Need help on copying data from SmartCard‏

Greetings to Everyone,

Thank you in advance if anyone can help me out with this problem.

Specifically, when copying data from SmartCard to my computer (with EncoreViewer software installed successfully), EncoreViewer returns the following error message upon completion of the data copying process, 'The SmartCard DOES NOT contain any therapy data'.

After many months of using the M Series Auto CPAP with A-Flex with the SmartCard properly attached to the unit, I wonder why there is no data on the SmartCard. Can anyone tell me what went wrong? What steps do I need to take to fix the problem?

Best regards,
Bhuvanart Bhuvanattrai

Well, since Encore Viewer can't erase the card the only thing I can think of is that you are running into the dreaded "M" Series loss of data. The firmware on the "M" series machines takes a vacation about once a month to six weeks. It will not record the data for a day, sometimes 2 days in a row and then go back to working like nothing happened. It is something to do with how the clock is programed. A work around for the problem is to erase and reformat the card using the utility at mycpap.org once a week. I used to get that problem until I started reformating the card every Saturday morning after I download it. Have not missed a day in over a year, well except for the day I forgot to put the card backin.

Jerry

6PtStar wrote:Well, since Encore Viewer can't erase the card the only thing I can think of is that you are running into the dreaded "M" Series loss of data. The firmware on the "M" series machines takes a vacation about once a month to six weeks. It will not record the data for a day, sometimes 2 days in a row and then go back to working like nothing happened. It is something to do with how the clock is programed. A work around for the problem is to erase and reformat the card using the utility at mycpap.org once a week. I used to get that problem until I started reformating the card every Saturday morning after I download it. Have not missed a day in over a year, well except for the day I forgot to put the card backin.

Jerry

Hi Jerry. Great point. That is a free utility that allows you to read your card to a file and restore it from a file if there was ever a reason as well as to format the card. I believe he is even offering a free service to read the data from the card for those that do not have the software. Yes, that is the biggest software bug that Respironics has, and they don't seem to know how to fix it or won't fix it!!!!!

I also reset mine every Sunday night. Encore viewer does not have that capability, but Encore Pro does if you have the opportunity to get a copy or the mycpap.org utility will do it for free.

bhuvanart, you need to list your equipment so people can be sure what kind of a unit you are using. Post it in text format rather than the pictures.

bhuvanart, did your DME read your card or give you a new one recently? Have you tried using Encore Pro?

Which make/model machine do you have? It should be written right across the top.

bhuvanart wrote:Specifically, when copying data from SmartCard to my computer (with EncoreViewer software installed successfully), EncoreViewer returns the following error message upon completion of the data copying process, 'The SmartCard DOES NOT contain any therapy data'.

After many months of using the M Series Auto CPAP with A-Flex with the SmartCard properly attached to the unit, I wonder why there is no data on the SmartCard. Can anyone tell me what went wrong? What steps do I need to take to fix the problem?

Best regards,
Bhuvanart Bhuvanattrai

Is this a one time only incident, or are you seeing this for more than one night now? It could be the often talked about data loss, which I have see only once or so in one year of you. What I do is when I read the data into the pc everyday, I remove all the data from that card as part of the data [there is check mark to be removed every time, I wish this could be configured as the default ]. Perhaps it is because of this mode of my use that I do not see any data loss.

Note the card become 'badly formatted, or unusable' under a number of possible conditions: the machine malfunction, transient power loss, pulling out/inserting the card while machine is running. Also the Encore Software does write to the card (when it set remove the data after reading) and this process could go bad at times, --- transient pc problems, pulling out the card prematurely from the pc card reader ...

If the probem repeated for more than one day, I suggest reformatting it (initialize with the patient name information as it was done the first time), using the Encor Sw on the pc.

Thanks everyone for your kind suggestions.

Yes, I'm using Respironics M Series Auto CPAP with A-Flex, purchased a year ago. I got only EncoreViewer, not EncorePro. This is the first time I tried to view the data from the SmartCard. I kept repeating the process everyday for a week now but kept getting the same error message.

I guess I'll try reformatting the smartcard as suggested and see how it goes. Thanks a lot.

Best regards,
Bhuvanart Bhuvanattrai