Clip will not work

my sansa clip will not connect to any computer.  When I plug it in it says hardware not recognized.  I have tried resetting it and holding the center button while I connect it.  Another thing that is odd is that the screen always has the  sandisk sansa logo and none of the buttons do anything.

Please help thanks

Do you have the latest firmware (.18) installed?  If not, install it (it’s available above, with instructions for installation). 

Assuming that you are under Windows, are you in Vista; or XP with SP2 installed?  And do you have Windows Media Player 10 installed?  Those are the minimum requirements, to operate under MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) mode.  If you don’t have the above, install them, to operate under MTP mode.  Otherwise, try to operate under MSC (Mass Storage Capacity) mode, by selecting that under Settings/USB.  But note that to use DRM music (digital rights management protected music, including under Rhapsody), you need to use the MTP mode.

I hope this helps.

I tried to install the firmware but windows popped up the message that my device was not recognized. It said my device had malfunctioned.  I am using windows vista.  I have still not seen the device in my device manager screen

Hmmm.  If you don’t have any music on your player that you care about, you can try to reformat it under Settings/Format, and then try to connect up after, seeing if that does the trick.

Otherwise, you can try to connect up via MSC mode regardless by switching the Clip’s hold switch on, and then pressing and holding down the center button as you connect the USB cable  That should get you into MSC mode on the computer, and then you should be able to upgrade the firmware–perhaps that will get things to work under either MTP or MSC mode.  If not, then you could transfer your music off the Clip back to your computer, disconnect and, then, reformat on the Clip, and again see if that works.

Message Edited by Miikerman on 12-29-2007 10:58 PM

Hmmm.  If you don’t have any music on your player that you care about, you can try to reformat it under Settings/Format, and then try to connect up after, seeing if that does the trick.

Otherwise, you can try to connect up via MSC mode regardless by switching the Clip’s hold switch on, and then pressing and holding down the center button as you connect the USB cable  That should get you into MSC mode on the computer, and then you should be able to upgrade the firmware–perhaps that will get things to work under either MTP or MSC mode.  If not, then you could transfer your music off the Clip back to your computer, disconnect and, then, reformat on the Clip, and again see if that works.

Hmmm.  If you don’t have any music on your player that you care about, you can try to reformat it under Settings/Format, and then try to connect up after, seeing if that does the trick.

Otherwise, you can try to connect up via MSC mode regardless by switching the Clip’s hold switch on, and then pressing and holding down the center button as you connect the USB cable  That should get you into MSC mode on the computer, and then you should be able to upgrade the firmware–perhaps that will get things to work under either MTP or MSC mode.  If not, then you could transfer your music off the Clip back to your computer, disconnect and, then, reformat on the Clip, and again see if that works.

Actually, I think I would try the second option first (trying to connect up via MSC mode and upgrading the firmware), before reformatting; it could do the trick easily enough.