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# RE: PCMCIA Card Problems

- To: <support@dieboldes.com>
- Subject: RE: PCMCIA Card Problems
- From: "Kerry Martin" <kmglobal@earthlink.net>
- Date: Mon, 19 Aug 2002 16:08:27 -0500
- Importance: Normal
- In-reply-to: <001f01c247ae$66416ac0$3701af0a@ian>

    I was to run the test as Ian stated this afternoon, but unfortunately an
    issue of not having enough 128mb cards has since come up.  We are now
    waiting for the state to officially say that Montgomery County can use
    the 32mb cards.  After which we will see what problems occur.  If there
    are any problems I will institute the controlled test.

    Kerry Martin
    Election Support Specialist
    kerry@dieboldes.com
    kerrymartin@skytel.com
    Mbl: (214) 642-9040
    Pgr: (866) 331-0201

    -----Original Message-----
    From: owner-support@gesn.com [mailto:owner-support@gesn.com] On Behalf
    Of Ian S. Piper
    Sent: Monday, August 19, 2002 1:30 PM
    To: support@dieboldes.com
    Subject: RE: PCMCIA Card Problems

    Late this morning Kerry Martin stated that the files are each approx.
    15MB
    in size.  They have both English and Spanish audio files.  They will try
    the
    procedures that Ken has suggested this afternoon and determine (after an
    hour of  downloads) if there are any further failed Flash Memory cards
    during the test where they insert the PC card into a standalone
    BallotStation.

    While the PC cards are being written to from the unit cache, does the
    display indicate that it's busy?

    -----Original Message-----
    From: owner-support@gesn.com [mailto:owner-support@gesn.com]On Behalf Of
    Ken Clark
    Sent: Monday, August 19, 2002 12:47 PM
    To: support@dieboldes.com
    Subject: RE: PCMCIA Card Problems

    This is indeed serious.  I suspect that the major cause of this is the
    huge PCM audio files being programmed onto the cards.  For whatever
    reasons, all of the data is not making it onto the removable media
    before it is ejected.

    About the only solution I can offer at this point is patience.  Kerry
    has told me that they are now waiting for the download unit to bring up
    the election before ejecting the card.  This should work, if time
    consuming.  I would like to hear feedback on the effectiveness of this
    procedure.  Do any cards fail to have the election come up on the same
    machine, even if the card is not ejected?  Do any cards that do come up
    on the download machine fail to come up on their final election machine?

    Assuming this works, you might be able to simply wait 15 seconds (say)
    after each download is complete, rather than actually bring up the
    election.  That is just a guess, but assuming the problem is that not
    all data is getting a chance to write to the card, it could work.

    It has been suggested that the problem is related to multiple units
    downloading at the same time.  While I can't rule out anything right
    now, that really shouldn't have any effect in of itself.  The units are
    completely independent, so it is not really possible for one to affect
    the other.  You could run into the timeout problems reported last week
    as the server is overloaded, but not corruption problems on the client
    side.

    Kevin and Ravina, I would like you to put together a test setup to try
    to reproduce the problem.  We can then start working on finding the root
    cause and develop a fix.

    Ken

    -----Original Message-----
    From: owner-support@gesn.com [mailto:owner-support@gesn.com] On Behalf
    Of Sue Page
    Sent: Saturday, August 17, 2002 3:59 AM
    To: Support
    Subject: FW: PCMCIA Card Problems

    Out of 830 PCMCIA Cards, approximately 130 failed.
    See below from Prince George's County:

    This is the short version.  Unfortunately, Hugh does not have the time
    to go
    into great detail, but we really need to get this resolve.

    > Our process is to:
    > - create PC cards on one of the 13 ethernet stations and paste on
    labels
    > - a clerk then checks to verify that the correct number of cards were
    > created
    > - the clerk then inserts the card for the 0 machine into a Ballot
    Station
    > that is not connected to ethernet
    > - a Voter Card for each party is created
    > - the cards are bundled and labeled for the testing Mgr to pick up
    > - the cards are placed in the machines assigned to the subject
    precinct
    > and the L&A test is performed
    >
    > Our Problems:
    > - a card placed in a precinct machine may have any one of the
    following
    > errors:
    > 	cluster errors
    > 	storage error
    > 	no election on card
    >
    > Effect on Production:
    > This causes us to have to go back and re-create cards out of Prct
    > sequence.  This is time consuming since we might have a whole Pct in
    the
    > process of being loaded and the cards to be re-done are not addressed
    by
    > the system until the loading is completed for those PC cards
    previously
    > queued.
    >
    > I have not had a chance to do a count but the number of failures on PC
    > Cards is significant and might cause us to not have a sufficient
    number of
    > cards.
    >
    > Suggestion/Question:
    > It would be helpful if there was a way to re-shuffle the queue to
    create a
    > specific card or cards on demand.
    >
    > I know this is not a thorough analysis but it is difficult to count
    bodies
    > on the battlefield in the heat of battle.

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    - From: "Ian S. Piper" <ian@dieboldes.com>

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