"boot error. shutting down"

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1

This message is what my Express started doing when I plugged it in to charge this morning.  Since then it does that each time I try to turn it on.  I can erase the disk on the computer, add MP3 files, but the Sansa itself is useless.  I’ve had all other issues with this in the past as well, and have used the tips on this forum for each one.  Any ideas on this one?

P.S. I use a Mac, so can’t update the firmware, but so far have been able to do everything else necessary. 

2

Try this: http://forums.sandisk.com/sansa/board/message?board.id=express&thread.id=1143

Unfortunately, you’re gonna need a PC running Windows.  There’s no way around it. 

Message Edited by kennyj on 03-25-2008 01:24 PM

3

Hi,

My SANA express also started giving me BOOT Error, SHUTTING DOWN messages.  It would start building the database, the yellow battery icon would appear on the left of the screen (as opposed to the right) and then the boot error message would appear and the device turn itself off.

I followed the link, and then the instructions to update the firmware but did not have any success. 

Finally out of desperation I moved all the files from the root directory of the device to my local pc, leaving the music, playlists, and record folders as the only things on the sansa drive and then ran the firmware updater.  It did not rebuild any of the files in the root folder or delete any of my music files.  I then  removed the hardware from my windows XP machine.

I turned on the Sansa and after the device rebuilt the database without an error it was ready to play music again.

When I plugged the device back into my laptop, I could see that the files I had removed had been rebuilt, so I’m guessing it was some type of database or file corruption causing the issue.