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October 28, 2006
Avoid A-DATA SD Flash Memory Cards
My opinion is that A-DATA makes crappy products and fails to live up to the promises made by its product warranties. Here are the facts that have driven me to this belief.
On June 15, 2006, I purchased a 4GB A-DATA MyFlash 150X Turbo Secure Digital flash memory card (shown below) from a reputable online retailer to use as a local backup medium for my laptop (a Panasonic Toughbook with a built-in SD card slot).
In early October of 2006, less than 4 months after I purchased the card, I noticed that it was starting to crack along the plastic casing. I felt this was a bit odd since I rarely move the card out of its home in my laptop's SD slot. Maybe once or twice a week, I will transfer some files between my laptop and my PC using the card. Given that only about 12 weeks had passed, that was at most 50 insertions. Here are some pictures I took of the card's abnormally bad wear:
Notice that the casing near the electrical contacts is cracked and major parts are completely missing. Also note the big hole in the upper left part of the card's underside. Finally, the last photo clearly shows how the card is splitting along the seam that runs around its periphery.
Here is A-DATA's warranty statement about its SD flash memory cards (which can also be read on A-DATA's website here):
Note that it says "life-time warranty". I'm not sure what has a lifetime of <4 months...maybe mayflies...but I doubt anyone expects flash media to fall to pieces in less time. So, thinking that this should be a fairly simple case of letting the company know my situation and them replacing the card, I contacted A-DATA on October 15, 2006 about my situation and got the following response two days later:
Dear Craig,Thanks for your support of A-DATA product.
According to the problem you mentioned, it maybe is a man-made damage. You could go back to the store where you bought it for repair. Or provide clear front and rear pictures of the card for us to identify the warranty information as well as the product situation first.
Regards,
First, no online retailer is going to take back a defective electronics product 4 months after the purchase; that's what manufacturer warranty repair service is for. Second, "man-made damage"? Do they think I ran over it with my car? I told them how it had been handled carefully, rarely leaving the protective confines of my laptop's dedicated SD slot.
I then emailed them back with high-res photos of the card's cracking and a copy of my sales receipt. Here's their response:
Dear Craig,According to the information you provide, it is a man-made damage. A-DATA only could provide the paid repair service. If you need our paid repair service, please inform us what country you live.
Regards,
Huh? What the heck is "man-made damage"? Would ANY card that has been used at all and failed be repaired under warranty if A-DATA is going to merely claim that USE is responsible for the card's disintegration after just 4 months? How can normal wear-and-tear, if not less, be sufficient to void a warranty?
As a comparison point, I currently also own two SanDisk SD cards, each of which is over a year old and gets moved from one SD slot to another or a reader nearly every day -- they show ZERO signs of wear around the plastic casing.
To me, it seems clear that this A-DATA card is of inferior quality (at least the plastic casing is too brittle) AND the company fails to live up to its warranty claims. I would strongly recommend avoiding all of A-DATA's products...I know I will be in the future.
Comments
Yup, I had a A-data SD Duo in my phone for about 3 months. somehow, the unlock switch was missing from the card, and my card was been locked from saving new datas. I went to their site, all they have there is saying they cover life time waranty, but didnt say how to get service, seems a lot of troubles.
Posted by: nan at April 4, 2007 12:12 AM
Avoid A-Data like the plague. I had a painful lesson with exactly the same card. I lost very important pictures of our child's school and church events. The card simply went dead in the middle of transferring images to the computer. It does not show up at all now, explorer hangs and does not respond. This is a piece of crap. DO NOT BUY A-DATA PRODUCTS.
Posted by: Ed at May 31, 2007 2:31 AM
Hey! Thanks all for this info re: A-Data. Was just going to buy a couple on eBay, but never heard of them before, so thought I would check them out first. Glad I did. Will stick to good old Sandisk!
Mar
Posted by: Mar at June 8, 2007 6:32 AM
The experience I have had with the only two SD cards that I have purchased (Extremememory and no brand) has been exactly the same. Plastic invariably worns out from the top and bottom of the card. I'd like to know if this happens with all of the brands.
Posted by: bozztor at June 8, 2007 11:45 AM
me too, card got permanently lock due to crack
Posted by: regal at August 2, 2007 8:12 AM
Well mine stopped working on 4th day
Posted by: D.A at January 4, 2008 9:34 AM
Stay away from Adata! I bought two 1GB RAM sticks from Tiger Direct, but only installed them after the 30 day period when I could return them. They only provide 1.7 GB of useful memory. It's April now, I have been trying to get Adata to exchange them under warranty since February. They only send me emails promising to take care of the problem, but those don't materialize. Sounds like fraud to me.
Posted by: Alex at April 18, 2008 9:52 AM
I bought an AData Myflash 4GB USB flash drive becuase the online retailer was offering a good rebate. So thinking I was getting a deal (mistake #1) I bought it. Within a few months I noticed that the drive was being recognized intermittently and I noticed that if I applied a bit of pressure on it a certain way it would read it again. I continued to use the flaky device (mistake #2). This got worse over time to the point where I needed to bend it quite a bit to keep it connected. Eventually it just stopped working completely and I lost my data (only music downloads, but still). Even if they offered a replacement I don't think I would use it - refund or forget about it.
It seems like thier products are not made very well - go with a better brand and hopefully at least you will get better service if you do have problems.
Posted by: Angelo at May 22, 2008 6:30 PM
Thanks. I have a micro SDHC 4 gb series 6 card with SD sized adapter in my shopping cart at newegg right now, and i'm running over as fast as I can to take it out. Before i checked out I wanted to do a google search and see if they have a lifetime warranty. Instead I'm going to get the one from Kingston.
I wanted the microsized with adapter instead of Kingston's full size SD for the same price in case I get a phone or other device in the future that uses the micro size. I don't need it now so I'll settle for the kingston SD size.
I know kingston has a excellent rep, and I've heard similar stories about A Data cards falling apart before.
Posted by: paul at August 17, 2008 4:33 PM
yep, 4gb micro sdhc card stopped reading
Posted by: neil at August 19, 2008 11:19 AM