Sansa Fuze SanDisk will not charge

I cannot charge my Sansabuy fake watchesFuze Sandisk - neither at the mains nor with a USB. It turns on, shows ‘connected’, then ‘writing’, then goes back to showing ‘connected’ and the 4-coloured ‘flower’ icon in the centre revolves, but the battery does not show the charging symbol and remains white and uncharged.  I have held the ‘on’ button on the side for various lengths of time and all it does is turns it off.  When I turn it on again the whole scenario starts again.  It’s not the cable because I have just bought another and it does the same thing with the new cable.

Try to force an MSC connection. Leave the unit off. Slide the power switch down to click into Hold. Connect the USB end to your computer. Open Windows Explorer (Computer or My Computer). Hold down the << side of the wheel and connect to the Fuze.

Don’t use a USB hub and if you’re using a laptop, connect to the port nearest to the back of the computer, which provides the most power.

If that doesn’t work, the port is probably broken. 

The unit has a one-year warranty. If it’s older than that, it’s time to start looking for a replacement.

I just bought a Fuze+ 4 GB… updated it to the latest FW… loaded gobs of music on it… used it and was pretty pleased.  Except… it turns out it was a total waste of time

I was going away for the weekend and noticed the battery was down more than halfway.  Plugged it in to every single USB port on 3 differnt computers and a powered hub and NONE of them would give me the charging indication.  So I read everything I could about this issue and went out to Best Buy and picked up a 2 Amp Dynex wall charger and plugged it in.  Got the battery charging indication but after 3 hours the charge on the battery had not changed.

I have a nice (but old and small) e250.  Plugged it in and the Dynex showed a red LED indicating a current drain.  (The LED remained green when the Fuze+ was plugged in.)  In 3 hours the e250 charged but no change with the Fuze+ even though the battery indicator was moving back and forth.  So I unpugged the Fuze+ and left it on until it shut itself off due to low battery.

It won’t turn on now.   When I try there is a large image of a battery with a small red bar on the screen.   I plugged it into the Dynex and the Fuze+ turns on as it should.  The battery indicator on the Fuze+ suggests it’s charging but I know it isn’t.  The LED on the Dynex flickers red once and then goes green.  The Dynex wall adaptor is keeping it on but the Fuze+ isn’t pulling enough current to charge itself.

Is anybody out there to offer advice?   I posted this situation 2 days ago on another thread and got no response.  I’m posting here becaue this thread isn’t tagged as solved.   Do I need to start a new thread? 

I’m leaving town in a few hours and taking the e250.  If there isn’t any response.  I’m going to send the Fuze+ back to Amazon and add my negative review when I get back to town next week.

This is the Fuze board, not the Fuze +

Sounds like you need a warranty repair or replacement. Call 1-866-SANDISK.

hi. i have an old sansa fuze that has now started doing this issue.

i have tried on 4 different pcs (some with windows vista e some with windows 7) and they all show that the device is not recognizeble.

i have also tried 2 other cables, 1 from my older sansa e280 and 1 cable from my friend that also has a fuze 2gb.

the unit of course is not under warranty anymore… and i am currenly living in brazil, so there is no way to send it in for now.

i was wondering if someone could tell me if this is usually the case of a faulty battery?

i was thinking in buying a battery from ebay and replace it myself… to start with…

but in case this is not usually a battery issue, i would probably just get rid of the  player and buy something new.

can anyone here please give me some light?

i thank you very much for your time and reading this! have a nice day :slight_smile:

sorry, me again.

i forgot to write on my post above that i have also tried using a wall charger that works with the other unit and also have tried the reset in the menu as well as the reset with the power button.

nothing worked so far.

thanks!

my sandisk will not charge in any usb port and i changed the mode to MSC…

It could be a broken cable. You can find a generic replacement on Amazon for under $5 if you are willing to spend that much to make the test.

Exitony, does the computer see the player? If not, I’d bet on the cable, like Black Rectangle said.

http://www.officialtvstream.com.es/passport/go.php?r=497793&i=l134

I have been using my Sansa Fuze+ for years.  I always used the same USB cable and charged it with my laptop, never had any problems until now.  I went on vacation and left the player at home for a long time. When I got back the battery was zero and it wouldn’t power up.  I used the same USB cable to plug it in my laptop it powered up and indicated “connected” but it was not charging or doing anything.  I couldn’t use it to listen to music or for anything else.  I could use it if I had it plugged in directly to an outlet but it still wouldn’t charge.  As soon as I unplugged it it’s dead once again.  

I wonder if the battery is complete dead because I let it drain to zero and now it will no longer hold a charge.  Anyone else has the same experience?

Rechargeable batteries do have a finite lifespan, and yours may have died. But you might experiment and leave it connected to the charger for a long time, like a few days. There’s a possibility–only a possibility–that it may very slowly recharge and get back to working order. It’s worth a try.

Thanks for the suggestion.  You’re probably right about the battery because I can’t think of anything else.  I did leave it connected to the computer for 24 hours but it didn’t work.  I may try to have it plugged to an AC charger for a few days to see if it will work.  Yeah, I really don’t have anything to lose at this time so may as well. 

Does it play while it is connected to an AC usb charger? If so, then the problem probably is the battery.

It will play if I have it connected the USB wall unit but it won’t play when I have it connected via a USB to the computer.  When it’s plugged in to the wall it will only play but won’t charge.  When it’s conneced to the computer, it won’t play or charge, the only thing I can do is to view or delete files.  I believe it’s definitely the battery.  What a shame! 

@althetrainer wrote:

It will play if I have it connected the USB wall unit but it won’t play when I have it connected via a USB to the computer.

It’s not supposed to. It is supposed to make a ‘data’ connection which shuts off any button operation and signal to the headphones.

@althetrainer wrote:

When it’s plugged in to the wall it will only play but won’t charge.  When it’s conneced to the computer, it won’t play or charge, the only thing I can do is to view or delete files.  I believe it’s definitely the battery.  

Might just be a bad cord. These things DO wear out and they are cheap to replace and/or isolate the problem.

I am not sure if I understand your theory of a bad cord.  If the cord was bad how could it supply power from the AC source and allow me to open data files

@tapeworm wrote:


@althetrainer wrote:

It will play if I have it connected the USB wall unit but it won’t play when I have it connected via a USB to the computer.


It’s not supposed to. It is supposed to make a ‘data’ connection which shuts off any button operation and signal to the headphones.

 


@althetrainer wrote:

When it’s plugged in to the wall it will only play but won’t charge.  When it’s conneced to the computer, it won’t play or charge, the only thing I can do is to view or delete files.  I believe it’s definitely the battery.  


Might just be a bad cord. These things DO wear out and they are cheap to replace and/or isolate the problem.

?  

The cord makes two connections through different pins.

One is charging, one is data.

When data is connected it does what you have seen: shuts down the unit as a player and makes it work like a storage device.  Your data connection works.

Conceivably you could have a problem with the charging connection, but since you are able to run the unit from an AC charger–assuming you are plugging the same cord into a wall charger–then it looks like the power is getting through the charging connection.

So yes, I’d think it’s the battery, R.I.P. Unless you have very fine motor skills you need a new unit.

@black_rectangle wrote:

The cord makes two connections through different pins.

 

One is charging, one is data.

 

When data is connected it does what you have seen: shuts down the unit as a player and makes it work like a storage device.  Your data connection works.

 

Conceivably you could have a problem with the charging connection, but since you are able to run the unit from an AC charger–assuming you are plugging the same cord into a wall charger–then it looks like the power is getting through the charging connection.

 

So yes, I’d think it’s the battery, R.I.P. Unless you have very fine motor skills you need a new unit.

Thank you for your explanation.  I do agree that the battery is gone.  No, I don’t have very fine motor skills so I have already purchased Sansa Clip.  :-)