Audio Problems

When I play music I can only hear part of the song.  Example… I can hear instruments but very faint voice or no voice.  I have tried different head phones, external speakers, soft reset, firmware is updated to latest, and I have hooked  it up usb, played the songs from the Fuse+ music folder, and it plays fine through the pc so the files are fine.  It seems as if there is an issue with the physical plug itself because I can not recieve fm stations anymore either.  I also have another fuse+ and have no issues, the files are identical between the two.  I have also tried to clean the inside of the plug.  Any known issues or fix???

Both of your symptoms coincide on one point of failure, the “common” or"ground" connection of the headphone jack. The Fuze+, like all Sansas, uses the common “shield” of the headphone cable as the FM antenna.

If the Fuze+ is still under warranty (1 year US, 2 years EU), you can contact SanDisk for a replacement, or the ground connection can be resoldered.  This will restore both your audio and the FM.

Over time, movement of the jack can sometimes crack the solder connection.  When the common is lost, whta you are hearing in the headphones is the difference between left and right.  Most vocals are recorded from a single microphone, so this is equal in both channels; this is why the voice appears to “disappear” when that connection is lost.

The Fuze+ front panel can carefully be removed, but you must be very careful with the short ribbon cable for the touch pad.  It is conected with a ZIF (zero insertion force) locking connector, that can be released if you carefully lift the black tab on the connector.  Soldering the jack involves using a small pencil tipped soldering iron, or a special air soldering station like the Leister unit.

Bob  :wink:

Of course, the hardest part is undoubedly putting the thing back together. That ribbon cable is nearly impossible to reinsert. Maybe if you have Rockbox installed, you can just use voice commands, instead.