Charging and playing music at the same time on Sansa e270

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1

I have noticed that it is sometimes possible to have the device charging through the USB cable and playing music at the same time. In fact I notice three different modes:

  1. With the USB cable connected, a small icon at the lower right of the screen shows a battery alternately filling and emptying at the same time, with a tiny “lightning” icon to the left. The music is fully accessible in this mode.

  2. At other times when USB cable is connected to computer, music is not accessible and a large battery icon in the center of the screen shows the battery is charging. Music is not accessible.

  3. At still other times, there are two computer icons in the screen showing a connection between the two and the word “Connected” appears. Again, music is not accessible.

I don’t understand why I get these different modes, almost randomly.

I called tech support to try to understand what is going on. I would like to be able to reliably play music and charge at the same time. They said that this is “not advisable” and that something must be wrong with my USB port or cable. But it seems like this is a built-in FEATURE because why else would the device display a battery charging icon while the music is playing?

More curious than anything…

2

Its not a feature. Sounds like you are not giving enough of power to your player. Are you plugging into the front or back USB ports?

3

I’m plugging into the side USB port on a Dell laptop. It charges nicely. When I plug into the back USB port, I get the “Connected…” message and can’t play music.

And what about that other screen I see that simply says “Charging…” with large battery icon.

4

If you have it plugged in, and it is charging, yet you can still see the menu, then its not fully plugged in more than likely.

The “Charging” you see is normally do to not enough power. The correct method for the player to charge, is when it says “Connected” and you can not see the menu or access it.

5

Okay, thank you.

6

Np :smiley:

If I came across brash, I did not mean to do so.