Card problem or machine problem?

[gljo1215]

Hi all! Haven't posted in a long time, but still read the forum all the time! Hoping someone can help me...

The other morning I awoke to my machine beeping at me. I could not stop the beeping without unplugging it! Soon found out that my display was flashing a ‘C 9’ error - apparently something wrong with my card. So, my son reformatted my card – before I could save the info on it, thank you very much - But that didn’t fix it. I could run the machine about 30 seconds and then it would start beeping again. Found that pulling the card out would stop it.

Soooo, thinking something was really wrong with the card, I ordered a new one. It came in the mail yesterday and I thought I would be in business again last night, but it did the same thing, with a ‘C 500’ error this time.

So what is going on? It surely can’t be the cards… it has to be something wrong with card reader inside the machine, don’t you think? The machine seems to work, but I like to see my data!

My machine is about 4 years old... a bit over 5000 hours… is it worth taking it in to be fixed or should I look for a new one? I have different insurance now, so they didn’t pay for this one. Can I expect to get a new machine from them without going through another sleep study or should I plan to pay out of pocket or ???

Thanks!
gljo

[Otter]

If it were my machine, the first thing I would do is open it up and make sure the cable that connects the card reader to the board hadn't worked loose. Sounds silly, I know, but surprisingly often, computers can be fixed just by taking the cables off and putting them back on again, and your machine is just a computer that controls a blower.

If you do try this, make sure you ground yourself to the same ground as the machine. There is probably stuff there that is static sensitive, and if you aren't careful, you could do more damage.

[Pugsy]

With an RX you can purchase a brand new Respironics System One CPAP Auto with AFlex (like my APAP in my profile) from cpap.com with humidifier for $700.

At the cpap auction gently use or sometimes new for less than half that with the humidifier.

Do you have the clinician manual to check to see if the error codes show any hints? I can poke around to see if I can find the error codes list.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=48727&p=445404&hili ... es#p445404

It does say C 9 bad card. If a new card also gives same message then something within that part of the electronics seems to be bad. Cost to repair? Have no idea but I would think that it would be in the range at least of what a gently used latest model would be at the auction. Or maybe find another of the same model if you just like it the best.

[archangle]

That sounds like a classic case of worn contacts or oxide on the contacts. If you take the card in and out a lot, you may find that you rub off the plating on the contacts, get oxide building up, get dirt buildup, etc.

The classic thing to do is to rub a pencil eraser on the contact surface. While you can do this on the card, it's going to be hard to do on the connector inside the machine. Sometimes, you can figure out some way to clean the contacts, perhaps by doing some degree of machine disassembly.

From there, you get to the more dangerous options.

You might be able to figure out some way to get something into the card slot to clean the contacts. Perhaps, you could cut a piece of cardboard/paper of the right thickness to fit into the slot to wipe the contacts when you insert it into the machine instead of the card reader. I'd be worried that if I did such a thing, I might get something stuck in the reader or snag the contacts and do some damage. You could try some contact cleaner on whatever you're sticking into the reader, but be careful you don't soften the cardboard and make the risk of snagging worse.

You could also try "scrubbing" with the card itself to see if you can rub some oxide/dirt off.

There is some stuff called "deoxit gold" that you might try putting on the contacts on the card and then putting that into the card reader. It's supposed to be "contact magic." It's expensive by the ounce, but you don't use much.