Memory Card Torture Tests

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Posted by CmdrTaco on Sunday August 1, 2004 @01:13AM from the because-you-can dept.

saikatguha266 writes "BBC is reporting that five types of memory cards were dipped into cola, put through a washing machine, dunked in coffee, trampled by a skateboard, run over by a child's toy car, given to a six-year-old boy to destroy, smashed by a sledgehammer and nailed to a tree. It was still possible to retrieve photos from the xD and Smartmedia cards while the others didn't survive just the last two tests. "

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Talk about real life experiments... by Nplugd · 2004-08-01 01:18 · Score: 5, Insightful

right, coz it happens to me all the time, to nail a memory card on a tree by accident...

Note that I did had a PS2 memory card go to the washing machine, and it worked like a charm afterwards. Thank God, I was not going to start FF7 all over again :)

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1. Re:Talk about real life experiments... by hansiboy · 2004-08-01 02:53 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  I think he meant airport X-Ray scanners and the like...
What if... by b374 · 2004-08-01 01:21 · Score: 2, Insightful

you realy want to destroy one of those memory cards (compromising pics or whatever on it)... looks like your only chance is a sledgehammer.
And in other news... by rossdee · 2004-08-01 01:28 · Score: 2, Insightful

They don't survive being submerged in molten steel either.

Whats the point of all this destructive testing? Do you really need your media to be THAT tough? (with the obvious exception of military applications but they can afford to pay for that.)
1. Re:And in other news... by EvilCabbage · 2004-08-01 02:27 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  Whats the point of all this destructive testing?
  
  It's simple my good fellow.
  They call it "soft news". The article writes itself, all you need to do is apply some stupid practices to every day items.
  Human interest programs do this all the time, testing washing detergents on household floors or pets to see what will happen. It's a handy way for second rate journalists to churn something out and meet a quota. It's also handy marketing fodder.
  
  It's not News for Nerds, or even Stuff that Matters, it's just something pointless, but nice and simple to digest.
Bad news or good news for printing services? by Flyboy+Connor · 2004-08-01 01:28 · Score: 4, Insightful

From the article: The results of the test are bad news for photography processing services... Around eight out of 10 digital pictures are thought to never make it into printed form at all.
My parents have about 50 baby photo's of me. I have about 2000 digital baby photo's of my daughter. However, if I am lucky 25 of those are really worthy of printing. If 2 out of 10 digital pictures really make it to actual print, I consider that a great deal. I would say that translates to booming business for the printing services.
1. Re:Bad news or good news for printing services? by jchawk · 2004-08-01 01:32 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  I would have to agree with the poster. I am on my third digital camera and have shoot 10's of thousands of photos. Maybe 1 in 10 is worth printing out. Digital photography gives you the power to shot things over and over again until you get the shot to look exactly like you want.
  
  You don't have to "Get lucky" anymore to get a good shot! This is truly nice. Plus there's tons of places that are doing digital processing and they'll even mail you the photos. I just used ofoto.com and was impressed with the quality / turn around time, I had my pictures in 3 days. I'm thinking of giving Walmart a try next because their prices are slightly cheaper and they do have an in store pickup option which saves you $$$ on shipping.
Re:Paper Shredder by H8X55 · 2004-08-01 01:32 · Score: 2, Insightful

or kill your paper shredder. i have a pretty cheap one.
Astonishing? by condensate · 2004-08-01 01:52 · Score: 3, Insightful

Well it goes without saying that there is quite a ssmall probability for a card to get nailed somewhere. And do you really wonder why SM and xD did survive sledgehammering? Come on, they are by far the flattest out there (apart from SD /MMD ). Sledgehammers cannot strike them as hard as CF cards for example.
Still, those two cards are a bit out of style, since SM is REALLY old, and xDs are only used by digital cameras made by Fuji and Olympus, so I dont think they will find a great audience.

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Black holes were created when god tried to divide by zero
Um...the brands? by rfunches · 2004-08-01 02:24 · Score: 4, Insightful

Notice there aren't any brands mentioned (don't know about the magazine article it came from though). I'd bet anything that they bought the pricey stuff. Try those tests with PNY CrapMedia cards and see how long they last.
Honey quick! Nail this memory card to the tree! by khrtt · 2004-08-01 02:35 · Score: 3, Insightful

These guys have just such imagination. How about some real-life tests, like static electricity, X-ray machine, being left on the dashboard on a sunny day, being brought in on a cold winter day..

And if you are going to drop it in water, use salty water. After all, there are those things called "sea" and "ocean" and people get their cameras splashed when they play near them. Probably no less often then they spill soda on them.

Oh, and when you precious memory card falls out of your pocket while you are crossing the street, there are going to be tons of toy cars running over it.
Re:Real life experiments indeed by b374 · 2004-08-01 03:01 · Score: 2, Insightful

Contrary to high radiation and strong magnetic fields these are Real Life situations.
Right... specially the nailing on a tree stuff is real life situation.

And there are x-ray scanners for the radiation stuff... speakers for the magnetic fields... etc
Alternatively... by antizeus · 2004-08-01 03:23 · Score: 1, Insightful

You could always switch to light mode. It will "reduce the complexity of Slashdot's HTML for AvantGo, Lynx, or slow connections", but I use it with graphical browsers over a fast connection.
I think it looks a lot better than default mode. I'm the sort of person who cares more about content than (hideous) presentation.

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Not Surprising by longbot · 2004-08-01 04:58 · Score: 1, Insightful

This is not at all surprising, considering that these are solid-state cards, with no moving parts. If they had tried to do any of this to something like a CF MicroDrive, then it wouldn't have lasted even through the first test before it stopped working.

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I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it! --Longbottle