Sansa Clip won't power up on battery

My Sansa Clip 2 GB just shut down in mid song yesterday even though it had only been playing about a hour after a full battery charge.  Since then I am unable to power it up at all on battery.  

I am able to connect it to my PC via USB.  The PC recognizes it and I can access the Clip storage via Windows Explorer.  The Clip powers up on USB just fine.   It shows “Connected” and that it is recharging.  But once I unplug the USB it shuts off and I can’t power it up again unless I connect it.  

Here are the steps I’ve taken so far:

  • I charged it all night via USB – still dead
  • I tried connecting via MSC and charging for a couple of hours – still dead
  • I reset the Clip several times – still dead
  • I upgraded the firmware to 1.01.32  – still dead
  • I’ve charged it with a different USB cord – still dead
  • I’ve charged it on a different PC – still dead

Any ideas what’s wrong?

THx,

Ed 

By any chance did the Clip fall down or get significantly jarred?  It almost sounds like one of the leads to the battery has become undone (which has been known to happen). 

I might have.  I know I’ve dropped it before but don’t recall any “unusual” or sever drops lately.  If that is the case, I suppose there is no fix as the battery isn’t removable, right?

Well, if you’re within the warranty period, SanDisk will replace it.  If you’re outside of the warranty period, and want to be able to use the player on battery power, you could try to carefully take the Clip apart (prying the halves apart–people have been able to do it, as discussed in threads here), and then resolder or reaffix using conductive epoxy the loose lead back to the battery.  Perhaps needless-to-say, I would exhaust everything else first.

By the way, did you try to force an MSC connection to your computer (on switch down and locked, and then connect the Clip to your computer while holding the center button down)?  That sometimes seems to fix things, somehow.

I did try the MSC connection but that didnt’t work either.  As I’ve had it about 18 months it’s out of warranty.  So I ended up buying a new Zune at Best Buy today to replace the Clip.  It was a good deal for the money I have to say and hopefully I don’t have to replace it a year and a half from now.