Clip hell - it won't charge via usb power adapter and is not recognized by my laptop

It was working fine a few days ago (both when connected to my pc and when connected to a power adapter with a usb connector, which I use to charge my blackberry, Clip, etc.)

Today, in both cases, after plugging in, it shows ‘Connected’ (which doesn’t make sense when connected just to a power adapter).  But it isn’t charging.  And it isn’t being recognized by my laptop.  Have tried the reset.  Have tried holding the center button down when connecting to computer.  Have tried selecting MSC mode.

Any ideas before I drop a 35lb kettlebell on this device and never buy from SanDisk again?

Firmware 1.01.29.  I’d upgrade to 1.01.32, but that requires being able to connect to my computer, which isn’t working now.

Have you also tried:

– using a different USB port

– using a different USB cable?

Also, does it appear under your computer’s devices and have you tried to chase that side down? 

Yes, have tried all 3 USB ports on my laptop, as well as a powered USB hub.  Tried multiple cables as well.  The original one that came with the Clip never worked, so I’ve been using a Canon cable.

It used to appear on my computer’s devices, even as recently as a few days ago.  But yesterday it didn’t show up.  Anyway, just tried again today to connect to my computer, and it worked (same cable, same port as before, when it didn’t work) - so it shows up as one of my computer’s devices and most importantly (b/c the battery had run very low with all this messing about) it is charging.

I guess I’ll leave it to fully charge and then try updating the firmware and hopefully that will make this device less tempermental.

Quick firmware update question - I just drop the .bin file into the Clip’s root directory - i.e., next to ‘Internal Memory’, as opposed to inside ‘Internal Memory’, correct?

OK, firmware update went fine.  And Clip connects to pc ok.  But it still has the issue of trying to connect even when it’s plugged into an ac adapter.  And when it does this, I can leave it for hours and it won’t charge at all.