is the rewritability feature of an RW. Having said that, with the price drop of the Rs, plus the incompatibility you sometimes encounter with the RWs, I would stick to the DVD-R discs.
If you're looking for good burning software, I recommend NERO, found at www.nero.com, or your local software retailer.
If you're looking for good burning software, I recommend NERO, found at www.nero.com, or your local software retailer.
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 3,374
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From: NYC
2002 ML320
Originally Posted by JAdmiral
I burned an amazing amount of MP3 songs on a DVD, and it plays wonderfully-- no flaws, skips, and all the titles displayed clearly. I was excited about having a PCMCIA option, but considering that sn SD card holds 2Gig max, and a DVD holds 4.7gig, it was a no brainer. With about three or four of those discs, I think I can have my entire MP3 collection on board!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820220146
8GB SD's should be shipping soon (along with 16 GB CF).
Member
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 200
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From: Southern California
'07 S550, '03 FXDWG
Originally Posted by abakshi
SD cards are readily available up to 4 GB (and pretty cheap too - <$80):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820220146
8GB SD's should be shipping soon (along with 16 GB CF).
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820220146
8GB SD's should be shipping soon (along with 16 GB CF).
Now, onto a REAL important question: Can the M-B read a double-sided DVD? Can you imagine over NINE MEGS of music on one disc?
Out Of Control!!
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 28,933
Likes: 12
Shai, your best bet is just using the DVDR's.
If they can really read dual layer DVDR's, then you're looking at (get ready for some math)
9000 mb on a dual layer dvdr
5mb per song (assuming 128kbps which is average, and five minutes per song).
1800 songs.
That's 1800 minutes worth of music on a single disc.
That's 30 hours worth of music on a single disc. By comparison, that's about 2 iPod Mini's.
All for a couple of cents, versus almost a hundred bucks to go the PCMCIA route. :o
If they can really read dual layer DVDR's, then you're looking at (get ready for some math)
9000 mb on a dual layer dvdr
5mb per song (assuming 128kbps which is average, and five minutes per song).
1800 songs.
That's 1800 minutes worth of music on a single disc.
That's 30 hours worth of music on a single disc. By comparison, that's about 2 iPod Mini's.
All for a couple of cents, versus almost a hundred bucks to go the PCMCIA route. :o
Newbie
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 8
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Hi Vraa,
Thanks for your reply, I know this option, and I also got my mew 80GB ipod, wich I will connect soon, I ordered tha ipod interface and should receive is soon.
But I still looking for an answer to this, there must be a reason why the PCMCIA card is freezing the full system if you dont take it out before you switch of the car. This system should be working if it is in every car. My car is also brand new 2007, so that means normaly that bugs like that should be repaired in that time.
Anyway thanks and I would apriciate if someone got an answer or solution for this.
Shai
Thanks for your reply, I know this option, and I also got my mew 80GB ipod, wich I will connect soon, I ordered tha ipod interface and should receive is soon.
But I still looking for an answer to this, there must be a reason why the PCMCIA card is freezing the full system if you dont take it out before you switch of the car. This system should be working if it is in every car. My car is also brand new 2007, so that means normaly that bugs like that should be repaired in that time.
Anyway thanks and I would apriciate if someone got an answer or solution for this.
Shai
