Complete XP-using Newbie's Easy Guide to Getting the Most out of the Fuze!

Given that this board has been very helpful to me, as a complete newbie to the Fuze, I want to write up everything I’ve learned through this board to successfully use the Fuze to its fullest. Hopefully it will be useful to someone.

The following is very conservative. My main goal is to have something which works consistently with my current hardware and software, with absolutely no problems. I’ve achieved that for myself. Everything in this post is what I’ve actually tested, and what I currently use.

With all that said, here is my epic initial post on this forum.


In reading up on media players, I decided to go with… the Sansa Fuze! It supports Ogg Vorbis in the newer firmware versions, currently has almost full Rockbox support on the version 1 models, and has a micro SD slot. It will support easy Windows drop-and-drag when in MSC mode.

I pick up an 8GB model off eBay for less than $40, and get ready to dive into tools.

I’m not a power user when it comes to computer ownership, and at this point I’m down to having only an Acer Aspire One netbook, running XP SP3. I’ve had issues in the past with Windows Media Player, and want to avoid it doing something screwy to my preexisting music files, so I’m going to use software which is free, and which won’t try to disallow something based on its idea of DRM (Digital Rights Management).


At this point, I’ve bought a few Fuzes, some in less than stellar condition. The following procedures are my way of trying to be as successful as possible.

I always use a USB port which is on the computer for the Fuze cable. Running through a hub has caused problems in terms of power/charging, as I found in posts from others. The USB ports on my netbook are all connected directly to the motherboard. I do have a hub which has most of my USB devices plugged in (keyboard, mouse, DVD drive and 1TB HD for music and video), so having only one USB cable to plug in for most things is handy… but the Fuze cable gets its own port.

To avoid MTP mode, and to be able to see the Fuze and its additional micro-SD card as drives in XP, I force the Fuze to boot directly into MSC mode when connecting to the USB port. I put the Fuze power switch into the Hold position, with the orange dot visible, and hold down the left arrow button when connecting the cable. Voila! MSC mode! I let the Fuze charge up fully, with no software or file changes. If there is a battery problem and the device won’t hold a charge, I won’t cause a issue when it tries to install a new update but has a powerdive before finishing. While it charges, I’ll see if there if there is anything I might want to copy off the device to keep.


Once the Fuze is fully charged (possibly as long as 3 hours on a fully discharged Fuze), I’ll go the bottom right section of my Windows bar and Safely Remove Hardware, in this case the two-drive combination. (The Fuze shows up as two devices, reflecting internal memory and the micro-SD slot, both on the same line. It doesn’t matter if there is a micro-SD card in the Fuze or not.)

On unplugging the newly charged Fuze, it might display that it is updating something. NEVER EVER INTERRUPT AN UPDATE! There are plenty of threads where folks talk about the update taking a long time, and they do something to turn it off, or to try to escape the update… and then the rest of the thread is about the problems they’ve created themselves, because they couldn’t wait a few mintues. Don’t be that person.

Once the update is complete, sometimes the screen will go black. It might be that a dead battery… or the screen might be set to go black in five seconds. Hopefully the screen lights up with a volume wheel spin. If not, I firmly try the power switch. If it doesn’t turn on, I’ll try the power switch again, holding it on for maybe fifteen to thirty seconds (this causes a hard reboot). If I still get no results, I assume I have a bad battery. This has happened to me, and it’s easier to pick up another secondhand Fuze than to replace the battery. Maybe you’ll find something more encouraging while searching, but I have no reason to doubt what I’ve found so far on this.

If the screen does light up, then I press the small button to the right of the wheel to get to the main menu, and go to Settings=>System Setting=>Backlight. For the next few steps, I will set the backlight to stay on for at least 45 seconds, so I can check some things without the screen turning off.

I’ll also change System Settings=>USB Mode so the default mode is MSC. AutoDetect can be be consistent, and I won’t need MTP mode, so MSC is all I need.

I’ll also go to System Settings =>Info, and see what FW (firmware) version is installed. If it’s a version 1 fuze (with firmware version 01.xx.xx), I’ll install version 01.02.28, the newest and most trouble-free firmware for the v1. If it’s a version 2, I’ll install version 2.02.26, as version 2.02.28 has some… issues.

The version 1.02.28 firmware can be downloaded at http://mp3support.sandisk.com/firmware/fuze/fuze01.02.28.zip . The version 2.02.26 firmware can be downloaded at http://mp3support.sandisk.com/firmware/fuze/fuze02.02.26.zip . I save it to a folder on my computer where I can find it.

If the battery level has dropped to below half in this short time, there might be a battery issue, and I will probably do another full charge, to be sure I won’t run into issues in the middle of an update. If it happens again, with the connected Fuze indicating a full charge and the disconnected Fuze showing less than half a charge, I have battery issues.

Assuming that the battery life is holding, I now connect the Fuze to the USB cable again. I open the zipped file directly on my computer without unzipping, and move the inner file, entitled FuzeA in my case, to the root directory of the Sansa Fuze, alongside all preexisting system files and all the internal Fuze folders. If all I see are some folders, with no system files, I’m in the directory for the micro-SD card, so I make sure I choose the correct drive.

Once the new firmware is in the right place in the Fuze, I again Safely Remove the Hardware, and wait for the update to complete. At completion the Fuze will turn off automatically.

When next I turn the Fuze on, I’m prompted for the language. I choose English and then choose INTERNATIONAL/EUROPE as my region. This will prevent the red SlotRadio icon from showing up on my main menu. I then go to Settings=>Radio options=>FM Region and choose USA. (You can skip this step if you’re planning on using the SlotRadio cards.)

(Incidentally, I once chose the wrong region on this step. I again reloaded FuzeA onto the Fuze’s root directory, and the firmware reloaded itself atop the same version, so I could the correct version of English the next power up. If it happened to me, it might happen to you, so at least you know it can be fixed.)


After much experimentation, here’s what has worked for me in terms of software:

For ripping to Ogg Vorbis, I use Freerip, found at http://www.freerip.com . It’s free, but always asks to upgrade to the full version. I rip to Ogg quality level 6, and when I run it through my home stereo, it’s actually really smooth. (FreeRip connects to the Freerip DB to find album info, and occasionally there are items with inconsistent album, artist or genre labels, but I correct those in the next stage.) I tend to rip my albums into folders, so that I can add or remove whole albums at a time on the Fuze.

For editing my song labels, I use MP3tag, found at http://www.mp3tag.de/en . To make the tags consistent for the Fuze, I go to Tools=>Options=>Tags. In both the “Mpeg” and “Ape, Mpc…” choices, I have all possible tags read, but only write ID3v2 tags; in the “Mpeg” menu I also choose “ID3v2.3 UTF-16” as the format. I set both menus to remove all three tag types. This prevents the Fuze from getting confused due to more than one tag in a file (a source of problems in many posts I’ve read).

MP3tag is useful, as I tend to find errors in what I’ve tagged at the point of ripping. I also might change my mind about which genre something belongs in. Once I have the songs on an album labeled, I rename the songs based on the labels, so that the filename has the artist, album, track name and position on the album. On occasion I’ll transfer a few orphan tracks to a hodgepodge folder on the Fuze, so this allows me to look in there when browsing the device through Windows Explorer view and delete the files I’m not using much. (I prefer to do this instead of using the Delete Track function on the Fuze, due to various threads I’ve read which list problems using the Fuze-based Delete.)


For converting video, I use the amazing Video4Fuze. The link for downloading it are found in this thread:

http://forums.sandisk.com/sansa/board/message?board.id=sansafuse&thread.id=31437

My microSD card didn’t get a “Video” folder added automatically during formatting on the Fuze. I manually dragged a copy of it over from the main Fuze, using Windows. I’ve not had issues with video running from the card, but much of what I watch is stop-motion animation, so it’s difficult to know if any artifacts are being introduced. I’ll do further testing later, to see if there is any stutter or other differences; I’ll do so by putting files which are identical except in name, in order to compare the same video side by side from card and from internal memory.

There are many ways to get video onto your computer for conversion to the Fuze. In this case, Google is your friend. Listing how to download .flv videos from the internet and such is beyond the scope of this board, so if you’re curious, you should do some searching through Google or another search engine to see how to get video onto your computer, in order to then run it through Video4Fuze. I found the sites, and I’m not the smartest guy in the world. If you really want the information, it’s available, I swear. You’re even ahead of where I started, because I didn’t even know what .flv video was, let alone what it was called!


When I drag music and videos to the Fuze, I make sure to move it to the correct folders, named (in this case) Music and Videos. I generally maintain folders on my computer and the external USB HD. 2TB is fairly cheap at this point, so do yourself a favor and pick one up, so you have enough space to do what you want in terms of media. I have copies of different musical folders for the Fuze, so I can rapidly move things on and off, depending on who is using that particular Fuze at the moment, or for different moods (dinner party, road trip, feeling sick and needing to drowse, etc.).


Since I’m working with folders, when I want to add album art, I find a jpeg file (with the extension of .jpg) through the Image search of Google. I save it to the folder containing the album, naming the picture as “folder” and saving it as type “.jpg”. This way, it shows up on my Fuze when I’m playing a track from the album. It doesn’t show up in Album View while browsing, but I normally don’t need to see a thumbnail of the album jacket to remember what it looks like. The file named “folder” must be in the album’s folder! I will do this on the computer, and then drag the folder across.

I could also add album art to each track. The maximum displayed size is 120x120. In MP3tag, I would select the track(s) to which I want to ebed the art in the tags, and then right-click on the blank image section at the bottom of the left pane. I can then browse to and click on the pre-saved .jpg file, and hit “Save Tags.” I don’t find any great advantage to this, since I’m working in folders, but if you want to have your soundfiles just tossed into the “Music” folder with no subfolders, this will work while playing the files. Unfortunately, even when =>Settings=>System Setting=>Display Album Art in Lists is set to “On” on the Fuze, I only get a little filmstrip icon in the list, instead of the album art, so there’s no advantage with embedded art while browsing.


A few notes…

In order to construct a playlist which uses music on both the internal memory and the micro-SD card, I use the Playlist option of Video4Fuze. This will create a .pla playlist, which can use songs from both kinds of memory.

When I do a lot of changes to the contents of the Fuze’s memory, I will copy the whole thing off, and then reformat the Fuze before copying them back on. That way, I know that files will be in consecutive order in memory and on the card, instead of having fragmentation. I’ve followed this method on devices which sometimes had issues on this, like my Palm IIIxe, and since starting to follow this procedure, I’ve had no memory issues.

I’ve had to be organised regarding where my files are. For example, I have a folder named “Video Pre-Fuze Conversion,” where I put interesting things that I want to load onto the Fuze. I have another folder entitled “Video - Fuze Ready.” I make sure to direct the output of the conversion program to the correct folder, so I know I can find it, instead of having to do a long search. I just mention this because I know you want to learn from my mistakes.


(For the curious who have been reading other sections of this board, I’ve not run into the video fast forwarding problems while using 1.02.28 on the version 1 Fuze, but I have had issues with 2.02.26 on the version 2. My work around is to not just push the fast forward button, but instead to press it repeatedly, jumping forward 30 seconds with each push. Not a perfect solution, and I don’t have Replay Gain, but the version 2 is still a great player.)


At this point, I have everything I need, but still have a few things I want. I’ll be exploring adding photos to the Fuze, so I can easily carry small snapshots. I’ll add easy photo handling once I get it down.

I ordered my first Fuze just over a month ago, and have found it so easy to use that I’ve picked up several others on the cheap for the whole family. The one thing I’d really like is gapless play, as my SO is a massage therapist, and sometimes wants to put on some albums by Andreas Vollenweider when amplifying the Fuze in the massage room. I’ll probably be doing some experimenting with the beta version of Rockbox on one of the version 1 Fuzes, but that also is beyond the scope of a simple-to-implement guide such as this one. I’m not counting on there being a version of Rockbox for the version 2 Fuze.


Again, everything I’ve listed is only what I’ve found to work for me. I’ve included version numbers where appropriate, because many of the threads I’ve read have someone griping about problems they’re having, and they assume that everyone is on the same page/version. If your computer set up is different from mine, it might not work. I only have access to my own machine and my own Fuzes. I can’t provide troubleshooting as to why you can’t make this work. ASKING ME WHY IT’S NOT WORKING ON YOUR SYSTEM WILL NOT GET YOU AN ANSWER! SORRY!

Also, if you want more information regarding any of the things I’ve mentioned, USE THE SEARCH FUNCTION. For goodness’ sake, everything I just laid out came from my doing searches. If I can find it, you can find it. If you’re too lazy to look, then why should someone else invest the time that you won’t?

If you don’t like the way I’ve resolved things for myself, that’s fair. You’re entitled to feel that the Fuze should handle album art different, or to have a different solution because you’re using .MP3s instead of Ogg Vorbis. However, that has nothing to do with this thread, so you’ll probably have more success posting about it in a thread more relevant to your situation than this one. THIS THREAD IS PURELY ABOUT WHAT I FOUND TO WORK FOR MY SITUATION.


One last tidbit: I use SanDisk 16GB microSD cards for the moment. However, as a reward to those who have just waded through all this, I’ll comment that I have high hopes that the Netcom 32GB micro-SD card will actually become available soon. It was announced on 9Dec09, so let’s hope it is more rapid in coming to market than the SanDisk 32GB micro-SD. If you want details, use your search engine, and you’ll find the same information I did.

My thanks to those on this board who made it easy for me to find tools to test, and whose writings made it possible for me to lay this out so plainly for others. I hope this information is helpful. (Who knows? It might even get stickied…!)

Message Edited by Nubilee on 12-26-2009 03:33 PM

Very nice guide. I hope it will help others getting to grips with their Fuzes.

One note about 32GB sdhc cards: If you would put one full of files in your Fuze, be prepared to wait a long time for the internal database to be updated. As much as 15 minutes is not unusual.

A few things to add:

When you install mp3tag, it’s helpful to check the box that adds it to context menus. Then you can just right-click on the folder and open it directly with mp3tag (instead of opening mp3tag and navigating to the folder). 

Also make sure mp3tag is set (under Tools/Options/Tags/Mpeg) to Write ID3v2.3 ISO-8859-1, the Sansa’s favorite snack. 


And have you, or anyone, had trouble with video playback on Class 2 microSD cards?  I don’t use video, so class 2 have always been fine for me, but I’d like to know whether the class of the card is any problem for video playback. 

Black-Rectangle, I’ve never put video on the card for two reasons:

Several posts that I found while reading the archive implied that there were problems.

There wasn’t a video folder automatically set up on the card.

For me, the goal was to have a solution which worked consistently for me. Having read back-and-forth discussion about why video on the card SHOULD work, and how it DIDN’T for some, meant that it was just easier to load it into Fuze memory. I don’t need to carry so much video with me, as I rarely have to carry more video on the device to last more than a US transcontinental flight. If I want more, I’ll have taken the netbook with me anyway, and that contains MORE video that I can load on. The 16GB microSD card is chock full of music, with a core of favorites and a host of new music I’m listening to for the first time.

It also didn’t interest me to troubleshoot why I didn’t have a video folder on the microSD card. The goal is not to get everything to work the way it theoretically should. I just want everything to work well, in a consistent manner.

For me, the Fuze is now at the point of Good Enough, which beats Perfect because I don’t have to invest more time in fixing anything.


7of9, my first question regarding the DB update times on the 32GB microSD cards is your statement regarding the length of time. Are you one of the lucky ones who owns one of the few 32GB cards which made their way out there from the experimental SanDisk batch, or is this your guess, not based on actual experience?

In any case, I originally got the occasional long refresh time. I finally started implementing consistently and properly tagged files, and the occasional unload-format-full reload procedure. At this point, once I do the full reload and disconnect, it takes less than 5 minutes for the DB refresh. That’s for the full 8GB internal memory of videos, along with the full 16GB of folders containing music and the album jacket jpegs.

Hopefully, my experiences with our five Fuzes is consistent enough that it will work for others as well, as long as they are doing exactly what I’m doing. Your set up including file types and procedures, 7of9, might not be identical to mine, and so I won’t begin to speculate about why you might be having a long refresh time. I thought about why some were posting about long refresh times, and so I did what I could to prevent going through that myself. 5 minutes for 24GB doesn’t seem so bad.


I do appreciate comments and helpful suggestions. I’ll go back and incorporate helpful things into the original post, so that it becomes easier still for the newbies still to come, and so they don’t have to flail. I’m sure I have forgotten a great deal of what I initially did to settings in the individual programs, and being reminded of what I might have overlooked is a good thing.

One thing which might prevent something from making it into the edits, of course, is my not doing a particular procedure myself. If I haven’t made it work, I’ll not write about something theoretical as if I have it working. Only what is on my machine makes it in. That should make it easier for those reading the initial post.

Message Edited by Nubilee on 12-24-2009 07:43 AM

 Just a quick note here to add that i’ve never had any problems  keeping video files on  microSD card. In fact, it’s my preferred way to store them.Never had any problems with video stutter ect. either.I do stick with Sandisc cards only.I’m using a 16GB card at present.Your post was fine, if overly cautious…

Message Edited by Shmincev3 on 12-24-2009 01:14 PM

Scmincev3 and Black-Rectangle, I’ve since tested video from the card, even ading a folder for Video (not created automatically, for whatever reason), and it appears to work identically to the internal flash memory. I’ll do some testing soon, to see if it’s identical with something that’s not animation.

Currently the SanDisk class 2 microSD cards are about the same price for 16GB as other cards, so there’s no reason for me to test other manufacturer’s cards, for video or anything else. Class 2 gets read at 2MB per second, class 4 at 4Mps, and class 6 at (surprise!) 6Mps. Until I can detect a difference in video speeds for internal and microSD memory, there’s no reason for me to get a higher class card.

Black-Rectangle, thanks for your comments on the ID3v2.4 tags.

I’ve edited the initial post.

You’re taking a long way around for album art.

The newer Mp3tag versions–I’ve got 2.45–can usually snag it from Amazon and add it to the tags. 

FWIW,  keepvid.com easily lets you cut-and-paste the YouTube address into a box onscreen, then right-click on links to download low-definition (.flv) or high-definition (.mp4) clips. 

Might I suggest you also edit down the OP to just step-by-step instructions. All that text can be off-putting, and while your explanations and choices are interesting to experienced users,  a n00b might just take a look at screens full of text and red warnings and get a doPi player instead.

You could put your underlying thoughts in another post and link to it, or split the OP into simple step-by-step and “Here’s why” down below. 

Message Edited by Black-Rectangle on 12-26-2009 07:41 PM

I have read all of that with great interest…but as I am just an ordinary punter, a lot of it goes over my head. What I have been trying to find out is whether there is a clear way of organising music. I don’t want to have to wade through every detail of an ‘album’ unless I want to…but it seems unavoidable. I saw written that the Fuze doesn’t ‘support folders’ which I found out the hard way (although with photos it seems to!).

I want to see eg Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and find simple lists of ‘albums’ not every detail …also I get instead of ‘Brandenburg Concertos’ the heading is Alfred Brendal (obviously the artist but who might be playing anything) but I don’t get the main heading.

If I change the titles as given on the computer when the items are ripped to My Music…will that change titles on the Fuze?

With the most current firmware update, the Fuze does indeed support folders. It did not originally. It’s at the bottom of the Music menu.

You may have very old firmware that does not support Folders. But scroll down through your Music list, past the first screen, to see Folders as the last item. That allows you to navigate by folders as you do on the computer.

If it’s not there, go to the firmware update post.

http://forums.sandisk.com/t5/Fuze/Sansa-Fuze-Firmware-Update-01-02-31-amp-02-03-33/td-p/139175

Look in Settings/System Settings/Info to see whether your Version number starts with 1.x or 2.x. Download the All Regions link for version 1 or 2 (which is your hardware version–not an update from 1 to 2). Unzip the zipfile and drag FuzeA.bin onto your Fuze driveletter. Unplug and it will update.

Tags, unfortunately, are not standard, and the underpaid people working at labels do them all sorts of ways. Check the answer to your other post.

Thank you, Black Rectangle…

Yes, I am getting there…folders are there (a long way down)!!!  I did update the firmware recently. My Version is 1.1 (it says on the add or delete on computer).

I imagine that is it.

The last bit ‘Unzip the zipfile and drag FuzeA.bin onto your Fuze driveletter.’ is a foreign language to me!

But I guess if folders are there, it has done it. And content seems to be in folders too. Except for the first piece I ever loaded and which escaped complete reformatting! But that appears under some other heading. What a mystery it all is. At least pictures are easy!

You wouldn’t believe I actually made myself a Wordpress website would you!  Thank God for kind people on Forums without whom I would have achieved nothing! 

THANK YOU!

Your firmware version should be in Settings/System Settings/Info on the Fuze.

What I mean by the zip file is that when you go to this post:

http://forums.sandisk.com/t5/Fuze/Sansa-Fuze-Firmware-Update-01-02-31-amp-02-03-33/td-p/139175

and download a file, it arrives as a .zip file, which is a file made to be sent online as a complete package–in this case, a folder with the firmware update inside. When you get it, you right-click on it and your computer asks if you want to Extract (or unzip) the files. SanDisk doesn’t tell people that the actual firmware update is FuzeA.bin, and some people on this forum have tried to just put the zipped file onto the Fuze, which doesn’t know what to do with it.

Thanks again…have stored all various bit of information in one place. I have a folder for Sansa bits and pieces and ‘firmware updates’ is one of the items. I assume using it is effectively the same update as the one I would achieve by ‘zipping’ etc?

And does that alter the version I have  from 1.1 to something else?

It takes a long time sorting all this out but I think if this Fuze packed up I would get another so it is worth it. I am very pleased that I have got the hang of installing music.

If your Fuze is working now and you’re happy with it, there’s no need to update.

However, just for information:

There is a Firmware Updater that you don’t need. That’s a program that starts with your computer–slowing down your startup–and when you connect the Fuze, it goes online and checks for a new update. But it’s useless now since the Fuze is not going to be updated beyond its current version. So if you have downloaded or installed that, get rid of it.

Instead, download the All Regions link–which is the firmware itself–for your unit, which is apparently Version 1. Then unzip it and install it.

I don’t think you have firmware 1.1… There is probably a version 1.01.xx, but the highest version is 1.02.31–this is, the numbering never reached 1.1.

How odd, I don’t know where I got the 1.1 from…it isn’t where I thought (on the add and subtract programs)…just checked. Only the updater is there.  Is that what I should get rid of? Easy enough for a change.The item I have says 'Firmware installer and when you click on it it says ‘run’ which I assume was exactly what I did fairly recently…I seem to remember there was also a ‘firmware update’ pop up which muddled me somewhat and I probably clicked that too …nothing ventured etc! In fact that was probably the one that mattered. Oh, I am waking up!

So to recap…There won’t be anymore updates so get rid of the updater. Correct?

So why do I need the All Regions link if there won’t be any more updates? Please confirm that I should do that.

Ah…have found where I got 1.1 from…it says it on the Installation disk …maybe it just refers to the Installation manual?

Clearly says Version 1.1 on the left hand side of disk. Right side says Content PDF Version of the user manual.

Confusing. How would I know where to look for what version I have?  i have had it about 18 months I would think.

I hope all my confusion will help some other bewildered souls reading the Newbie’s guide!

Thanks again!

Sorry …it says Sansa Updater Install…(NOT ‘firmware Installer’ ) that seemed to have been downloaded with the program. At anyrate if is in a folder with anything else relevant on my desktop (where I put it).  

@matcham wrote:

 

So to recap…There won’t be anymore updates so get rid of the updater. Correct?

 

Correct.

 

So why do I need the All Regions link if there won’t be any more updates? Please confirm that I should do that.

 

This is the link to the firmware zip file. This is what you download, extract and then copy to the root directory of your player to apply/update the firmware manually.

 

Ah…have found where I got 1.1 from…it says it on the Installation disk …maybe it just refers to the Installation manual?

 

Get rid of this too. There’s no need for it. Unless you want to use it as a coaster or micro-frisbee. :stuck_out_tongue:

 

Confusing. How would I know where to look for what version I have?  i have had it about 18 months I would think.

 

Go into  Settings > System Settings > Info on your player. The top line is the firmware version that is currently on the player.

 

Brilliant!  VO 1.02.3 IP AND I have adjusted the backlight timing  which is annoying me turning off so quickly.

But I still don’t understand why I need the firmware zipfile etc if there wont be any more updates anyway?

How do I copy to the root directory (whatever that may be!) of my player or will that become self-evident? Sorry to be so thick but hopefully I am not alone in my ignorance! Cheers…time for a drink!  Can you immagine how weird ‘update the firmware manually’ seems to someone not understanding the doubtless symbolic meaning of those words. Manually! Thank you very much for explaining so much stuff to me.

This is the link to the firmware zip file. This is what you download, extract and then copy to the root directory of your player to apply/update the firmware manually. 

If it’s 1.02.31 you’re done.No need to update.

That firmware update thread, which is ancient, still tells people to download the Updater, but that’s pointless now.

You might want to save your own copy of the firmware anyway (the All Regions link) in case the Internet crashes, SanDisk goes out of business and your Fuze gets a glitch.Then reinstalling the firmware might fix it.

The root directory is the driveletter that says Sansa Fuze in Computer (or My Computer). It could be D:, E:, F:, whatever. The root directory of your computer itself is (most probably) C:. Root directory is geek talk for a driveletter that won’t be the same for everyone.

I can see that thanks to your help I have arrived… and as a finale which I won’t blame you for not answering WHAT is ‘driveletter’?

And what is the little card that I can see is in the card slot (presumably an external memory card which I didn’t put in!) …

On settings> info it says:

Memory 7806

Free 6277  (this makes sense to me as I have loaded a fair amount.

SD card 3878    but what is this?!!!

Free 3225

I can’t find any mention of this SD card anywhere, except that you can add extra memory in that slot…but I haven’t.

And another question:  is there some way to hold a page when you want to, eg Info didn’t give me time to write it down, I had to keep going back to it.

All the best.