Donot use fake memory cards for OE installs

[Roe]

The best way of not getting a fake is to stay away from ebay. Get one from a shop online like tigerdirect or something.

 

[canadajames]

I don't think this is a huge problem as of now. Since I bought my mem card off of ebay 4gig and it says unknown. It still functions perfectly... wait for thundrcloud and psp not working anymore. Anyways though I don't see why they should be made such a big deal of. I think that maybe this unknown thing has to do with the psp not recognizing more then the card or mayeb that the maker of the card is officially sony but uses the exact same stuff just doesn't have the program which tells the psp to recognize it as genuine. For right now as long as your card works I don't see what the difference is besides saving up to 100$ on some sticks which work the same. So Maybe for updating I'll look around but as of now it doesn't seem that bad to me. Sry about the rant.
Edit:
For now I guess to be safe I'll use my 512mb sandisk. But in all honesty I upgraded 3 or more times already with my unknown 4gb.

 

[Cheezeball99]

yikes!
so how do I determine if I'm BUYING a fake then :confused1: ?
Are all the big memory cards ( 1-4 gig ones ) all fake!?
Thinking of buying a sandisk memory stick pro duo and I want to be able to downgrade with it...thats the whole point of me buying a mem stick, being able to downgrade :laugh:

If you buy from somewhere like Newegg or an official vendor then it's not going to be fake, the ones that are fake are ones people sell, like on uBid and eBay 'n' such.

 

[Chilly Willy]

I don't think this is a huge problem as of now. Since I bought my mem card off of ebay 4gig and it says unknown. It still functions perfectly... wait for thundrcloud and psp not working anymore. Anyways though I don't see why they should be made such a big deal of. I think that maybe this unknown thing has to do with the psp not recognizing more then the card or mayeb that the maker of the card is officially sony but uses the exact same stuff just doesn't have the program which tells the psp to recognize it as genuine. For right now as long as your card works I don't see what the difference is besides saving up to 100$ on some sticks which work the same. So Maybe for updating I'll look around but as of now it doesn't seem that bad to me. Sry about the rant.
Edit:
For now I guess to be safe I'll use my 512mb sandisk. But in all honesty I upgraded 3 or more times already with my unknown 4gb.

The problem with fakes is even when they DO work, they tend to develop write errors rather more quickly than real sticks. The reason has to do with why fakes are cheap: they're old scrapped memory. Flash memory can only be written so many times before it starts to fail (generally guaranteed for 100,000 write cycles). When flash memory reaches a certain age, many companies have a policy to scrap it for new since there's a calculable risk that some memory may go bad (the more flash they use, the more likely one will go bad). They also usually replace ALL the flash at the same time to avoid the issue of tracking the age of different flashes. However, they don't throw the flash away - they sell it cheap to someone to resell as used. These folks then repackage this old generic flash into fakes and sell them as new. So the buyer can no longer count on getting 100,000 write cycles on the memory. The general complaints you see on forums is a stick no longer working after as little as a few weeks.

 

[canadajames]

Thx for the info. Well I'll try not to put stuff on and off as much hope my thing got sold after sitting ins torage instead of after being used.

 

[Chilly Willy]

Thx for the info. Well I'll try not to put stuff on and off as much hope my thing got sold after sitting ins torage instead of after being used.

That's the way to do it with sticks like that - use them almost like permanent storage. Put stuff on the stick you know you'll use a lot and don't change it. You still have the issue of save games being written, but if one of them develops an error, it's not as bad as a game developing an error. Don't use fake sticks for ANYTHING that will write to flash. Keep a smaller REAL memstick for OE updates and such. I do lots of testing for development on my sticks, so they're all real. I pay more, but in the end I'll get more value as they won't need to be replaced as often. I NEED those extra write cycles. 8)

 

[euclid]

my memory card read "magicgate unknown". wat does that mean?

 

[Cheezeball99]

my memory card read "magicgate unknown". wat does that mean?

That means, unless you have a Lexar, you have a fake stick, broth-ah.

 

[Dragar]

I just bought a 4gb sandisk card off ebay and I hope it's not fake cause i spent $60. Luckily I already have 3.40oe installed.
My lexar card doesnt state anything about magicgate at all. Is this normal?

 

[Roe]

I think that if you have a custom topmenu plugin installed it doesnt show it or it could be that its a lexar card.

 

[Cheezeball99]

I just bought a 4gb sandisk card off ebay and I hope it's not fake cause i spent $60. Luckily I already have 3.40oe installed.
My lexar card doesnt state anything about magicgate at all. Is this normal?

It should be fine, I haven't heard of many fake Sandisk memsticks, especially if you paid 60 for it. Also, Lexar cards have a tough time with the Magicgate, it's normal. You're fine.

 

[TioSolid]

just to be sure, isnt those sticks ONLY without magicgate support? I mean, they dont need to necessary be fakes, just without magicgate.

 

[Cheezeball99]

just to be sure, isnt those sticks ONLY without magicgate support? I mean, they dont need to necessary be fakes, just without magicgate.

Well, unless it's an official Lexar stick (because they have trouble with it), if it doesn't have Magicgate it's either a b0rked or fake memstick. That's just how it is.

 

[TioSolid]

umm really got the point now. I tought that the magic gate sticks were those with that red and gold letters on it. nevermind. Mine have the "magic gate" logo but doesnt support it :X

 

[Cheezeball99]

umm really got the point now. I tought that the magic gate sticks were those with that red and gold letters on it. nevermind. Mine have the "magic gate" logo but doesnt support it :X

Well, if it doesn't support it then you have a fake stick, man- sorry to break it to ya.

 

[dennis96411]

I don't think it's completly right statement.
Because some mem card does not support magic gate,doesn't mean their fake all the time

 

[Cheezeball99]

I don't think it's completly right statement.
Because some mem card does not support magic gate,doesn't mean their fake all the time

Like I say, the only ones that don't support MagicGate that are real are Lexar. If they're a Sandisk or a Sony and they don't support MagicGate then they're either fake or messed up/broken.

 

[dennis96411]

If you want to be sure is supported or not,take a look at front of your ms,look for a icon of MagicGate.If no,is not supported.

 

[sukhi10]

when you mean by fake memory cards what do you mean by that, i do have one 4gb memory card it's a sony one it fails when i format it with psp.

 

[Cheezeball99]

Eh, not being able to be formatted by the PSP is odd, never heard of that before- but how to check if you have a fake stick is you press triangle in the game section on the memstick option in the XMB, and click 'Information', it should say Magicgate Supported.