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How do I format SD memory on my RCA Lyra MP3 Player?

I have an RCA Lyra Mp3 player and an SD memory card for it, but I can't figure out how to format my Lexar SDcard so I can use it with the Lyra. Can you help me out?

Dave's Answer:

First off, let's talk about the bad news: there are a lot of people who complain about just how picky the Lyra is about which SD cards it can work with. Indeed, the later model Lyra devices on the RCA site itself say "now supports more SD cards" as a feature. Ouch.

Go to a popular memory card vendor like 4AllMemory and you'll find that a search for Lyra-compatible SD cards shows barely a half-dozen matches: Lyra-compatible SD Cards

Another issue: you might need to update your firmware to gain better compatibility with various SD cards: Firmware Update 615 targets this specific problem.

While we're listing all the potential problems, it's also worth reporting that there are some reports of Lexar memory cards that require a higher voltage than regular SD cards, meaning that the Lyra either wont start at all, or its battery drains faster than usual.

Comment from the web on this: "Some Lexar memory cards require at least 2.7v to operate. Some Lyra models only use a single AA battery (1.5v). This MAY mean the mp3 player doesn't have enough power to run the card (depends on if RCA used the right parts to temporarily boost the internal voltage to 3v through a booster circuit or capacitors). This may vary between models and even between different releases of the same model. This also may explain why you can hook the device up via USB and send/receive files to the card fine but then have problems after you disconnect (a USB wire can provide some amount of power. My previous nexxtech player would actually turn on without a battery when I plugged the usb wire in). " [ref]

Generally, you should be hooking your Lyra up to your PC, then running the standard PC disk formatting utility. But even then, here's what RCA warns:

"We have recently discovered an incompatibility with the RD1080/RD1090, Windows XP (Service Pack One) and some newer SD cards. We are presently working with Microsoft to identify the best approach to correct the issue. Until a solution is implemented, we suggest that you use MMC cards instead of SD. "

To format an external device in Windows XP, just find the device in your "My Computer" window, then right-click on it and choose Format.... You'll see something like this:

(since I don't have a Lyra, this shows the default for my second hard drive. Your settings would be similar, but probably a bit smaller!)

RCA offers zero assistance on the best way to format an SD Card for use with the Lyra, as far as I can tell, so I'll say that my expectation is that NTFS will work, you should use a short, letters-only volume label, and you should not choose either "Quick Format" or to "Enable Compression".

When you're ready, click on Start and it should only take a few seconds for the SD card to be ready to roll with your Lyra.

If it works. :-\

Good luck to you!

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Categorized: Sony PSP, MP3 Players, Etc. (Article 5988)
Tagged: lyra memory compatibility, lyra mp3 player, rca lyra, sd card
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Comments

hi
i have an rca lyra mp3 player then one day i formatt it and the now when i put music on it it saying 00 songs. can u help me? maybe i delted a hidden file so if u have it can u send me please please ? Or if ther is another way please tell me as soon as possible.

tanks

Posted by: Metaferia at March 15, 2006 8:48 PM

Metaferia, reformat the MP3 player *with the player itself* rather than with your PC. That should fix things.

Posted by: Dave Taylor at March 16, 2006 10:48 PM

my rca lyra rd1080 wont start.I dont know what to do.

Posted by: anonymous at April 10, 2006 8:42 PM

I have a Lyra. I hate it. Can you recommend a better device for books - that's multi CD books. The RCA put the tracks in random order. That makes it really hard to listen to a book.
Jed

Posted by: Jed Dunford at October 23, 2006 3:55 PM

I hear you loud and clear regarding the Lyra, Jed. I find the interface extraordinarily difficult to work with (compared to my iPod). My suggestion: get an iPod. Really. The new shuffle, which holds 1GB (plenty for an audio book), is only $79!

Posted by: Dave Taylor at October 23, 2006 7:53 PM

my rca lyrics model rd1076a i try to erase the Demo songs and it won't erase......the message said "adviced error".......how i can erase them???

Posted by: DjRebelde at December 25, 2006 1:38 AM

I was never able to get a second SD card to work till today. I'm running a Mac OS X. When I put the extra SD card in the Lyra and hooked it up via USB it showed up on my desktop and I was able to drag mp3 files to it...but it won't play on the Lyra.
Solution: open the disk image of the internal Lyra card and drag the"SETTINGS.DAT" file to the new card. Don't ask me why but it works!

Posted by: Alex at January 17, 2007 11:53 AM

BTW I really like the Lyra. I have an iPod, a 20GB. The iPod is amazing and it works seamlessly with iTunes but it has a hard drive and I don’t like taking it..say, jogging. The Lyra is easy to use on a Mac if you treat it like an external drive like one of those USB keychain drives. Just drag the mp3 files from their folders, not itunes, and you should be good to go.
Also, The Lyra has a setting to play things in random order but the default is to play them in sequential order so playing a book wouldn’t be a problem.
Last but not least I bet you can get a Lyra for a song on ebay and I just got a 512mb SD card at my local drug store for $15..sweet!

Posted by: Alex at January 17, 2007 6:54 PM

I have a rca h100 th it(he,she) does not appear in the explorer of windows but on having ignited the rca h100 appears that it(he,she) does not have format and appears that : error fat pliz conected ums
help me

Posted by: lito at February 8, 2007 11:50 AM

what does no space for db 4mb mean i need help can someone help me

Posted by: scotty at February 9, 2007 6:32 PM

i have a rca h100 it gave me a error message fat conected ums pliz format plz help me with this problom

Posted by: Eric Self at February 12, 2007 10:26 PM

see article below... card must be formated FAT.

http://support.rca.com/doc/rca1186.xml?docid=1067&referring%20topicid=116&Referring%20TopicID/DocID%20List%20Index=y&referring%20topicid=116&referring%20topicid=128&referring%20topicid=109&referring%20topicid=108&navtypeid=13&pagetypeid=26&prevPageIndex=37&selectedmodel=RD1028&selectedFamily=audio

Posted by: Chris at March 18, 2007 3:13 PM

to whom may concern thank you for trying to help me out you did very good

Posted by: kermit spurlock at April 6, 2007 8:42 PM

Good Morning,

I have the Lyra MP3 PRO, and I have lost the operating instructions. Please tell me how the FM Radio is supposed to turn on. I've tried every button pushing combination except the one you're are going to share. Thanks, Bluescatb

Posted by: Bluescatb at April 17, 2007 8:00 AM

i need help sir
have a rca h100 it gave me a error message fat conected ums pliz format plz help me with this problem, secondly whenever i connecting my H100 to my pc my pc cannot DETECT it how do i solve it? please send me an email thank you very MUCH!

Posted by: neil john at April 23, 2007 9:56 PM

sir please help us regarding the RCA100 problem in HDD please we need a help regarding this problem... thank you very much!

Posted by: neil john at April 24, 2007 6:07 PM

I have an RCA Lycra MP3 player. I downloaded songs onto the player (freebies). At first it worked ok, then one day it wouldn't play and I got an error message saying the files were corrupt. I don't know if the MP3 player has a virus in it or what. I was told to reformat the hard drive but I don't know how to do that. Any Suggestions?

Posted by: Dee at April 30, 2007 7:34 AM

Hi I have a RCA Lyra MP3 player. It lets me put new songs on but I cant figure out how to delete songs I dont want anymore and rename the songs that say they are from an unknown artist. If you could tell me how that would be great. Thanks.

Posted by: Jen at May 2, 2007 12:14 AM

Hi, I have an RCA Lyra MP3 as well (TC1001A), and when i go to format it, i press start and it ends up saying that it cannot finish formatting it? what can i do?

Posted by: Kingsley at June 5, 2007 8:27 PM

Posted by: greg at October 6, 2007 12:26 AM

hello, i have this RCA H100 and when i plug in the computer the RCA was discovered, but i can't sync it with ther windows media player. When i turn-on the RCA there's this message FAT error... how can i resolve this problem please help. thanks

Posted by: craystlyn at November 4, 2007 8:55 AM

my son has a rca 4008A last nite i tried to put music on it and now its sayine reboot error reformat but i cant figure out how to reformat it could you help me please?

Posted by: april at January 16, 2008 2:51 PM

good evening
i have a rca h100 it gave me a error message fat conected ums pliz format plz help me with this problem, secondly whenever i connecting my H100 to my pc my pc cannot detect it how do i solve it? please send me an email thank you very much

Posted by: shawn at January 23, 2008 6:16 PM

I have the Lyra mp3 player that accepts the sd memory card but i am having trouble playing songs on the card. Can you help me out?

Posted by: Reuben at February 5, 2008 2:42 PM

my TH1101A rca pearl mp3 player is not able to be recognized with the pc i use to load it.the my computer says "NOT RESPONDING"please give me the right advice.thanks for your great cooperation.

Posted by: yosief at February 28, 2008 11:25 AM

hi i got a rca lyra modle no.mc4oo8a and when i turn it on it says building database and then a few mins later it says error plz format wat do i do

Posted by: tyler at March 29, 2008 6:51 PM

I have a rca th100a and when I try to load songs onto the sd 1g ext drive it only fills up half the disk and then say the disk is full. It shows I have about 450 mb of free space and only half the songs loaded. The total songs are 815 mb and the sd card supposed to have 962 mb of free space.

Posted by: tgb at April 14, 2008 9:15 PM

I dont know how to put music in the card gb sd/mmc to my mp3 player can you help me please

Posted by: mayra at August 24, 2008 2:51 PM

need help with my RCA Lyra h100. gives message READING FAT ERROR connect ums. ? have a solution? thanks aron

Posted by: aron at April 1, 2009 11:20 PM

DAVE,
I HAVE A LYRA MP3 PRO THAT IN THE PROCESS OF TRANSFERING MUSIC IT APPEARS TO HAVE LOST ALL MEMORY. IT WON'T EVEN TURN ON. CHECKED BATTERY. ANY SUGGESTIONS?

Posted by: JOHN CHAPMAN at August 20, 2009 2:11 PM

I bought the rca TH1100a for my daughter. It worked fine till I got a hold of it. In the past my wife uploaded songs to it and someone erased them. Now, I try to upload the songs back to it, and the device says no files. Yet when I open the storage device with my computer, the playlist is there. I tried to format and now when I attempt to power up, the insignia "pearl" appears and disappears and powers down. Little help here please.

Posted by: Brandon at October 8, 2009 3:21 PM

I have a lot to say, but ...

I have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but most of all I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a chai!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!