M Series Pro not recording data to smart card

[major_works]

I searched around for posts on this but didn't find explicit answers, so here goes...

After several nights of working perfectly, my M Series Pro has failed for two nights in a row to record any data to the smartcard. I plug in the Mako card reader, open Encore Pro, extract data and have it save the report to a .pdf. Both yesterday morning and this morning, there's no new data.

What can I do to remedy this? Is the card full; should I dump all the data and start over? If anyone has any advice, I'm all ears. Thanks in advance!

[6PtStar]

The "M" series firmware does have a glitch that it ocasionally takes a vacation. Mine was always for two days in a row then it would go back to working as if nothing happened. I would let it go until tomorrow, if it does not come back then look for another cause. The card holds a couple of years worth of data of course it only holds 7 days of detailed data. Even when it is full it just rolls of the oldest data and keeps going. I erase mine every Saturday and it seems to have helped to keep it from loosing data. Hope you come back tomorrow!!

Jerry

[Hawthorne]

M Series machine have a "missing data" problem. Every few sessions (6 or 7) depending upon how many hours a night you sleep, it does not give the Daily Detail for a few days.

You can just live it or use the card utility "MyCPAP Card utility". It is free at www. mycpap.org. After you download it, you can format (erase) your card with it. I erase mine every 7 days and have not lost data since I started doing that.

Some people have had trouble getting the utility lately. I don't know why.

Also, if your DME has to see your card for insurance purposes, you may not want to use this utility and just live with the missing data every 7 or so sessions. It will pick up the data again after the 2 or 3 session gap.

[major_works]

Thanks for the replies. I'd thought about erasing/formatting the card at some interval. I assume my long-term trend data is stored in Encore Pro's SQL database? I wouldn't want to lose that data. If formatting the card weekly or so will eliminate the 2-3 day recording dropouts without losing that trend data, then that's the solution.

[6PtStar]

Depends on whether you are using Pro or Viewer. If you are using pro you can get Jams Skinners Pro Analyser and reall look at the trend data. It lets you change the time periond and even figures the averages for you. If you have Viewer then you are stuck with those wiggly lines and the numbers that don't add up.

Jerry

[Hawthorne]

If you have Encore Viewer, the data is NOT saved to an SQL database. If you are using Encore Pro it is saved to that database.

[ww]

After much frustration with the Respironics two day skip problem, I simply reset my card every Sunday after downloading the data and that is the end of the problem. Encore Pro will do this and the mycpap card utility also.

[major_works]

Thanks for the helpful replies. I am using Encore Pro, not Encore Viewer, and I just downloaded Encore Pro Analyzer earlier this week (then spent some time figuring out how to get it to run under Vista). So I'll start wiping the card at least weekly and that should take care of my issues.

Thanks again, all.

[jdm2857]

I've never used a Respironics machine, but I have read a few of these data problem threads.

It sounds like a weekly reformat may or may not work, depending on how many hours one sleeps per week. The problem may be one of the data capacity of the card.

So try reformatting weekly. If you are still losing some data, try doing it more often.