I’ve been trying for about a year off and on to get my new mp3 to work… it says device has malfunctioned and is not recognized… there are no drivers installed… then I install the driver and it still says not recognized… I cant even open the device on my PC. Then today I tried updating the firmware and it even could not find the device… I am lost… no music or anything on it. it didn’t work on my old computer… loaded right up on my parents 2009 HP and now wont work on brand spanking new dell
Try switching it to MSC mode in the Settings menu.
i tried that it doesn’t help… immediately when I connect it says a device attached to his computer has malfunctioned and windows does not recognize it… at this point i feel i have an expensive radio anntena
What does the screen on the player say while this is happening?
This problem must be handled in stages. Remember, the processor of the Sansa (or most any other portable digital audio player) has many duties, including operating the device itself, and controlling communications on the USB connection.
First and foremost, does the e270 boot,and play music files? This lets us know that the memory module is seated, the firmware is loaded, and the processor isn’t frozen.
If the device freezes, or cannot establish a USB commection (communicatioms on the data pins), it will not charge. Charging may be possible with a wall (USB) charger.
Let us know if the device starts up,and whether you can access the main menu.
There are some later recovery steps that I can guide you through.
Bob 
Lets see…
When I plug in the sansa e270, it loads up as usual and goes to the main menu. I can use the player and all of its functions… its just that there are no music files on here except for voice files… which it plays normally. The charger indicates it is charging and everything seems normal. Then when yu go to find the device on your PC, its not recognized and I cant even find it on my computer at all. as opposed to when you can go in manually and open the player and view the files on there. I cannot do any of that… It just seems weird its all bells and whistles but I cant get any information on there… ?
thanks for your time and info!
First, try a different computer.
Second, would still be interested to know what it says on the screen while Windows is having trouble establishing a USB connection.
