Solved Problem With 128gb Micro SD Cards

[Rock Flint]

My Surface 3 will not recognize 128gb cards. When I plug in the card (and I've tried 4 different brands), the card appears in Devices and Drives. But if I try to write a file to the card, it disappears. However, my 64gb card works just fine.

After searching and searching for a fix, I contacted Microsoft Support and spent 3 hours troubleshooting with 2 different techs. They could not solve the problem and apparently Microsoft has nothing in their records about how to fix the problem.

According to what I could find in my searching, this problem affects some but not all Surface 3, Surface 3 Pro, and Surface 2 tablets.

Others have posted various suggestions for fixing the problem ranging from putting a piece of tape or two on top of the card so that the card is pressed down when inserted, trying different brands of cards (I tried 4), uninstalling the RealTek card reader drivers (but then Windows reinstalls them on reboot), pushing in the card but then pulling it slightly back out of the slot. None of them worked for me.

My wife also has a Surface 3 and her tablet has a 128gb PNY card that works just fine. Go figure!

Microsoft Tech Support suggested resetting my tablet to OEM and see if the problem is still there. I haven't tried that yet because then I have to install all of my programs and utilities. I'm hoping that somebody here might know something more about this problem. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[GreyFox7]

Based on your description my take would be defective Surface. Doing a reset is a hail Mary and you don't have Arron Rodgers at Quarterback so success isn't very likely IMO.

 

[Rock Flint]

Today I solved 2 problems.

1. I tried to do a clean install using a pristine copy of Windows 10 from Microsoft. It installed OK but no wifi drivers for my wifi. So I tried to install the drivers that I downloaded from the Surface web site. Didn't work. No setup file, just .inf files. I installed all the drivers using the inf files and rebooted but no indication that any of the drivers actually got installed. No Bluetooth, no wifi. So then I did what is described in #2 below.

2. I downloaded the latest recovery file and it was newer than the one I downloaded two weeks ago so it had some updated files. Installed and recovered OK. And surprise, surprise, my 128gb Micro SD card is working reliably. What I don't know is whether it was the recovering that fixed the problem or something in the newer recovery files, i.e., a newer card reader driver perhaps.

If by some chance the 128gb card becomes unreliable I'll post that on this forum.

 

[Rock Flint]

UPDATE: although the card is recognized when I start the Surface, the card goes away when the tablet goes into hibernation. Again, this is one of the symptoms reported by others. It only does this with the 128gb card installed and not with the 64gb card. I pop the 128gb card and reinsert it and I am good to go again until the next hibernation.

 

[sharpuser]

What Build or version of Windows 10 are you using, @Rock Flint ?

Your problems seem to be software / firmware related, not hardware. Annoying and dismaying, but probably solvable.

 

[Rock Flint]

I did a restore using the Microsoft Surface restore file, most current version. It is Windows 10 x64 Home with all latest updates from Microsoft Update. I agree, software and most probably the card reader drivers would be my guess.

Let me add. This is not a deal breaker. I'm not going to return the Surface just because I'm having trouble with the 128gb card. If necessary, I can use a 64gb card and it does work reliably. Or I could plug in a thumb drive for extra memory. And I have a WD Passport drive with 2tb of memory. It is just a minor irritation and hopefully Microsoft will sort it out as time goes by and the problem will go away.

 

[nnthemperor]

Are you guys able to save apps to the SD card in the current insider versions? That option is not showing in 14267.

 

[Rock Flint]

UPDATE: My Surface does recognize the SD card on startup. I can read files, I can write files, I can delete files. However, it does suffer from the hibernation problem that others have reported. If the tablet goes into hibernation, the SD card disappears and is not available on awakening. I can remove and reinsert the card and the tablet does recognize it. I can also restart the tablet and the card is recognized after reboot.

 

[Rock Flint]

UPDATE: I've given up on the 128gb card, at least for now. I'm using the 64gb card and it does work reliably. Perhaps Microsoft will come up with a fix for the problem with the card reader software and I'll be able to return to using the 128gb card.

 

[DALEcz]

I had similar problem with several SD cards (even with smaller capacities than 128 GB), until I found "compatible" (with my S3) 128 GB card - see more: 128GB MicroSD card keeps unmounting/crashing
I also think there is some driver related issue (all the problematic cards were working fine in cellphones, but also had issues in my older ASUS T100 - now go figure :X ).

 

[Rock Flint]

So, to make a long story short, I gave the device to my step son as a birthday present and I bought myself a Surface Pro 3. Found a great deal on Costco.com. It is the Surface with i7, 8gb ram, and 256gb SSD. It included the keyboard and electric pen plus a glass protective shield. All for $1240.99. The first thing did was pop in the 128gb card that wouldn't work on the Surface 3 and it worked just fine on the Surface 3 Pro. I'm a happy camper.

 

[Argus Tuft]

$1241 poorer, but happy anyway!