My Sansa clip arrived yesterday … laptop didn’t recognise it; radio worked, but headphones only worked if plug was half in/half out of the player. I read this message board and the various advice on getting my laptop to recognise it; I checked the operating system, the Media Center version etc etc - all ok. It is clear from all the postings that this is a very weak product. Now the darn thing has stopped working altogether. (That piece of advice about turn it off, turn it on, put it on hold, and press the round button in the middle when you plug it into the computer is the thing that finally killed it. Thanks for that advice!!)
Something that has this many problems is clearly a very inferior product.
I bought online and am waiting for the company to tell me how to return it … though if it wasn’t for the refund, I’d put it in the bin where it belongs.
Sorry you’re having so many problems. Most people don’t. Perhaps yours is a defective unit–easy to replace via SanDisk, if that’s the case. Did you actually telephone them for assistance?
No, not asking a question here: I can read both the posts here and the help notes provided; I’ve done everything everyone has suggested. I am highly suspicious of a product that has a website with guidance notes headed (I paraphrase) “Straight out the box and not working?” … yeah, that’s the sign of a quality product.
So I have been unlucky and got a defective unit … seems to be a lot of them around - see the posts from the person who is on their third clip and it still isn’t working. (One definition of madness is doing the same thing and expecting the end result to be different.) And then there’s the defective headphones I got … odd that two defective components get in the same box … or perhaps this manufacturer just doesn’t do quality?
I’m in the UK and I am not going to waste any more of my time 'phoning SanDisk : the website says their UK technical support is open 8am to 7pm UK local time (doesn’t say whether it is only weekdays so one assumes not). You phone, as I did, on a Sunday and you get a recorded message: their office is closed and their opening hours are actually 10am to 7pm it says, but still the message doesn’t say that it’s only Mon-Fri. I don’t mind the shorter hours or the fact that technical support isn’t available at weekends, but the fact that they get the opening hours wrong on the website and don’t say they are only open weekdays is indicative of their lack of quality control and attention to detail. I also noticed a mistake in the user manual about the USB cable, but I’m not going to go on about that as, frankly, you might as well stick the cable in your ear for all the good it does.
The UK supplier can take it back and I’ll have my money back. Life is too short to put up with bad products and slapdash manufacturers.
“Something that has this many problems is clearly a very inferior product.”
The Clip has essentially been replaced by the Clip+. The problems a new mp3 player typically might have are almost all related to interfacing with pc. Your player can’t be made to anticipate all possible versions of Windows and its updates, as well as all possible versions of Windows Media Player(it needs a recent version of this installed for the MTP drivers to recognize the player in MTP mode). There are also sometimes some compatability issues with certain computers and some mp3 players.
Was your pc plugged in to AC power when you connected the player? If not try that. If there were any other USB peripherals plugged in then disconnect those before connecting the Clip. Try connecting the player directly to the pc and not through a hub or USB extension cord.
While I appreciate your comments are meant to be helpful, it is this very thing that is making me frustrated as hell and makes me think I have bought a great big turkey (now a great big DEAD turkey). Really, I have read the posts on this site - very closely - and I have noticed the endless advice: “Try switching it off and on”, “Try hanging it out the window”, “Try turning round three times and genuflecting” etc etc … IT DOESN’'T WORK.
Go back and read the post from the person on their THIRD clip … read all the contributions in that thread to the end, like I did … no one came up with a solution … the contributions just fizzled out because you couldn’t solve it. IT DOESN’T WORK. In fact, it seems to me that quite a lot of the problem posts on this site don’t get resolved. Nearly all the threads end with the advice “Switch it off and on, put it on hold and press the center button when you connect” but hardly anyone reports back and says “It worked!”.
My laptop was connected to the mains, not on a battery - so that isn’t it; there were no other devices plugged in to the laptop - so that isn’t it; I used the USB cable supplied and (given that the headphones cable was a dud) I also tried a USB cable that I use for my WORKING digital camera, and I tried plugging it into every hole in the laptop: it made no difference - so that isn’t it. I have Windows XP and Media Center v10. I have tried switching it on and off, hanging it out the window etc etc. IT DOESN’T WORK.
I don’t see the point in continuing to labour with this inferior product.
but hardly anyone reports back and says “It worked!”.
That’s exactly right, so you can’t say with any degree of certainty that the threads that just fizzle out are un-solved.
But the main factor to consider . . . if YOU think there’s no hope, there won’t be. And if YOU are jaded against the Sansa line of players, there’s nothing anyone can say here to sway you. YOUR mind is already made up. So return it to where you bought it, get another brand, or go somewhere else & buy something that hopefully will fit your needs and operate properly for you. Life is too short to stress out over something this trivial. It just isn’t worth it.
Well, then, if it’s not working and you don’t want help here/advice, you should return it. I’m not quite sure the purpose for starting a thread then, although I guess venting can be useful at times.
(By the way, from what I read above, you seemed to have gotten the process for forcing a connection with your computer somewhat off: with your Clip off and on hold so that the orange under the on switch shows, keep the Clip off and hold its center button down while connecting your Clip to your computer. Also, sometimes headphones or a headphone jack can seem defective with a new Clip, when the headphone plug is not pushed all the way in—the jack can be tight the first few times with a new Clip, and a plug can need to be pushed in very firmly. Finally, you seem to be missing the very many posts here where people in fact report back that they got their Clip to work and issues to go away, often through simple measures or corrections. It’s easy to focus on the negative with a forum, as people often go to a forum to report problems, such as yours.)
"Go back and read the post from the person on their THIRD clip … read all the contributions in that thread to the end, like I did … no one came up with a solution … the contributions just fizzled out because you couldn’t solve it. IT DOESN’T WORK. In fact, it seems to me that quite a lot of the problem posts on this site don’t get resolved. Nearly all the threads end with the advice “Switch it off and on, put it on hold and press the center button when you connect” but hardly anyone reports back and says “It worked!”. "
It is possible that you did get a defective Clip. No matter how good a product is, there will be a small percentage that are defective and slip by quality control testing. Most mp3 players that are returned though are not defective, they just need to have their firmware reloaded or some settings on the computer to be changed for them to work.
If you read all the complaints here, you might start to think that the Clip is a bad product. If you spend plenty of time in a hospital and only see very sick people staying there, you might start to think that everyone in the world is very sick.
There are many people who never had a problem with their Clip or who had a minor problem that they easily resolved. I have had a Clip for 9 months and have not had any major problems with it(just some frustrations about how the files are sorted based on the tags. I hate tags!)
