Swapping SD cards

[eagle628]

Has anyone ever switched out the SD cards in the Venue to increase memory? I'm thinking about buying an unlocked phone, since I don't want to spend 80 dollars a month for a monthly contract, but I need 32 gigabyte of memory, so I was thinking of doing what this article described and switching the SD card for a larger one. Beyond voiding the warrenty, is there any risk/downside to doing that?

 

[kingp]

Has anyone ever switched out the SD cards in the Venue to increase memory? I'm thinking about buying an unlocked phone, since I don't want to spend 80 dollars a month for a monthly contract, but I need 32 gigabyte of memory, so I was thinking of doing what this article described and switching the SD card for a larger one. Beyond voiding the warrenty, is there any risk/downside to doing that?

well, first thing I would do, is go to support.dell.com and enter the Service Tag that is under your device battery. See how long your device has left in warranty. If it is out of warranty, then you have nothing holding you back. However if it is in warranty, I would wait because you could have one of the batteries that overheats...and if you've broken that seal over the SD card, you're screwed. Dell will send it right back to you.

To my knowledge, you have to be careful as to which kind of card you put in. You can probably be sure that a class 2 or class 4 card would work, but I would not try anything faster because it might fail.

I just purchased my DVP from Amazon Warehouse two days ago. I still have 325 days left on my warranty...so I'll tough it out until then, before I change out the MicroSD card.

Hopefully Dell will come back with another DVP, but without the qwerty. With the beautiful design that the current DVP has, I can only dream of what one would look like, that was thinner and had more storage.

 

[raremage]

Has anyone ever switched out the SD cards in the Venue to increase memory? I'm thinking about buying an unlocked phone, since I don't want to spend 80 dollars a month for a monthly contract, but I need 32 gigabyte of memory, so I was thinking of doing what this article described and switching the SD card for a larger one. Beyond voiding the warrenty, is there any risk/downside to doing that?

I did it using a Class 2 from SANDisk. Had zero issues (well, no new issues!) and it worked great. Very simple to do, and more than doubled the available space.

 

[kingp]

I also went against my own advice, and swapped out the 8GB card for a 32GB class 4 Sandisk card. My device works perfectly AND has 29+ gigs of storage space left. I'm as happy as a clam right now!

 

[wolf1891]

I also went against my own advice, and swapped out the 8GB card for a 32GB class 4 Sandisk card. My device works perfectly AND has 29+ gigs of storage space left. I'm as happy as a clam right now!

*sigh...* I really should have done this when I first got my DVP. Now I have so much stuff installed/loaded on the phone that it would be a major pain to have to reinstall/reload everything (and remember my logins for all of my accounts). So, I'll live with the limits of the 8GB in my phone for now and keep hoping for a better backup/restore capability to be added in one of the next updates to make this sort of upgrade easier.

Glad to hear that it went smoothly for you and that you are pleased with the result. Enjoy your DVP!!

 

[kingp]

Do not despair!

*sigh...* I really should have done this when I first got my DVP. Now I have so much stuff installed/loaded on the phone that it would be a major pain to have to reinstall/reload everything (and remember my logins for all of my accounts). So, I'll live with the limits of the 8GB in my phone for now and keep hoping for a better backup/restore capability to be added in one of the next updates to make this sort of upgrade easier.

Glad to hear that it went smoothly for you and that you are pleased with the result. Enjoy your DVP!!

If you do decide to install a new card, you can easily re-install your apps from windowsphone.live.com, sign in with your live ID, and then click on My Phone. From there you will see all of your apps. You can re-install them from there.

It's not as easy a solution as Android has for their market (where it will keep track of, re-install the apps for you) but it certainly makes it easier.

 

[ethylove]

I swapped out mine yesterday for a 32 GB. yea had to reinstall programs but totally worth it for me.

 

[wolf1891]

If you do decide to install a new card, you can easily re-install your apps from windowsphone.live.com, sign in with your live ID, and then click on My Phone. From there you will see all of your apps. You can re-install them from there.

It's not as easy a solution as Android has for their market (where it will keep track of, re-install the apps for you) but it certainly makes it easier.

yeah, I'm well aware of that but, it still doesn't help with all of the things that do NOT get restored (like logins, msgs, etc...) I would LOVE to be able to swap out ot a new/larger SD card, hit a "restore" button, and have my phone brought right back to the way it was with all programs, data, logins, etc... just with more free space available. until that level of capability is added I'm keeping this thing the way it is.