Be wary of Sears deals!

[sunnyday]

I bought a 4GB Clip and a 2GB Clip from Sears, for unbelievably good prices.  I have only just opened the 4GB Clip.

First problem - (which might not be a big problem) – it has version 1 hardware.

Second problem - (which I have not yet confirmed) – it doesn’t seem to be holding a charge.  Maybe

(since it is an older, version 1 unit) the battery’s shelf-life has expired? I am continuing to check my unit.

Third problem - (which I am still investigating) - It seems to have come with some music on it.  Unless this is some sort of a “sample”, it seems to me to indicate that the player was previously used.

I have tried to get some answers from SanDisk but haven’t heard from them yet.  I sent one question about model numbers to them several days back, via their web form – no answer.  And I emailed N. Amer. Tech Support a couple of days ago, with more questions about model numbers and firmware – haven’t heard back, but it is the wkend. 

Now that I’ve discovered that the Clip isn’t holding a charge and seems to have come with music on it, I have even more questions, so I may try to email again, but so far that hasn’t gotten me any responses.

Just wanted to give potential buyers a heads up…

[marvin_martian]

Before you can establish whether or not it holds a charge, you need to have let it charge all the way first, before you start to really play with it. Did you? And my Clip is a V1, and works just fine…technically, it has slightly more space  for music than the V2:smiley:

Message Edited by Marvin_Martian on 12-14-2008 02:03 PM

[sansamatt]

Well, let’s start with the good news:  the songs are pre-loaded by Sansa, so don’t fret about that!  I actually like the bizarre hiphop song by The Shanghai Restoration Project.  :smileyvery-happy:

Second, hardware version number.  As a proud owner of two 4GBs…one version 1 and the other version 2…I haven’t seen any obvious problems with either (yet).  Just let the auto-updater do it’s firmware work and see what happens.

Third, my newer black unit just came from the BestBuy Thanksgiving sale, and I wondered the same thing:  HOW LONG HAS THIS BEEN ON A SHELF???  That’s a difficult question to answer, but let me attack it by going into some lithium-ion mumbo-jumbo:  though I am especially skeptical of battery advice that I get online, the one bit I tend to trust is “fully charge the battery, then run it as far as you can…and repeat a few times”.  The argument as I see it is to run a few full battery cycles to “break in” the battery, and then it should behave.  This advice–in particular–is frequently mentioned on the View forum where battery life seems painfully short for some.

-Matt

[sansamatt]

Darn Martian…you beat me to the punch. 

-Matt

[marvin_martian]

@sansamatt wrote:

Darn Martian…you beat me to the punch. 

 

-Matt

[sansamatt]

HEY WAIT…I have 100 posts…I’m a SENIOR USER!!!  Finally…all this hard work is paying off!  :smileyvery-happy:

Look out Sansa Guru, here I come!!!

-Matt

[marvin_martian]

@sansamatt wrote:

HEY WAIT…I have 100 posts…I’m a SENIOR USER!!!  Finally…all this hard work is paying off!  :smileyvery-happy:

 

Look out Sansa Guru, here I come!!!

 

-Matt

Congrats! I think “fanatic” comes first though…although I don’t know when. See, we’re getting our karmic rewards early

[tall_cool1]

I picked up two 4 Gb Clips at Sears for gifts recently and noticed on the packaging it says 2007, but on the 4 GB Clip I got at Best Buy on black friday says 2008 on the packaging.

The packaging also looks newer on the Best Buy Clip (different design - more modern looking) . So I agree that Sears is probably trying to get rid of older stock. Not sure if every Sears store is the same though.

I haven’t been able to test any batteries on the Sears units because they are gifts though, so I can’t comment on that issue.

[marvin_martian]

@tall_cool1 wrote:

I picked up two 4 Gb Clips at Sears for gifts recently and noticed on the packaging it says 2007, but on the 4 GB Clip I got at Best Buy on black friday says 2008 on the packaging.

 

The packaging also looks newer on the Best Buy Clip (different design - more modern looking) . So I agree that Sears is probably trying to get rid of older stock. Not sure if every Sears store is the same though.

 

I haven’t been able to test any batteries on the Sears units because they are gifts though, so I can’t comment on that issue.

The packaging on my 2GB Clip(which came from Target) says 2007…but the battery is fine:smiley:

[sunnyday]

Well, all these responses sound very reassuring, so I have new hope. 

I did get the battery charged to 100%.  However, it’s already gone down to 92%, after sitting for a few hours, during which time it was turned off and not being used at all.  Maybe after a few cycles of charging and discharging this will improve.

My packaging says 2007, by the way.

Meanwhile - is it true that you don’t have to do a “safely disconnect hardware” with the Clip in Win XP Pro, SP2?  I can see the Clip in the taskbar when I first turn it on, but then it disappears, so I haven’t been doing a “safely disconnect”.   I have just been pulling the Clip out of the USB port (not during data transfer, obviously).

Usually (tho not always), I can still see the device in My Computer, even if it doesn’t show in the taskbar.  (After hibernation, I think it disappears until I disconnect the Clip and reconnect it.)  

[sansamatt]

AFAIK, the simple answer to the last question is you don’t have to “safely disconnect” in MTP mode (how would you…go to the Control Panel…?), but out of habit I do when in MSC mode (it could be in the process of writing to the Clip’s drive).  But since the Clip is solid-state, my sense is the worst that happens is you reformat the Clip and put your music back on it.

-Matt

[marvin_martian]

I leave the USB cable attached to the computer, and just plug the other end of it into the Clip…seems to work fine:smiley:

[goldwinger]

I work for Sears and until recently we didn’t have Clips at my store or I would have bought mine there instead of at Office Depot.  Two things could be happening, a distributor had a bunch and and sold them to Sears or Sears bought them last year and lost them in the warehouse.  Either way, if you have problems, send it back to Sansa.

[porio]

@sunnyday wrote:

 

I did get the battery charged to 100%.  However, it’s already gone down to 92%, after sitting for a few hours, during which time it was turned off and not being used at all.  Maybe after a few cycles of charging and discharging this will improve.

 

My packaging says 2007, by the way.

 

Well, that REALLY sounds like a defective unit.  If you search in the forums, you will realize that this battery ‘leakage’ was not uncommon in the first units to come to the market (FYI, my Clip can stand turned off for a couple of weeks without losing charge). Sears or Sansa should replace your unit.