USB Too Slow -TeslaCam

[El0n]

I’ve searched and read all the posts regarding the USB drives and the “too slow” message. I read the entire sticky thread. I can’t seem to find any consensus so I thought I’d ask here.

I bought a brand new, non-counterfeit, Samsung Fit Plus 128GB from Amazon. It was working perfectly for a week or two.

All of a sudden I am now getting the “dreaded” USB too slow error message.

I’ve tried it all - reformatting, restarting the car, etc, etc. but nothing is working.

Did the USB really max out it’s lifespan in a few weeks? Anything you recommend?

This USB drive is rated for well beyond the 4 MB/s requirement.

 

[whatthe2]

It’s possible you have a defective drive. But it’s also possible it’s a Tesla SW bug causing issues for you and others.

 

[Knightshade]

Assuming non-defective HW it's a software problem. A pretty common one these days unfortunately, and without much of a solution besides waiting for Tesla to write less crap code.

That drive should be good for longer than the average person owns a car at the relatively small rate a Tesla writes to it, and as you note it's a ton faster than required.

 

[Akikiki]

It also could be the 4th stream. From a recent update, the firmware is not sending 4 streams to the USB drive. Added the rear camera.

 

[aspec818]

seems the consensus is to use microsd cards with an adapter now after v10. those seem to be the most stable.

 

[astrowunder]

I've been using a Sandisk USB drive for more than 6 months. I did get 'the message' recently, but I just unplugged it, restarted the car and plugged it back in and I've been fine for a couple of weeks now. YMMV.

 

[RC2785]

I've had that issue, then I switched to a micro SD card and adapter setup like a lot of people suggested and I've never had a problem since. Here are the micro SD card and adapter that I'm using.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07B98GXQT/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PBOHAR6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Skateboardgolf]

It’s not a software bug.
The Samsung fit plus USB drives are garbage - they are not designed for high – usage security cam applications. Whoever recommended them on this forum should have to drive a Leaf for two weeks.

Our Samsung USB drive failed after a couple months. I thought it was a software bug, because it happened right after a software update. I tried transferring a large file to it from my computer, and it choked. Turns out the Tesla error message was correct – it was too slow!

I purchased a high – endurance microSD card and USB adapter. It has worked perfectly so far. Fingers crossed. (I don’t want to drive the Leaf

 

[Need]

Both of our cars are using cheap $5 kingston 16GB drives since dashcam was available. Both are still running great with sentry mode frequently used and no "too slow" messages. With sentry mode overwriting old files, 16GB is big enough for me.

 

[jasazick]

Both of our cars are using cheap $5 kingston 16GB drives since dashcam was available. Both are still running great with sentry mode frequently used and no "too slow" messages. With sentry mode overwriting old files, 16GB is big enough for me.

Yeah, I was using a Raspberry Pi Zero W up until v10, where it promptly started throwing "usb too slow" errors constantly. I switched to a pair of 32gb freebie Western Digital branded flash drives (came free with the purchase of a full size drive a few months ago). I just rotate them in and out, using a laptop in my garage to shuttle footage to my NAS. Wrote some messy powershell that automates it - just pop in the drive, put the other drive in the car, and walk away. So far, no errors.

 

[HighZ]

I have been using the Sandisk Connect Wireless USB stick for six months, and just started getting this error in the last few days. I have unplugged/plugged back in to get it to work. Seemed to be OK for a day or two, but then it is going into error almost right away.

I understand the 4th stream could be causing a write speed issue, but it is strange it is just happening now after working fine since I upgraded to V10. I will change to a faster MicroSD card for now, but I am guessing that there is a software issue that will be fixed.

 

[Knightshade]

It’s not a software bug.
The Samsung fit plus USB drives are garbage - they are not designed for high – usage security cam applications.

Total nonsense.

For one- the Teslacam isn't a high-usage security camera.

It's writing 720p video as a much lower rate than the actual modern 4k high-use security dashcams are.

In normal usage (8-10 hours a day) it'd take 5-10 years to burn through the rated write-cycles on a 128GB USB key (any brand) with how little data Tesla is writing to it.

It's absolutely a software bug- because many folks with exactly the same HW are having totally different results.

Folks with SSDs, SDCards, and USB keys- even the same ones as each other- some have the issue- some don't- and even among those who have it there's a lot of variability in how it presents.

A problem that runs across all types of HW, and starts happening after a software update to previously just-fine hardware, is a software problem.

It also could be the 4th stream. From a recent update, the firmware is not sending 4 streams to the USB drive. Added the rear camera.

Except folks were getting "too slow" even before they added the 4th camera. In fact for some folks the problem was "fixed" with V10- for others it suddenly appears with V10... for still others it only appeared a little while after V10.

And the 4th camera only increases the write speed from 1.5 MB/s to 2 MB/s- still much slower than even the slowest sustained write speed of USB keys.

Here's a review of the Samsung BAR plus for example-
https://www.storagereview.com/node/7097

Sequential write speeds measured as 61.84MB/s- random 2MB writes as 56.01MB/s (granted this is on a USB3 bus and the car is USB2, but it shows the actual key can easily by a factor of more than 25x handle the speed the car needs.



It's a software problem.

There's a lot of things the problem could be- crap USB controller code, crap handling of the video files between computer, cache, and storage, crap error checking, etc...

What we can be sure of- given even folks with HW many many times faster than needed also have the issue (while others with measurably slower devices don't) is that it's not a HW problem.

 

[BZM3]

I’ve searched and read all the posts regarding the USB drives and the “too slow” message. I read the entire sticky thread. I can’t seem to find any consensus so I thought I’d ask here.

I bought a brand new, non-counterfeit, Samsung Fit Plus 128GB from Amazon. It was working perfectly for a week or two.

All of a sudden I am now getting the “dreaded” USB too slow error message.

I’ve tried it all - reformatting, restarting the car, etc, etc. but nothing is working.

Did the USB really max out it’s lifespan in a few weeks? Anything you recommend?

This USB drive is rated for well beyond the 4 MB/s requirement.

Apparently SSD is the only option.

 

[Knightshade]

Apparently SSD is the only option.

Naah- there's still SSD folks reporting problems too if you search. Less of them- but then there's a lot less SSD users to be reporting too.

 

[tvad]

Total nonsense.

For one- the Teslacam isn't a high-usage security camera.

It's writing 720p video as a much lower rate than the actual modern 4k high-use security dashcams are.

In normal usage (8-10 hours a day) it'd take 5-10 years to burn through the rated write-cycles on a 128GB USB key (any brand) with how little data Tesla is writing to it.

It's absolutely a software bug- because many folks with exactly the same HW are having totally different results.

Folks with SSDs, SDCards, and USB keys- even the same ones as each other- some have the issue- some don't- and even among those who have it there's a lot of variability in how it presents.

A problem that runs across all types of HW, and starts happening after a software update to previously just-fine hardware, is a software problem.






Except folks were getting "too slow" even before they added the 4th camera. In fact for some folks the problem was "fixed" with V10- for others it suddenly appears with V10... for still others it only appeared a little while after V10.

And the 4th camera only increases the write speed from 1.5 MB/s to 2 MB/s- still much slower than even the slowest sustained write speed of USB keys.

Here's a review of the Samsung BAR plus for example-
https://www.storagereview.com/node/7097

Sequential write speeds measured as 61.84MB/s- random 2MB writes as 56.01MB/s (granted this is on a USB3 bus and the car is USB2, but it shows the actual key can easily by a factor of more than 25x handle the speed the car needs.



It's a software problem.

There's a lot of things the problem could be- crap USB controller code, crap handling of the video files between computer, cache, and storage, crap error checking, etc...

What we can be sure of- given even folks with HW many many times faster than needed also have the issue (while others with measurably slower devices don't) is that it's not a HW problem.

Careful. Facts get in the way of beliefs.

 

[kwest2]

My 256GB Samsung Bar Plus was fine for perhaps a month or 2, and just last week started getting the too slow error. Unplugging/replugging it generally solves it for a day or 2, but then the error comes back consistently. Sigh.

 

[Need]

I feel like "drive too slow" is really a "drive too big" error. It seems that most people getting the error has a drive bigger than 32GB. It think it started before V10. Maybe the software was changed to scan/fix/clear or whatever to the entire drive partition from time to time and if you drive is too big.. it took too long. Just a guess. But I am pretty sure it is not the drive is too slow.

 

[moshee]

Since switching from a Samsung Bar Plus 256GB to a Sandisk Extreme Pro 128GB a month ago, I have had zero issues with the "too slow" message. Several other people have reported success with this model as well. From what I understand, the Extreme Pro uses an SSD controller rather than a typical USB flash mass storage controller, and I've benched it to be significantly faster (5X or so) in write speed than the Samsung using Crystal Disk Mark. The Samsung could barely reach 2-4 MB/s in sequential read, regardless of filesystem (FAT32 or ext3/4). Maybe Windows is to blame for some of that, but the results appear to correlate. I'm thinking the upgraded controller is more suited for continuous/multithreaded writes, whereas USB flash is normally optimized for high sequential read speed. If you actually put the drives into CDM, you may find that they do not nearly live up to their write speed specs in a sustained manner, which I suspect will only get worse with multiple files being written concurrently.

 

[wbhokie]

I feel like "drive too slow" is really a "drive too big" error. It seems that most people getting the error has a drive bigger than 32GB. It think it started before V10. Maybe the software was changed to scan/fix/clear or whatever to the entire drive partition from time to time and if you drive is too big.. it took too long. Just a guess. But I am pretty sure it is not the drive is too slow.

I think this is part of it. I was using a thumb drive (greater than 32 gb) and when I would get the message simply rebooting the OS while driving would fix the issue short term for me... (I'm assuming when it got back to that state) eventually it would happen again. No issues since switching to a microSD card though.

Still, we have a lot of threads for this already.

 

[Knightshade]

. The Samsung could barely reach 2-4 MB/s in sequential read, regardless of filesystem (FAT32 or ext3/4)...

You got a defective key. Sequential read speeds should be in the hundreds of MB/s for that device.

If you actually put the drives into CDM, you may find that they do not nearly live up to their write speed specs in a sustained manner, which I suspect will only get worse with multiple files being written concurrently.

Again your HW was factory defective.

On a properly working one CDM shows that Samsung key writing at 12-13 MB/s even for tiny random writes (the slowest type)...and up to 60 MB/s sequental. And much faster for reads.

See CDM benchmarks here-
Samsung Bar Plus 256GB Flash Drive Review

Meanwhile the Tesla is writing video at... 2 MB/s. More than 6 times slower than the SLOWEST speeds tested on the Samsung key.

It's massively faster than the car needs.