Refurbished Sansa Fuze (battery life)

Does Sandisk replace the battery in refurbished Sansa Fuze music players?

No. The Fuze is not designed to have a user-replacable battery, although some have done it themselves.

First, you have to find the right size battery. Then you have to get the casing apart without breaking it (not an easy task). Third, you have to undo the ribbon cable to the LCD screen in order to get to the battery. Then, you have to solder the battery connections. Lastly you have to plug the ribbon cable for the LCD screen back in (which I understand is nearly impossible) and get the casing back together without resorting to duct tape and contact cement.

I have to ask though, why are you considering re-furbs when you can buy a brand-new one (with a mfg. warranty) for the same price?

http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Sansa-Video-Player-Black/dp/B0015L0T68/ref=sr_1_2?s=mp3&ie=UTF8&qid=1334590854&sr=1-2

Re-furbs are very risky. You never know what you’re going to get; it might be a jewel, but might also be a bona fide POS.

No. SanDisk does not do any repairs and/or battery replacements on anything, new or re-furb. And they also do not warranty re-furbs, as they don’t do the re-furbing, despiste what some sellers may claim. Finally, the Fuze is not designed to have a user-replaceable battery, although some have done it themselves.

First, you have to find the right size battery. Then you have to get the casing apart without breaking it (not an easy task). Third, you have to undo the ribbon cable to the LCD screen in order to get to the battery. Then, you have to solder the battery connections. Lastly you have to plug the ribbon cable for the LCD screen back in (which I understand is nearly impossible) and get the casing back together without resorting to duct tape and contact cement.

I have to ask though, why are you considering re-furbs when you can buy a brand-new one (with a mfg. warranty) for the same price?

http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Sansa-Video-Player-B​lack/dp/B0015L0T68/ref=sr_1_2?s=mp3&ie=UTF8&qid=1…

Re-furbs are very risky. You never know what you’re going to get; it might be a jewel, but might also be a bona fide POS.

No. SanDisk does not do any repairs and/or battery replacements on anything, new or re-furb. And they also do not warranty re-furbs, as they don’t do the re-furbing, despite what some sellers may claim. Finally, the Fuze is not designed to have a user-replaceable battery, although some have done it themselves.

First, you have to find the right size battery. Then you have to get the casing apart without breaking it (not an easy task). Third, you have to undo the ribbon cable to the LCD screen in order to get to the battery. Then, you have to solder the battery connections. Lastly you have to plug the ribbon cable for the LCD screen back in (which I understand is nearly impossible) and get the casing back together without resorting to duct tape and contact cement.

I have to ask though, why are you considering re-furbs when you can buy a brand-new one (with a mfg. warranty) for the same price?

http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Sansa-Video-Player-B​lack/dp/B0015L0T68/ref=sr_1_2?s=mp3&ie=UTF8&qid=1…

Re-furbs are very risky. You never know what you’re going to get; it might be a jewel, but might also be a bona fide POS. :wink:

The amazon.com sellers either don’t ship to Canada or they add ~$30 to the shipping fee, and the regular Fuze doesn’t seem to exist in Canadian retail stores :frowning:

Did you try Amazon.ca or any other Canadian on-line sellers?

yep… it’s either unavailable or $87-100 at amazon.ca and other online retailers.

I really wish SanDisk would restart production on the original Fuze!

@drmundo wrote:

 

I really wish SanDisk would restart production on the original Fuze!

So do a lot of others. :wink:

@drmundo wrote:

yep… it’s either unavailable or $87-100 at amazon.ca and other online retailers.

 

I really wish SanDisk would restart production on the original Fuze!

I would be on board with that, if they would add a clip and the Clip+ controls to replace the scroll wheel. :stuck_out_tongue:

I ended up buying a used Fuze on eBay. What settings should I use to test battery life when it arrives (or what settings does SanDisk use to claim 24 hours)?

Volume, file format (I assume mp3), bitrate, brightness etc… I’m hoping to get at least 12 hours of music playback on this used Fuze. 

Also, what would be the predicted battery life of a new Fuze that only plays FLAC music?

Try it and see. SanDisk probably uses the most optimistic benchmarks, which are irrelevant. You’ll have to just find out what yours will do when you’re using it the way you want to.

@drmundo wrote:

I ended up buying a used Fuze on eBay. What settings should I use to test battery life when it arrives (or what settings does SanDisk use to claim 24 hours)?

 

Volume, file format (I assume mp3), bitrate, brightness etc… I’m hoping to get at least 12 hours of music playback on this used Fuze. 

 

Also, what would be the predicted battery life of a new Fuze that only plays FLAC music?

You will never acheive the same results as what Sandisk (or any manufacturer) claims when it comes to battery life. Not even on a brand-new unit, and certainly no where close on a used one. It’s like the gas mileage claims on new cars.

I doubt very much whether you will see 12 hours on a charge, but you never know. if you get 8 hours on .mp3 files, be happy with it.

@drmundo wrote:

Also, what would be the predicted battery life of a new Fuze that only plays FLAC music?

The Sandisk firmware uses some terrible flac decoder, so probably about half to 1/3 of what you get for MP3. If you’re going to use flac, I really recommend rockbox, since the rockbox decoder is way more efficient.

lol I’m surprised that battery replacement and custom firmware discussion is allowed on the official forums. It isn’t allowed to even speculate about the new iPod on the apple forums xD

Thanks for the suggestions :slight_smile:

Just curious… how ‘new’ are the Fuzes from the SanDisk store? Are they just the remaining stock from the last manufacturing? What’s the difference between these 2 Sansas (v1 and v2?)

http://shop.sandisk.com/store/sdiskca/en_CA/DisplayProductDetailsPage/productID.228302100

http://shop.sandisk.com/store/sdiskca/en_CA/DisplayProductDetailsPage/CategoryID.11900100/productID.105426600

Assuming that this Sansa is from the very last batch that was made, how old would it be?

@drmundo wrote:

Just curious… how ‘new’ are the Fuzes from the SanDisk store? Are they just the remaining stock from the last manufacturing?

 

Yes.

 

What’s the difference between these 2 Sansas (v1 and v2?)

http://shop.sandisk.com/store/sdiskca/en_CA/DisplayProductDetailsPage/productID.228302100

http://shop.sandisk.com/store/sdiskca/en_CA/DisplayProductDetailsPage/CategoryID.11900100/productID.105426600

 

 

$10

 

Assuming that this Sansa is from the very last batch that was made, how old would it be?

 

At least 2 years.

Wow, some cheap ones available from the US Sansa store too. Just ordered a spare . :slight_smile: