HP x2 210 (Product Nr. L5G94EA#ABD) microSD disappears

[MJKN79]

Having worked in technical support during my early days, each ticket logged counts, so please request everyone to log tickets with Helpdesk

[ncc1701]

I think the following may help too, if you find anyone else on the forum here or anywhere else (noticed someone mentioned a German site), get them to check in here. 

It may be helpful if we all posted our model numbers (Product Number shown at the bottom of the HP Support Assistant), the make and model of MicroSD cards used and also what country we are from.  This could help discern if there are any patterns to this, or even help HP.

In our house:

HP Paviilon 10 x2 P5P07EA#ABU (32GB eMMC/1TB HD 2GB RAM) Sunset Red

HP Pavilion 10 x2 N9Q58EA#ABU (32GB eMMC 2GB RAM) Silver

From UK.

Cards tried:

Sandisk Ultra Class 10 32GB SDHC

Sandisk Ultra UHS-I 64GB SDXC (multiple)

Sandisk Ultra UHS-I 128GB SDXC

Sandisk Class 4 4GB (Works flawlessly)

[jamus28]

So I did a whole bunch of research on this issue. It seems very related to the problem that bay trail (intel atom z3XXX) tablets and notebooks had. There was a known bug mentioned in this document:

http://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/specification-updates/atom-Z36xxx-Z37xxx...

That affected all brands (Asus transformers, MS Surface, etc.) 

certain "cheaper" UHS-1 microSD cards, like the sandisk ultra, have relaxed NCRC timing specifications (SD 3.01), which the bay trail can't handle. ASUS did release a BIOS update with a work around.

Interesting to note was that the issue only affects certain models of microSDs. One 64gb card might work and one might have issues. The more premium (pro versions) cards usually worked fine. The asus transformer forums have a 40 page thread about it. http://www.transformerforums.com/forum/asus-transformer-book-t100-help/40940-official-t100-microsd-d...

I would bet that this issue remains unresolved in intel cherry trail, or they didn't bother fixing it because the major brands patched their bios. If you search the forums, you'll notice that other HP products with the atom SoCs are having issues with UHS-1 microSDs (Envy note 8 for one)

In ANY case, HP can work with intel to release a BIOS update.

[ncc1701]

Interesting but I have got all these cards working flawlessly on Bay Trail devices right now.

[jamus28]

I'm guessing because those are older more mature  products who's drivers and BIOSs have been patched. It sounds like the major brands and the 1511 win10 update fixed it for bay trail.

[jamus28]

So I just recieved a samsung evo 64gb on recommendation of the asus forum. (I purchased it before finishing my research, otherwise i would have gotten the evo plus)

It's working much better so far. I downloaded a 1gb file and now watching HD video directly off the card. No freezes or disconnects. I'm still holding my breath to see if issues crop up soon. I ran a crystal mark and got:

Sequential Read (Q= 32,T= 1) : 42.597 MB/s
Sequential Write (Q= 32,T= 1) : 22.388 MB/s
Random Read 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 9.191 MB/s [ 2243.9 IOPS]
Random Write 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 2.811 MB/s [ 686.3 IOPS]
Sequential Read (T= 1) : 45.713 MB/s
Sequential Write (T= 1) : 39.843 MB/s
Random Read 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 7.801 MB/s [ 1904.5 IOPS]
Random Write 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 2.330 MB/s [ 568.8 IOPS]

Was your 32gb card a sandisk?

[ncc1701]

All my cards are Sandisk, I may have an old Samsung somewhere that I got free but I've only bought Sandisk in recent years because I've never had any problems with them compared to other brands.  (BTW. It was the older Bay Trail 2014 version of the HP x2 that I'd been using the cards with previously without problems as well as my HP Stream 7 - I'm also using them on other devices like my Kindle, phone etc etc).

I am not prepared to spend more money on cards when HP can and should fix it, they've released a device that I expect to work as least as well as the previous generation of the same product.  If there are caveats that should be clearly stated before we purchase in good faith.

[jamus28]

I agree completely. I was lucky enough to be able to return my sandisk card to amazon. HP should make their z8300 devices compatible with all UHS-1 cards.

I'm just glad I didn't have to return my X2, there really isn't an alternative for the price.

[ncc1701]

I'm trawling Intel's site at the moment to see if there is any word on this with the Z8300, or better/alternate drivers to the HP supplied ones.   But it's almost 2AM here in the UK and my eye's are going fuzzy.....  🙂

Oh, I'm currently trying this out:

http://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/205/session/L3RpbWUvMTQ1Nzc0MDQ3NC9zaWQvR3hDTHJlTG0=

[jamus28]

I checked the z8000 bug list document, but there are no mentions of it.

2 things to try:

Windows update minitool lets you pick and choose updates like the old days. There are 3 intel device updates for our SoC that HP hasn't included. I never tried these while using the sandisk.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/windows_update_minitool.html

Sandisk cards might be a little thinner than others. The 32gb card should work. Maybe a piece of tape on the back to improve contact?